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Joseph Brean Mar 18, 2012 8:00 AM ET | Last Updated: Mar 17, 2012 6:31 PM ET

To judge by the loudest headlines and the most retweeted quips, censorship has been having a bad run in the last while, with failure heaped upon failure.

Overseas, the Arab Spring was credited as much to free-flowing social media as to the rebels who used it, and the campaign for dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei made him more famous than ever. A request by the U.S. government that science journals withhold details of bird flu research because of bio-terrorism fears caused a furore that is likely to end with their publication. And in Canada, the federal human rights law against Internet hate speech is about to be repealed and/or judicially overturned as censorious overreaching that violates the Charter right to free expression.

The Internet has made us feel free, and in its glare, the censor has come to seem like a foolish, out-dated, beady-eyed accountant of ideas. Censors are like poisoners, according to Nick Cohen, author of a new book on the subject. They can be successful or famous, but not both.

Behind the news, however, censorship is alive and well in the free world, and is at its most effective when victims pretend it doesnt exist.

Alicia Canter/Observer

Nick Cohen.

Among its greatest enablers, Mr. Cohen writes in You Cant Read This Book: Censorship In An Age Of Freedom, is the phoniness rampant in an overexposed Western culture, in which rebel poseurs fight battles that have already been won.

It is easy and common, he says, to pose as a smasher of taboos, a transgressive artist, an edgy comedian, or a brave journalist speaking truth to power

Its very hard for them to admit to being afraid, even though its essential, he said in an interview on the launch of the book in Canada.

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Censorship is alive and dangerous, even in the West

March 18, 2012 in City

OLYMPIA Im not going to negotiate in the newsmedia.

Politicians at all levels love to utter that sentence when its to theiradvantage.

But lets get real. If they think it will help their cause, their legislation or their budget, they like nothing better than to negotiate in the media. If they get angry, frustrated, boxed in or closed out, they negotiate in themedia.

Last week, Senate Republicans and their three disaffected Democratic allies didnt just negotiate, they presented, explained and defended their brand-new budget proposal in Olympia. This annoyed some other participants in ongoing closed-door budget negotiations, who were taken by surprise at getting that proposal at the same time as the news media and the rest of thepublic.

Among the most irked was Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has been the chief cat herder of the Legislatures overtime budgeting process. When she took questions from reporters a few hours later, its a wonder the video didnt show steam coming out of her ears. She didnt negotiate, mind you. She did say that one thing Senate Republicans were proposing, charter schools, is DOA and lobbyists who want to see their bills signed better be calling legislators to give them a not-so-gentle push towardcompromising.

But when it came to discussing what options shes proposed for legislative leaders to consider, her answer was emphatic: IM not going to negotiate in themedia.

Protestations about negotiating in the media are a corollary to another theorem of public officialdom: that elected officials must discuss some things behind closed doors so they can speak freely. Makes one wonder what theyre self-censoring from their normal publiccomments.

In truth, everyone negotiates in the news media when its to their advantage and complains about it when its not. Like John Kerrys stance on the war in Iraq, theyre against it until theyre forit.

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Spin Control: ‘Media’ negotiations are only problem when they don’t work - Sun, 18 Mar 2012 PST

DECATUR When David Lanterman took over ownership of the Lincoln Theater 4 in January 2011, he knew changes were coming and not just to the 90-year-old movie house.

Aside from cosmetic work to refurbish the building, his greatest task as owner has been one that is facing all operators of small, independent theaters: the movie industrys switch to digital film and projection equipment. But even though he knew the switch was coming, that doesnt mean the $70,000-per-screen conversion costs were any easier to bear.

We knew that the switch was coming, but it gained so much speed in the last year that it forced us to make it happen much sooner than I initially expected, said Lanterman, who resides in Lincoln. I thought we would have a good three years or so, but there was more pressure than expected. It wont be possible to run a theater on only 35 mm in a few years as more and more films are released on digital. Youre going to have to change or close. And many will close, especially the small places.

The outlook is the same for independent theaters all over Central Illinois and, by extension, around the country. Many simply dont have the funds necessary to make the initial investment to acquire the digital film equipment. Others, such as the Lincoln Theater 4, have made the transition successfully and hope to recoup their investment in the next few years through compensation programs with studios and digital equipment companies.

Lantermans theater began all-digital shows March 2.

The case of the Lincoln Theater 4 is particularly unusual, however, as the buildings four screens already had been outfitted with digital equipment when he took over, but he was unable to assume the lease on these projectors from the previous owner. Instead, the theater returned to older 35 mm projectors that were fortunately still on hand until Lanterman could afford to bring back the digital equipment.

I couldnt have even bought the digital equipment they had here if I wanted to, so we had to wait, he said. Were able to do it now because of our community support, which has been beyond even what I was hoping it would be. The people have a sense of ownership, a realization that this is our theater. Our attendance is up around 25 percent from what it was at last year.

