TED CENSORS NICK HANAUER SPEECH

TED: Ideas worth spreading - Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world



Apparently, the talk in the video was not riveting enough for the folks who make decisions at TED.  Or perhaps it was too riveting.

From IBTimes:

Nick Hanauer, a multimillionaire venture capitalist from Seattle, believes that rich people like himself aren't job creators. He made this known during a March 1 TED University conference where he spoke about income inequality, but that talk was censored.

The National Journal reported that officials at TED, a popular series of Web-based talks, told Hanauer in an April email that they wanted to put his talk "out into the world!" However, they quickly shifted gear and said the venture capitalist's talk was "political" and too controversial to be posted.

"Political" and controversial?  I'm no economist, but the speech sounds like Economics 101 to me.  Granted it's only one view of which policies are best to create wealth, thus, according to TED, Hanauer's ideas are not worth spreading.  The speech seems eminently sensible to me, but I'm sure that many would vehemently oppose the policies Hanauer recommends.  If the purpose of an organization is to spread worthwhile ideas, then it seems to me avoiding controversy would be virtually impossible, unless you're in the business of exploring only conservative, Republican, business-oriented, ideas.

But wait!

According to the Journal's report, TED curator Chris Anderson had reacted by saying Hanauer's talk "probably ranks as one of the most politically controversial talks we've ever run, and we need to be really careful when" to post it.

Anderson was urging extra caution especially since another politically sensitive TED talk, by Melinda Gates on contraception, was about to be released, in the midst of a media firestorm over comments by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Media firestorm!  Rush Limbaugh!   

Now TED hearkens back to the 19th and early 20th century, when contraception truly was controversial because, in the present day, a few Roman Catholic bishops scream loud and long about contraception, which makes Melinda Gates speech on the subject "controversial", and heaven forbid that the organization have two "controversial" talks in a row.  This organization is surely not in the business of boldly exploring a variety of ideas, but is apparently rather determined to explore only "safe" ideas.  And what is "safe"?

I searched for the Hanauer talk at the TED website, thinking perhaps the group had changed its collective mind about the censorship, but with no results.  Still, the talk is now public on YouTube.  Censorship is more difficult in the age of technology.

Thanks to Ann V for the link.