Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Subtle Censorship and Wikipedia . . . Maybe?

So, anyone else noticing an increase in very subtle censorship in the form of mild but substantially misleading information and lies of omission?

Source: http://fathergeek.com/parenthood/games-and-censorship/

For example, take this entry from Judy Garland's Wikipedia entry:
During this time Garland experienced her first serious adult romances. The first was with the band leader Artie Shaw. Garland was deeply devoted to Shaw and was devastated in early 1940 when Shaw eloped with Lana Turner.[33] She was noticeably thinner in her next film, For Me and My Gal, alongside Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. Garland was top billed over the credits for the first time, and effectively made the transition from teenage star to adult actress.
Now, one could easily conclude from this paragraph that Garland was "noticeably thinner" in her following work because of her failed romance with band leader Artie Shaw. This would be inaccurate.

In reality, in between Shaw and For Me And My Gal, Garland eloped with musician David Rose. Many of those surrounding Garland suggest that Garland was trying to escape her overbearing mother. The marriage failed, but not before Garland's mother and husband both convinced her to abort when she got pregnant.

The context suddenly looks a little different, doesn't it?

It seems a little strange to me that someone would neglect to include information like that, especially when you consider that at least two other websites I went to (NewWorldEncyclopedia, this IMDB page (which suggests even more conflict that just the abortion), and this site which mentions the abortion but doesn't mention the weightloss) all mention the abortion higher up on the site before they mention the film Garland worked on after the abortion.

I also looked up Lorna Luft and Liza Minnelli's pages.

Lorna Luft's wiki states:
She is the author of the 1998 book Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir. Among its revelations is that she had a romantic crush on Barry Manilow.[4] In 2001, the book was adapted as an Emmy-winning[11] TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. It stars Judy Davis as the adult Judy Garland, with Tammy Blanchard as Judy in her teenage years. Hugh Laurie portrayed Vincente Minnelli, Victor Garber as Sid Luft, and Marsha Mason as Ethel Gumm.
[edit]
and
Luft was born in Santa Monica, California to Judy Garland (who was of Irish and Scottish descent) and Garland's third husband, Sid Luft (who was of German and Russian descent). She made her showbusiness debut at age 11 singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" on the 1963 Christmas episode of her mother's CBS television series, The Judy Garland Show[1]. Siblings Liza Minnelli and Joey Luft also appeared in this episode.
No mention is made of Luft's difficult relationship with her mother, a far more central revelation to the book than her crush on Barry Manilow. Unless someone knew Judy Garland by name (and with today's generation, that's not likely), a casual reader might not realize how much of a superstar Garland was and consider how that might have affected Luft's upbringing. Liza Minnelli's webpage is similar in understating Garland's career and completely omitting any mention of a difficult upbringing.

Now, I call this censorship because I have a hard time believing this information was omitted accidentally or overlooked. I remember well the TV coverage on Judy Garland and her family when Luft's book came out, so I have to believe this is a very subtle form of censorship. Have you noticed any interesting ways censorship has been rearing its ugly head? If so, please share so we can all learn to recognize the crafty ways censorship weasels its way into our lives and smack it down before it becomes an invasive weed that sucks the truth out of everything.

Also, you'll have to review the revision history of the Judy Garland page to see the form of the site I saw. I edited it while I was writing this, but I left Luft and Minnelli's pages alone. If it is different from what I have posted here, please check the history tab.

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