Censorship Close to Home

A week or so ago, overt government censorship was put into effect with regards to a video on the San Francisco Chronicle website. The article in the Examiner entitled "White House, San Francisco Chronicle clash over anti-Obama protest video" by Dennis Bodzash, explains how a video of Obama protesters posted to the website of the Chronicle by Carla Marinucci was censored: 

Last week,San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci was covering an Obama speech as a pool reporter. However, outside the speech itself, Marinucci saw some people protesting the Obama Administration, specifically its dealings with Bradley Manning, the soldier accused to sending secret government documents to Wikileaks. Seeing the unexpected story arise right in front of her, Marinucci pulled out her tiny video recorder, typically used for taking video of speeches, turned it on the protestors, and posted the video on the Chronicle website..

In the act of taking video of the protestors, the White House declared that Marinucci violated pool rules for that event and that only the speech itself was to be reported upon. However,Chronicle editor Ward Bushee defended his reporter, saying that she was covering a legitimate news event in itself and that recording the sudden appearance of protestors were not part of the pooling agreement, which specified the speech.

 In my opinion, even though I am a supporter of the Obama administration, I do not think this censorship was justified. I side with the opinion and the argument of the Chronicle, that Marinucci's video was separate from her  pool reporter coverage, and was simply a news story on the side that just happened to be at the same time and place as the Obama speech. In addition, I think the Internet is a vast and uncontrollable place, and the U.S. government must be very careful in limiting what is on the Internet, because the Internet is a symbol of the freedom that is available in America. I believe that very few things should be censored by the government that is posted on the Internet because anything published on the Internet is an extension of the views and the experiences of the people, and should not be censored.