- For 33 years, Sonoma State University's (SSU) Project
Censored (PC) has engaged in pioneering research on, and advocacy for,
First Amendment issues. Founded by Carl Jensen in 1976, it's now headed
by Professor Ben Frymer. On July 1, he took over from Professor Peter Phillips
who stepped down after 13 years of distinguished service as Director.
-
- PC works cooperatively "with numerous independent
(US) media groups," primarily to train SSU students "in media
research and First Amendment issues and the advocacy for, and protection
of, free press rights in the United States."
-
- For over three decades, it's "trained over 1,500
students in investigative research" and continues doing it through
"a partnership of faculty, students, and the community," cooperatively
engaged in "research on important national news stories that are underreported,
ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the US corporate media."
-
- Each year, it ranks the top 25 and publishes them in
its yearbook, "Censored: Media Democracy in Action." The latest
"Censored 2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008 - 09" just
out is the subject of this review. The book may now be purchased locally,
online, and most easily at projectcensored.org/store.
-
- The current edition is larger than even, and includes
the year's honorable mention choices as well as additional chapters covered
below.
-
- In the preface, Peter Phillips and former Associate Director
Mickey Huff highlight Censored 2010's theme in explaining the corporate
media's emphasis on commercialism, the "inane", the "irrelevant,"
and their willful suppression of real news and information on vital issues.
-
- Their betrayal of the public trust reveals them to be
"a gossip rag or screed sheet, a veritable three-ring circus sideshow
of spectacle and distraction," and a "dying system" relying
on disinformation, faux reporting over real journalism, and the main threat
to democracy in America that can't flourish without a free and open media
able to supply everyone with real news and information.
-
- In its annual editions and daily on its web site (projectcensored.org),
PC offers the best of what the corporate media censor or suppress. Censored
2010 offers more of it than ever, and credit for it goes to Peter Phillips,
Mickey Huff, and the entire Project Censored team. As Dahr Jamail ends
his introduction, "we are (indeed) fortunate to have (a valued) ally
like Project Censored."
-
- Tricia Boreta and Peter Phillips explain why:
-
- -- because "the absence of real news from corporate
media has never been so complete;
-
- -- Lies, deception, propaganda, superficial coverage,
and overt censorship are on the rise;" and as a result
-
- -- democracy is being willfully destroyed.
-
- But PC isn't standing pat, and allied with 28 professors
nationally have incorporated PC "curricula and investigative procedures
into their classrooms." They, and a free and open Internet, are the
future. But not without a long tough struggle against powerful dark forces
determined to hold on and control all news and information sources. It's
for public outrage and committed organizations like PC to stop them. It's
our country and our choice.
-
- Zombie Newspapers - Dead A Generation Ago, Their Corpses
Are Showing Up
-
- Buffalo State College Journalism Professor Michael Niman
highlighted the decline of US dailies at a time of economic crisis. Some
have shut down. Most have downsized, while others are going virtual over
print. However, "the collapse of journalism is old news. Newspapers
have been dead for quite a while." We're just now seeing their corpses,
but the concentration of media monopolies, the proliferation of one-newspaper
towns (in 98% of US cities), and the destruction of media diversity made
it predictable.
-
- Content is heavily censored by conglomerates controlling
media empires for profit, "not to inform, educate, and agitate...."
With no competition, they cut staff, use wire services over their own reporting,
and lost "significance as sources of (real) news." Avoiding controversy
and pleasing advertisers counts most, and on political issues they "suck
up to power and don't ask (hard) questions...."
-
- The relevant one for consumers is "why the hell
should we pay for their misinformation?" In increasing numbers, they've
stopped, preferring instead to get reliable information from independent
print and online sources.
-
- It shows that "while there might not be a future
for soulless, zombie monopoly newspapers, there is a future for journalism."
Niman sheds no tears for the corporate kind and hopes that many credible
alternatives will replace them.
-
- PC's Top 25 2008 - 2009 Stories
-
- (1) US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
-
- Americans get the best democracy money can money, coming
more than ever today from Wall Street. "Since 2001, eight of the most
troubled firms have donated $64.2 million to congressional candidates,
presidential candidates and the Republican and Democratic parties."
Is it surprising that they own them? As senators, Barack Obama and John
McCain got "a combined total of $3.1 million."
-
- Influential House and Senate finance and banking committee
members got $5.2 million from bailout recipients like Goldman Sachs, Citibank,
AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and others. In the last election cycle, Obama
received at least $4.3 million from the same ones, investments that yielded
big returns.
