The Freedom to Lie: A Debate about Democracy

It is ironic that we librarians debate the place of dangerous and extreme ideas in our corner of the world of communication, when we are so sorely needed as champions of access. This is a time in which the Meese Pornography Commission recommendations are being turned into repressive laws, government secrecy is burgeoning while public access to information is dwindling, and media monopolies…continue to narrow the spectrum of what is deemed ‘newsworthy’.–John Swan

Unless we have a holistic view of intellectual freedom and other values, we are liable not only to charges of racism and other forms of discrimination, but our own professional rhetoric, our own Library Bill of Rights, can be turned against us.–Noel Peattie.