Cory Morgan: Media Dependency on the State Is a Threat to Democracy

Commentary Back at the end of the 1980s, I had the opportunity to tour the Soviet Union. Upon disembarking from our Aeroflot plane in Moscow, we were ushered into customs much like we would be in any other country. Where things differed was with what the customs agents were searching for. It wasn’t drugs or firearms they were concerned with as much as magazines, books, and newspapers. The Soviets didn’t want to allow unfettered information to reach citizens and it was seized if found. It was an eye-opening life lesson for me as a young man coming from a free nation. Authoritarian governments must control the flow of information to their citizens if they want to maintain power. Despite the efforts on the part of the Soviet Union to keep citizens from being exposed to free discourse and information from the outside world, it still managed to trickle in. As people in the USSR learned the outside world wasn’t living in the same state of privation and were enjoying individual rights, they found inspiration to challenge the state and the Soviet bloc finally collapsed....