Editors discuss censorship
Ginzburg, Kunkin and Jordan discuss censorship
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three editors of relatively open styled magazines and newspapers tore at the basic structure of modern censorship Friday afternoon at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Symposium held in the auditorium of the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC).
Ralph Ginzburg, editor of Avante-Garde; Art Kunkin, editor of the Los Angeles Free Press; and Fred Jordan, editor of Evergreen Review, spoke out against censorship in all forms Friday afternoon at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Symposium which was held on the UMKC campus.
Ralph Ginzburg, editor of several magazines including Avante-Garde, Fact and Eros; Art Kunkin, editor of the Los Angeles Free Press; and Fred Jordan, in charge of various activities including being managing editor of Evergreen Review, spoke on "Censorship: A Doilie for Your Mind."
Ginzburg said, "Jefferson and those guys had the right idea." He said our founding fathers and the colonists realized the necessity of a free press to safeguard the integrity of our government, and added he wished some of our government officials now would recognize this.
"We are intelligent enough to decide what we want to read," he said. Censorship for young children should be at the discretion of the parents. "The last thing we need is the Government to draw the line for us," Ginzburg said.
"No graftti, no film, no movie has no social redeeming value," Ginzburg said. He explained that if one were a sexiologist he might study the writings on john walls to study sex drive expressions. He said any definition of pornography or obscenity could be demolished and also what each is was a "matter of taste."
A recent Supreme Court ruling on Ginzburg's magazine ruled Eros was not obscene but the manner in which it was presented was, Ginzburg said. He said this was the only ruling of its kind since or before the ruling. The Supreme Court fined him $42,000 and condemned him to prison for five years.
16 KANSAN Mar. 2
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Ginzburg read from Eros, "Eros is a child of its time." He said he believed today's youth were fighting against censorship because today's corruption was of a more subversive-type and said, "The youth today just won't take any bull."
Despite the aggression that has confronted him in the way of censorship he said that dealing with unconventional material as in Eros or Fact is highly rewarding.
Ginzburg said almost any field one may go into, writing, teaching, even being a doctor, there will be some form of censorship and he added, what ever form it takes to "stick by your plans."
Kunkin in his presentation urged writers not to write for the tens of thousands of people but because you have something to say.
He said, to sum it all up in two words, "Censorship sucks!" Kunkin said censorship was a totally negative concept and added, "You don't feed your system with poison to get rid of your germs."
Before the Watts riots in 1965, the Los Angeles Free Press filled its columns with the problems of the black people. Kunkin said because of this they got national recognition by many newspapers. He said kids went out pedaling the paper after this not for the money, but for the "cause."
The way one deals with censorship he said was, "If someone says no to you, just keep on saying yes." He said, "The death of censorship is by saying, yes."
"There is no pornography, not political nor sexual," he said. Kunkin asked, "Where do you
draw the line? Do you bar the kids from the zoo."
Jordan told a story about a colleague of his who was thrown in jail because of something he wrote. Jordan said it must be a type of honor that a society would think one writer could print something so powerful as to be a danger to that society."
He said subversive ideas can be a "necessary correction for a weak society bent on self-destruction."
Jordan said a particular Russian author said the "Tropic of Cancer," a sensually arousing book, "celebrated the buckedle
down man who refused to settle down to society. To write, publish and sell a book like the "Tropic of Cancer" is more of a threat than to write, publish and sell a pamphlet advocating overthrowing the government," he said.
If one is too poor to buy equipment to make a movie in his own house Jordan said a person ought to have the right to go to a movie theatre and pay to see the movie he wants to see. "I don't want to be forced not to read a book or a film," he said.
Tape programs are being experimented with by CBS and
other stations Jordan said, and added it may soon be possible to place a tape program in your television and see the movies you want to see in your home.
"There is no need for censorship for national security reasons or any other reasons," Jordan said. He said "the less censorship the better."
Jordan said he believes in the "free market place of ideas," and later added, "Censorship perverts legality."
The first archaeological society met in London around 1585.