Not all small theaters have the resources to make the initial conversion, however. Some, such as the one-screen Onarga Theatre, are turning to their customer base in hopes of raising the entire $65,000 needed to stay in business. If the ongoing fundraiser fails, then another small town will lose its theater, leaving customers to drive 30 or 45 minutes to larger cities such as Champaign or Kankakee to see a movie at a national chain. And yet, owner Randy Lizzio is optimistic.

I think it can succeed, and the amount of money we raise will continue to slowly rise, said the Onarga Theatre manager of four years. Were going to keep chipping away at the total and hosting fundraisers. I know our meter doesnt look too good right now, but you never know how things will change.

The meter Lizzio refers to represents the path to the necessary $65,000, and can be viewed at the Onarga Theatre website. Currently sitting at about $3,000, its a daunting hurdle for film lovers in the small town to overcome, especially given that Lizzio refuses to raise ticket prices from the $5 range or increase the cost of concessions.

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Cost to go from reel to digital may close some smaller movie theaters

There are tens of millions of e-book lovers, and their ranks are sure to be boosted by the latest iPad along with improved Kindles, Nooks and their rivals.

My sister, a retired fourth-grade teacher, has finally succumbed; Dorothy reads faster by enlarging the words on her tablet. And my wife favors e-books when she stretches out in bed. Clearly, the time has come for a well-stocked national digital library system, not to replace brick-and-mortar libraries but to augment them.

In the 1990s, William F. Buckley Jr. my political opposite wrote two columns supporting my basic vision. He even recommended it to Newt Gingrich. Years later, we still lack a coherent national e-library strategy. (Last week, seven patrons of the Lexington Public Library were waiting for seven copies of the e-book of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer's novel. In this case, because of legal restrictions and related technical precautions, a digital copy is just like a paper copy only one library patron may check it out at a time.)

Through greater purchasing clout, a national digital library system could give taxpayers far more for their money, adding to the inherent economies of e-books. A first step could be a foundation-financed buyout of OverDrive, the current e-book supplier for many libraries, if the owners agreed.

Frustratingly, Washington does not grasp the full potential of a national digital library system truly serving the masses. In effect, at least unofficially, President Barack Obama's administration has farmed out the issue to a group hosted at the president's old law school, the Harvard-based Digital Public Library of America initiative.

Ideally, its talented people can come up with a well-crafted online strategy to help public libraries and others encourage family literacy, mitigate the fourth-grade reading slump, distribute appropriate text and multimedia content to help upgrade our work force, and stimulate the brains of the millions of baby boomers who soon will be retiring (some, like my wife, with serious mobility limitations). Not one current school librarian or other K-12 educator sits on the 17-member steering committee.

And yet, the national digital library issue is in many ways a K-12, job- preparation and anti-poverty opportunity in disguise. Studies show a strong connection between children's academic achievement and access to books at home.

E-books are just swarms of invisible electrons, but children still could notice them. Librarians and teachers, for example, could post drawings of scenes from e-books on the walls, and they could talk up appropriate local titles mentioning people and landmarks known to the students.

And "recreational reading," whether the electronic or paper variety, could help nudge children and parents toward the more serious variety, and build skills and knowledge of many kinds. Many academics, alas, look down on popular-level books.

This is partly why we need two tightly intertwined but separate national digital library systems, ultimately one academic and one public. Both could be universally accessible to Americans and ideally others, and with plenty of shared content. Separate systems would help avoid or reduce clashes over such issues as scholarly monographs versus best-sellers.

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Commentary: A national digital library system is long overdue

Exclusivity. Its one of those things you cant put a price on. Er, or rather, you can. Usually an ENORMOUS one.

Designer purses, hand-tooled leather shoes, finely tailored suits; in the fashion world, being unique costs big. Same thing for cars . . . most of the time.

Now, if you run out and plonk down 60 or 70 grand on an E-Class Mercedes or 5-series BMW, its going to take all of five minutes before you find yourself parking at the mall next to somebody who bought the exact same car, except in a nicer trim level. So save your money. If you really want to stand out, buy a Nissan.

Specifically, this Nissan right here. Its the Maxima, and its one of those cars that youll only find one or two of in stock at your local dealership, and few out on the roads. Nissan doesnt build or sell a lot of them, although it maintains that its the flagship sedan for the brand.

The problem is two-fold. First, Nissan has at least two flagship cars already: for performance, the GT-R, and for green creds, the all-electric Leaf. The Maxima tends to get overshadowed by these well-publicized giants.

Second, cost. When launched in 2009, the redesigned Maxima SV had a price that lapped right up against the bottom pricing-rungs of the Infiniti G37 sedan. Add Infinitis often-aggressive lease rates into the mix, and the Maxima actually becomes more expensive than a comparably equipped G.

For 2012, Nissan has reduced the price of the Maxima somewhat. As tested, this SV Sport is now $40,230 before freight, and base models start at $37,880, down $1,920 since last year.

Still, thats a lot of coin to spend on a Nissan. Is it worth it? I certainly think so, and heres why.

Design

When sculpting a car, designers often give a name to the style theyre trying to achieve. For the new-for-09 Maxima, the concept was liquid motion.

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Maxima worth the price