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There are laws to protect the freedom of the press's speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press. ~ Mark TwainToday's news cycle is such that we are bombarded with information, much of it fake news and most of it echo and spin. There are excellent journalists, bloggers and academics out there, but too often they go unheard in the electronic haze of hysteria that passes for 'news'. The mainstream media has few journalists worthy of the name on the payroll, but plenty of those willing to compromise themselves for 'the inside scoop'. The CIA's Operation Mockingbird exposed collusion between government and media decades ago. And today, when some journalists routinely submit their drafts to powerful interests before publication, getting 'the right people' who will 'stick to the script' into media is a relatively easy job.
Imprimis Editor's Preview: At the end of World War II, two million Russians - including White Russians, Cossacks, Slovenians, Croats and Serbs who were POWs or simply living in exile - were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union.The last world war was a long time ago, and for many of us, even those with first-hand experience, it does indeed seem to have become a distant memory. Yet some images remain vivid. Only a child at the time, I remember the London bombing raids as if they happened yesterday.
Men, women and children were turned over to the Russian secret police at gunpoint. Non-Soviet citizens were supposedly exempt, but historian Count Nikolai Tolstoy charges that they were secretly betrayed by a few key military officials, a future British prime minister among them.
This tragedy, although nearly a half-century old, ought not be forgotten. What happened in 1944-47 was more than a sinister episode. Even in this era of "glasnost," the Soviet Union still denies freedom of emigration, one of the most fundamental human rights, to its people.
Our thanks to the U.S. Business and Industrial Council who co-sponsored this Shavano Institute for National Leadership lecture on the Hillsdale campus in the fall of 1987.
Minya, Egypt - Egyptian archaeologists have discovered an ancient necropolis containing 40 stone sarcophagi, about 1,000 small statues and a necklace charm bearing the hieroglyphic inscription "happy new year".See Also:
Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the scarab charm with the new year greeting had been unearthed last New Year's Eve in a "wonderful coincidence". "This is a message sent to us from the afterlife," he said.
Comment: In the end, it wasn't discussed.
Guardian reviews like this would never appear today.
Solzhenitsyn's book was effectively blacklisted. No Western publisher has published it to date.
A verity of English translations are available online, though it's unknown which if any are reliable.