War Coverage and Censorship

It amazes me how little we learned from the censorship cases of 1990. The religious right tried to censor photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and caused them to be viewed by many times the number of people who would have otherwise seen them. Another target of the right wing was a certain rap group, which despite its vulgar, mindless sexism, laughed all the way to the bank after censorship attempts.

Now, President Bush is censoring media coverage of the Gulf War because he doesn’t want “another Vietnam” (another war whose human costs are plainly visible). These attempts to censor will also backfire and only amplify the social and political impact of images of the American dead when they eventually reach the American people. As an advocate of the anti-war movement who condemns Saddam Hussein but who believes the cost of stopping him is less than thousands of young American lives, I would like to thank the military censors in advance for their unwitting support.

DAVID LAKE

Santa Monica