As reported by U.S. Uncut:
Rick Friday, an editorial cartoonist who worked at a local Iowa newspaper for 21 years, has been fired for a cartoon that criticized Monsanto and other major figures in Big Agriculture...More at the link. TYWKIWDBI is pleased to contribute to the Streisand Effect.
However, the following day, Friday received an email from his supervisor at Farm News, informing him that he would be fired, citing he was “instructed” by a superior to not accept another cartoon from Friday. The supervisor told Friday that “in the eyes of some, Big Ag cannot be criticized or poked fun at.”..
After he was fired, Friday posted the controversial cartoon with a defiant Facebook status, standing by the research he conducted for the cartoon and protesting his sudden dismissal after 21 years and nearly 1,100 cartoons for the paper. As of this writing, the post has been shared over 3,000 times.
“Hopefully my children and my grandchildren will see that this last cartoon published by Farm News out of Fort Dodge, Iowa, will shine light on how fragile our rights to free speech and free press really are in the country,” Friday wrote.
There's obviously no freedom of the press at that newspaper.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Friday is right, you are wrong. Freedom of the press only means that the government can't tell a newspaper what and what not to publish. So, the freedom of the press is unhurt here.
DeleteWhat is hurt is the independence of the editors of the Farm News. Decent news sources keep a "wall" between their editors and ad sales folks. Apparently, Farm News does not have that, and feels that it's more important to not hurt the humorless fragile souls of their advertisers, than to maintain editorial independence. This is the free market at work. An advertiser is free to choose the medium in which it puts its ads.
Farm News readers should take note and realize that they're reading a glorified advertorial. They should stop reading, and let the paper loose its audience. That's also the free market working.
Friday is right that this affair shows how easily free speech and free press are influenced by capitalist interests. But the fault in all this lies with the pathetic weak editorial independence of the Farm News editors. They are cowards and deserve the boot from their readers.
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/the-ag-gag-war-big-ag-declares-war-on-whistleblowers-6598276
ReplyDeletehttp://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-ordered-to-pay-93-million-for-poisoning-residents-with-agent-orange/5454261
http://www.honeycolony.com/article/the-little-known-toxic-travesty-of-anniston-alabama/