Press Censorship, Part 2 - News With Views

By Dennis Cuddy, Ph.D.

Part 2 continues examples of letters to the Editors of major national newspapers that were rejected.

This letter to the Editor was sent to THE WASHINGTON POST on May 10, 2021.

To the Editor: Re your May 8 editorial board opinion about the GOP advancing its election lie, why do you refuse to report that the November 3 election was over before the first vote was cast? Former Psychology Today editor. Dr. Robert Epstein said he is a liberal who was pleased that Biden won, but “horrified” at how it happened. Listen to his interview. Sincerely, Dennis Cuddy

This letter to the Editor was sent to THE NEW YORK TIMES on May 13, 2021.

To the Editor: Concerning Carmen Maria Machado’s “Book Bans Don’t Keep Kids Safe” (May 12), she writes that “preventing children from reading … any book won’t protect them.” What about USES FOR BOYS in most libraries’ juvenile section? With a glowing endorsement on the cover by a NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author, the girl in the book talks about a boy, Todd, asking about “f___king,” and she responds “I try to look experienced.” The Book PIGMAN is in most high school libraries and begins with a boy happy about getting away with exploding something in a school restroom. In the Junior Great Books program (read by 700,000 students in 50 states), 5th graders read “The Veldt” about children telling lions to devour their parents, and 9th graders read THE LOTTERY in which a boy helps stone his mother to death! No psychological harm possible?

What about children killing themselves, Ms. Machado? On December 8, 1984, THE WASHINGTON POST reported there had been a long increase in youth suicides. During the previous academic year, elementary school children using a widely distributed songbook learned the theme song from “MASH.” In one school in Anne Arundel County, MD, children spent an entire afternoon memorizing the chorus and all 6 verses. The song’s real title is “Suicide Is Painless,” and the lyrics say “cheating is the only way to win, the game of life is lost anyway, and suicide is painless.” The list goes on!

This letter to the Editor was sent to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL on May 20, 2021.

Letter to the Editor: Re your editorial, ”The Justices Take Up Abortion” (5/19), you are warranted in your hope they “follow the Constitution, which is what they take an oath to do.” In the Reagan administration, I advised the Solicitor General on cases and arguments before the Supreme Court and met current chief Justice John Roberts when he was a young lawyer in the Justice Department. While he may be reluctant to overturn Roe, the 5 remaining Republican appointed justices could narrow Roe considerably if they “follow the Constitution.” This would mean basing their decision in the upcoming Dobbs case upon the “original intent” of the Framers of the 14th Amendment, which is derived from the 5th Amendment.

Rep. John Bingham drafted the first section of the 14th Amendment, and concerning the 5th Amendment, he stated that “those sacred rights … are by this Constitution guaranteed by the broad and comprehensive word ‘person,’ which meant any and every human being.” Noted Justice Stephen Field later emphasized these “sacred rights” of all human beings “are endowed by their Creator, are unalienable (and) that among these are life.” Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said, “Roe is clearly on a collision course with itself.” The current state of abortion law is ridiculous because an “abortion” of a prebom child is legal, but the “wrongful death” of the same child by someone other than the mother isn’t legal!

The Dobbs case banning all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy also gives the High Court a chance to reverse another absurdity of Roe, which does not confer the protection of Constitutional “personhood” until birth,, which is a variable point. Currently, a child born prematurely at 5 months after conception is a protected “person,” but the same child just prior to birth at 9 months after conception isn’t a “person” and can be violently killed. A majority of five justices could rule that because one is legally dead when the heart stops, then one’s life begins with the presence of a heartbeat about 4 weeks after conception, clearly far before the 15 weeks in the Dobbs case.

This letter to the Editor was sent to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL on May 28, 2021.

Letter to the Editor: Re Debra Burlingame’s excellent article (5/28) about the Capitol siege compared to 9/11, she correctly stated that “it’s offensive” to compare the carnage of 9/11 to a brief Jan.6 event with Congress “resuming its session that evening.” Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi investigated for her June 28, 2018 statement she didn’t know “why there aren’t uprisings all over the country” concerning southern border conditions, and for her Feb, 17, 2011 characterization of violent protesters taking over the Capitol of Wisconsin as an “impressive show of democracy in action.” And where was Democrats’ investigation of Black Lives Matter rioters besieging the White House in late August 2020, injuring 60 members of the Secret Service (11 hospitalized)?

Ms. Burlingame is a trustee of the 9/11 Memorial, and in this 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks,, she’s still waiting for answers to (1) whether the U.S. was already monitoring 9/11 ringleader Mohamed before he entered the U.S., according to German intelligence publication FOCUS; (2) how U.S. government agents knew the details of hijackers’ conversations before 9/11 unless they were already being monitored; (3) why no attack prevention plans were prepared since the Senate had 11 indicators of eminent attacks on New York City and Washington between March and September 2001; (4) why top Pentagon officials cancelled their travel plans on 9/10/2001 after talking to Pakistani Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad who had $100,000 wired to Atta August 1st; and (5) why a high-ranking CIA official told agent Robert Baer 9/11 “was a triumph for the intelligence community, not a failure.”

E-Mail Dennis Cuddy: recordsrevealed@yahoo.com