-
- From 1998 - 2007, financial and banking companies "spent
$1.7 billion on federal campaign contributions and another $3.4 billion
on lobbyists." In 1999, Glass-Steagall was repealed, the landmark
1933 law that curbed speculation and separated commercial from investment
banks and insurance companies. In January 2000, the Commodity Futures Modernization
Act legitimized swap agreements and other hybrid instruments, at the core
of today's problems by preventing regulatory oversight of derivatives and
leveraging, thus letting Wall Street legally pillage and speculate, so
they did.
-
- The result was a financial coup d'etat "cement(ing)
the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders"
who choose candidates, control elections, weaken financial regulations,
and run the country for their own self-interest. As a result, Washington
today is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Wall Street financial giants.
What they want, they get, no questions asked.
-
- (2) US Schools Are More Segregated Today than in the
1950s
-
- According to a UCLA Civil Rights report, "schools
in the US are 44 percent non-white, and....Latinos and blacks, the two
largest minority groups, attend schools more segregated today than during
the civil rights movement forty years ago." The result is:
-
- -- unequal education denies disadvantaged youths access
to college and better jobs;
-
- -- growing numbers of them become "virtually unemployable"
for anything more than menial labor or the military; and
-
- -- they're vulnerable to future poverty, poor health,
gangs, crime, and incarceration in America's gulag prison system in each
of the 50 states.
-
- The report stresses the need for "leaders who recognize
that we have a common destiny in an America where our children grow up
together, knowing and respecting each other, and are all given the educational
tools that prepare them for success in our society."
-
- Instead, Barack Obama, like his predecessor, backs privatizing
public education, destroying a 374 year tradition in America, ending government
responsibility for it, and making it another business profit center at
the expense of future generations of disadvantaged youths.
-
- (3) Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
-
- By blaming the victims, the international community and
dominant media have ignored the "unregulated (IUU) fleets from around
the world that have been poaching and dumping toxic waste in Somali waters
since the fall of the Somali government eighteen years ago." Foreign
interests have been using hundreds of vessels to loot "the country's
food supply," according to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), stealing
"an estimated $450 million in seafood from Somali waters annually"
and ruining the livelihoods of Somali fishermen.
-
- Instead of rectifying the problem, the UN passed "aggressive
resolutions that entitle and encourage transgressors to wage war on Somali
pirates." NATO, the EU, and other countries issued similar orders.
Starving Somalis are responding as they have every right to do, yet are
called criminals for defending their own waters and protecting their rights.
-
- (4) Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
-
- Progress Energy's North Carolina Shearon Harris nuclear
plant "contains the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the
country." If the cooling system malfunctions, "the resulting
fire would be virtually unquenchable and could trigger a nuclear meltdown."
According to Helen Caldicott and other experts, the likelihood of one happening
somewhere is virtually certain - the result of human error, faulty maintenance,
a terrorist attack, or for some other reason. If a major city is located
downwind, forced evacuation would follow and residents prevented ever from
returning because of irremediable toxic radiation.
-
- According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),
Shearon Harris has a history of unresolved safety issues and numerous emergency
shutdowns. Problems there "continue with chilling regularity."
Yet the NRC ignores the potential risks. As a result, the plant is "a
nuclear time bomb," and millions in the region are at risk.
-
- (5) Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
-
- Unlike in America, European countries "are moving
toward a....model of insisting on environmental and consumer safety"
that requires assessing thousands of chemicals for their potential toxic
effects. New regulations will mandate that companies seeking market access
eliminate toxic substances and produce safer electronics, automobiles,
toys and cosmetics.
-
- Without compliance henceforth, the products of hundreds
of US companies may be excluded from European markets, and according to
Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products
and What's at Stake for American Power, "only five percent of all
chemicals in the US have undergone even minimal testing." Further,
new EPA requirements consider the "costs to industry" in assessing
an "unreasonable threat to public health" as a reason to side
with industry and keep regulations minimal to nil.
-
- The divergence between US and European regulation has
made America "the dumping ground for toxic toys, electronics and cosmetics.
We produce and consume the toxic materials, from which other countries
around the world are protected."
-
- (6) Lobbyists Buy Congress
-
- In 2008, The Center for Responsive Politics reported
that "special interests paid Washington lobbyists $3.2 billion in
2008," higher than any year on record and 13.7% more than 2007. It
amounts to $17.4 million for each day Congress was in session, or $32,523
per legislator day.
-
- Health interests spent the most for the third consecutive
year, $478.5 million, followed by the FIRE sector (finance, insurance and
real estate) at $453.5 million. It's a small investment yielding big returns
for these and other industries, competing at the public trough for as much
as they can get. The payoff is in the billions, and for Wall Street pledged
trillions as well as interest free money from the banker-owned Federal
Reserve.
