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Good News, Bad NewsJune 23, 2007 "War and Censorship at Wilton High." I love this story. I hate this story. What I love about this story is that a bunch of high school students in Wilton, Connecticut, wrote a play, called "Voices in Conflict," about the U.S. war on Iraq. What I hate about this story is that the high school administration squelched the play, saying that it "borders on being sensational and inappropriate." What I love about this story is that the play was produced off-Broadway in New York, at the Culture Project. What I hate about this story is that the students weren't allowed to discuss the war in their current events class. What I love about this story is that their drama teacher encouraged them to discuss it, and make a play about it. What I really love is that after the New York Times published a story about the censorship and production of "Voices in Conflict," they received a letter from Ira Levin, author of The Stepford Wives. Wrote Levin: “Wilton, Conn., where I lived in the 1960s, was the inspiration for Stepford." Here's another one: "Mirror, Mirror: Journalism Takes a Look at Itself." This time I'll spare you the hyperbole. It's about the Idaho Falls Post Register, which exposed a pedophilia scandal in the local Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts and their biggest local sponsor -- that would be the Church of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormons -- tried to ruin the paper. The Mormons claimed that the paper's coverage of the scandal was "Mormon-bashing." The paper held firm, against threats and loss of ad revenue, among other things. "But," wrote Post Register executive editor Dean Miller, "my 34 colleagues at the Post Register -- in particular the cadre of editors who have worked together for a decade and lead a largely entry-level staff -- refused to pull back in the face of much opposition." The really good news about this story is that the paper's circulation went up as a result. "For us," Miller wrote, "these numbers testified to the value of fortitude. Publishing uncomfortable truths needn't be an act of hot-blooded courage; it should be a cool-headed exercise in focus: Find the civic heart of a story, steer a steady course to it, and serve the public's legitimate interests in openness and justice. Do that and, even when the story rocks your boat, trust that the waves won't capsize it." It's enough to make a USian hold her head up high and keep putting one foot in front of another. Pass the word.
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