Parts of a “Friends” reunion were scrubbed from the version shown in China:
- Lady Gaga censored for meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
- Justin Bieber banned for visiting shrine to Japanese war dead.
- Band leader RM deleted for mentioning South Korea’s “legacy of pain” in 1950-1953 Korean War, in which South Korea and US repelled invasion by North Korea and China.
No one denies that the Communist Chinese regime has the power to control everything shown on TV in China. But how far should media in free nations go in cooperating and enabling this totalitarianism?
An even better question: How far should media in free nations go in emulating this totalitarianism? Censorship by social media of opinions they consider incorrect would seem repugnant to our Founders, but it looks quite normal to the bureaucrats who run China.
The most important question: Who will be our role models: our founders who built a system of free expression, or totalitarian apparatchiks who lust to control every aspect of daily life? Right now we’re at the inflection point. Stay tuned.