-
- (7) Obama's Military Appointments Have Corrupted Pasts
-
- After promising not to politicize intelligence and to
keep lobbyists out of top government posts, Obama appointed many "former
lobbyists or former board members of companies directly doing business
with the Pentagon" and retained Robert Gates as Defense Secretary
despite his history at CIA of having cooked the books for political reasons.
-
- According to Agency insiders who knew him, he "corrupted
the intelligence product" to suit the White House and further his
own self-interest. He facilitated Iran-Contra and helped boost military
spending by exaggerating the Soviet threat. He frustrated independent counsel
Lawrence Walsh enough to write that despite Gates' touted memory, he "denied
recollection of facts thirty-three times," and when GHW Bush nominated
him for CIA Director, a virtual insurrection among CIA analysts erupted
over his penchant for having politicized intelligence.
-
- Obama's Deputy Defense Secretary, William Lynn, is just
as tainted. The former Raytheon vice president and company lobbyist got
Senator Charles Grassley to object over his "very questionable accounting
practices" as Pentagon Comptroller during the Clinton years.
-
- Obama's Undersecretary of Defense, Robert Hale, served
as Assistant Air Force Secretary Financial Comptroller under Clinton, and
according to author Andrew Hughes, he and Lynn "lost enough taxpayer
money to pay for Obama's stimulus plan four times over." They now
again oversee DOD spending.
-
- The list goes on and includes National Intelligence chief,
Admiral Dennis Blair, who backed Indonesia's terror, mass-killing, and
occupation of East Timor in 1998. General James Jones is a Trilateralist
and former NATO commander. Obama's entire national security team is composed
of recycled appointees very much committed to continued imperial wars and
outlandish amounts of military spending for them.
-
- (8) Bailed Out Banks and America's Wealthiest Cheat IRS
Out of Billions
-
- It's an old story. "Only the little people pay taxes,"
according to former tax cheat Leona Hemsley (1920 - 2007), and rarely does
anyone like her get caught.
-
- In 2008, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) "reported
that eighty-three of the top publicly held US companies have operations
in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the Virgin Islands.
AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, and 11 others got government bailouts.
In addition, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) helped wealthy clients "cheat
the IRS out of over $20 billion in recent years, according to the Department
of Justice."
-
- Other notorious tax havens include Austria, Luxembourg,
the Channel Islands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Andorra, Monaco, Gibraltar,
the Bahamas, the Cook Islands, and Turks and Caicos. In 2008, they saved
Goldman Sachs billions of dollars through "changes in (its) geographic
earnings mix." For many other companies, it's much the same through
legal provisions in the tax code. According to some estimates, "trillions
of dollars in both corporate profits and personal wealth have migrated
offshore, (and) the offshore banking world now harbors $11.5 trillion in
individual wealth alone...."
-
- (9) US Arms Used for (Israel's) War Crimes in Gaza
-
- For decades, America has supplied Israel with tens of
billions in aid, interest-free loans, and the latest in new weapons and
technology, including illegal white phosphorous shells used against Gazan
civilians during Operation Cast Lead.
-
- In addition, Washington supplies F-16 fighters, attack
helicopters, tactical missiles, 1,000 or more bunker-buster bombs, a wide
variety of other munitions, and undisclosed new weapons for testing in
real time combat situations against Palestinian or other Arab civilians.
-
- In Gaza, shell fragments revealed names of US defense
contractors, including Raytheon. Another was marked the Pine Bluff Arsenal
in Arkansas. In shocking support for Israel's war of aggression, in violation
of international and US law, both Houses of Congress overwhelmingly endorsed
its continuation, and Obama stayed silent in the run-up to his January
20 inauguration.
-
- (10) Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
-
- "In November 2008, Ecuador became the first country
to undertake an examination of the legitimacy and structure of its foreign
debt." In violation of Ecuadorean law, predatory international lenders
were involved in hundreds of illegitimate irregularities. Billions in foreign
debt at exorbitant interest rates resulted in debt service far exceeding
the principal borrowed, at a staggering human cost. In December, President
Rafael Correa announced his country would default. In April 2009, he was
re-elected overwhelmingly.
-
- Ecuador exposed the corrupted international finance system
that could set a precedent for the poorest of indebted countries. Correa
asked other Latin American nations "to forge a united response (and
for) the United Nations to help develop international norms to regulate
the foreign debt market."
-
- The April 2008 House passed Jubilee Act was a positive
step forward. However, the Senate failed to pass its S. 2166 version, then
cleared the legislation from its books.
-
- In June 2009, Ecuador agreed with 91% of its creditors
to pay 35 cents on the dollar for its debt. Other countries may now follow
suit, especially the most impacted by the global economic crisis.
