Freedom to Read

During Freedom to Read Week in Canada, CBC Radio prevented Booker prize winning author Yann Martel from reading Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf on the air. The CBC had asked Martel to appear on The Afternoon Edition because he was scheduled that evening to read a challenged or banned book at the Frances Morrison Library in Saskatoon. The reading at the library was part of Freedom to Read Week. Martel had chosen to read Mein Kampf.

But half an hour before the interview began on CBC Radio, Martel received a call from the show’s producer, Joanne Skidmore. She relayed a message from a senior executive. “I was called by the producer and told that CBC did not want me to read from the book, though I could talk about it,” Martel said. “The producer herself was not happy about this decision.”

Jeff Keay, a CBC spokesman, recognized the irony of stopping an author from reading a challenged book during Freedom to Read Week. But Keay said the CBC’s decision best served listeners. “Worse-case scenario, someone’s driving down the road and they turn on the radio and suddenly without any context or mediation they’re listening to Mein Kampf,” Keay said. “We’re very comfortable with the decision as we made it.”   Via Reason

Jeez, on that basis there must be thousands of books you couldn't read on air.

Just ask Dave

‘In horror she let go, as Edward, rising up with a bewildered look, his muscular back arching in spasms, emptied himself over her in gouts, in vigorous but diminishing quantities, filling her navel, coating her belly, thighs, and even a portion of her chin and kneecap in tepid, viscous fluid...'

Stop! Stop!....enough already! 

I nearly mounted the pavement!