Refusing to be Censored

By Gordon Hopkins “It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.” - Salman Rushdie. There are many tools that can be used to try and silence a writer. A knife is just one, albeit one of the more extreme methods.I have been following with great interest the unfolding story of the murder of Jeff German, an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. I know there are some pretty big news stories going on in the world right now, so I’ll forgive you if you missed this one.Just to catch you up, German worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal for over 20 years. He covered organized crime. He covered politics. He covered the MGM Grand fire in 1980. He covered the Las Vegas shooting in 2017.Less than a week ago, he was found stabbed to death outside his home. Given the man’s career, speculation was rife. Someone he angered with his writing seemed an obvious culprit. Was it a mob hit? He’d probably angered a lot of mob bosses in his day. Plus, recent news reports suggest German was working on yet another expose, likely to anger or embarrass someone.It took just five days for investigators to make an arrest. It is important to remember, as always, that the suspect is innocent until proven guilty and the investigation is still ongoing. However, detectives have pointed to some considerable evidence, including the suspect’s DNA at the crime scene.Well, the prime suspect is not some furious mob boss or powerful politico, determined to take revenge. Instead, it was a bottom-rung public official who lost his last election, probably due in no small part to German’s reporting.It seems such a petty reason to end a man’s life. Nevertheless, the suspect was angry, as evidenced by various Tweets in which he called German “a bully” and claimed the reporter was “obsessed” with him.Glenn Cook, the paper's executive editor, issued a statement shortly after the suspect’s arrest, which said in part, “Journalists can't do the important work our communities require if they are afraid a presentation of facts could lead to violent retribution.”I can’t help but think of another writer. A very different sort of writer, to be sure, but another writer whose words have brought widespread anger.Amazingly, the 75-year-old novelist Salman Rushdie, another victim of a man and a knife, is not silenced. He may never fully recover from his injuries, but as of now, he still lives.And his words still live.Rushdie knows better than most the lengths some people will go to silence those words they do not want to read and do not want anyone else to read, having lived under threat of death longer than many of his readers have been alive.I don’t intend to rehash the fatwa brought against Rushdie once again. There is plenty of that going on already. I simply bring it up because, as happens periodically, hostility towards words one does not like has once again come into vogue.It is notable, at least to me, that I have books by both of these men in my library.Most don’t try to silence writers with a knife, of course. More mundane methods suffice. Old phrases, like “book banning,” have joined new ones, like “cancel culture.” As a man who makes his living with words, I become more and more uncomfortable with this trend.For me, freedom of speech isn’t just the way I make my living. It is a way of life.

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