This podcast was redacted but not the way you think
8 Dec 2004
Today’s word is redacted. You often read it or hear it in the news when they are talking about an official record or transcript. It means to edit or adapt for publication. This usually means the sensitive parts have been removed or obscured. Like with a black magic marker.
Two sites that offer great example of redacted documents are The Smoking Gun and The Memory Hole.
The Smoking gun offers a few juicy official documents a week. Documents like the new Homeland Security nominee’s bankruptcy fillings, Bill Gate’s mug shot from 1977 or all 57 pages of Kobe Bryant’s police interview. The Kobe Bryant interview is not appropriate reading for minors.
The Memory Hole, in their own words, “exists to preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find, or is not widely known.” Their redacted documents are not very juicy and often frightening. Like a recent one that shows John Ashcroft’s Justice Department Censoring a Supreme Court opinion. The opinion basically warned of the danger of using homeland security as shield to protect a government’s abuse of power.