-
- (11) Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation
of Palestine
-
- US, Israeli, and other international corporations profit
from the occupation of Palestine. They "lead real estate deals, develop
the Israeli (settlements) and infrastructure," and help solidify the
continued land theft, economic exploitation, and apartheid separation of
Muslims and Jews, in violation of international law.
-
- In addition to Gaza under siege, West Bank Palestinians
have endured an oppressive 42-year military occupation. On their own, with
virtually no outside support outside of growing grassroots movements, they
keep waging a heroic struggle for their self-determination and freedom.
-
- (12) Mysterious Death of Mike Connell - Karl Rove's Election
Thief
-
- As Karl Rove's chief IT consultant, Connell was a key
figure in the theft of the 2004 election for George Bush. Under subpoena
to testify on his role in Ohio, he died mysteriously in a December 19,
2008 plane crash.
-
- IT expert Stephen Spoonamore, a conservative Republican,
explained how Connell's vote tabulation system worked. It "allowed
(for) the introduction of an additional single computer between computer
A and computer B (called a) man in the middle" attack. The subsequent
centralized collection of all incoming statewide tabulations made it easy
for a single operator, or a preprogrammed 'force balancing computer' to
change the results in any way desired by the team controlling Computer
C."
-
- Spoonamore explained that Connell's system exists solely
for one purpose - to commit crime. Clear evidence of the 2004 electoral
theft confirms that's precisely what happened.
-
- (13) Katrina's Hidden Race War
-
- After Hurricane Katrina, a Nation magazine report explained
that "white vigilante groups patrolled the streets of New Orleans....shooting
at least eleven African American men." Falsely portrayed as looters
and thugs, they were gunned down in cold blood by "gun-toting white
males," yet city police didn't intervene or investigate the crimes.
-
- In addition, Blackwater mercenaries were deployed in
New Orleans right after the storm. In full battle gear, they terrorized
black residents, removed them from choice areas for development, and assured
they didn't return. Protected by immunity, they were licensed to kill if
disobeyed.
-
- (14) Congress Invested in Defense Contracts
-
- According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics,
over 151 congressional members have invested up to $195 million in major
defense contractors, thus profiting from America's imperial wars.
-
- Major investors include:
-
- -- Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) - $49.1 million;
-
- -- Senator John Kerry (D-MA) - $38.2 million;
-
- -- Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) - $37.1 million;
-
- -- Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) - $8.4 million;
-
- -- Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) - $7.6 million;
-
- -- Rep. Jane Harmon (D-CA) - $6.3 million;
-
- -- Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI) - $5.8 million; and
-
- -- Rep. John Carter (R-TX) - $5 million.
-
- (15) World Bank's Carbon Trade Fiasco
-
- On the pretext of environmental protection, "the
World Bank is brokering carbon emission trading arrangements that destroy
indigenous farmlands around the world" and do nothing to cut pollution
or reduce the threat of climate change.
-
- The scheme is similar to Obama's cap and trade bill (HR
2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009) that lets corporate
polluters reap huge windfall profits by charging consumers more for energy
and fuel. It also facilitates new carbon trading derivatives speculation,
yet does nothing to address environmental issues. On June 26, HR 2454 passed
the House, but so far it's stalled in the Senate.
-
- (16) US Repression of Haiti Continues
-
- Two months after the Bush administration forcibly deposed
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004, the UN Security
Council authorized Blue Helmet peacekeepers to occupy the country. It was
likely the first time ever to support and enforce a coup d'etat against
a democratically elected president. To this day, Haitians have been denied
their freedom under a repressive UN occupation. The Obama administration
continues to endorse it.
-
- (17) The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
-
- Huge potential oil reserves explain the significance
of Darfur. Washington's genocide claim is a hoax. It's part of America's
chess game with China for control of the region's resources, something
both nations covet. Beijing already gets up to 30% of its oil from Africa
by offering no-strings attached dollar credits compared to exploitive IMF
and World Bank terms, and America's usual one-way kinds.
-
- Under cover from the ICC's fraudulent indictment of Sudan's
President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and other contrived reasons, America
has exploited the region militarily for geopolitical advantage. The ICC
stands exposed as an imperial tool, not the independent body it should
be.
-
- (18) Ecuador's Constitutional Rights of Nature
-
- "In September 2008, Ecuador became the first country
(ever) to declare constitutional rights to nature, thus codifying a new
system of environmental protection."
-
- Its Constitution declares nature:
-
- "has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate
its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.
(This right) is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical
persons or the State to indemnify the people that depend on the natural
systems."
-
- This redefinition affirms that nature must receive equal
parity by law and not just be a resource for exploitation. Yet these Rights
of Nature contain flaws because President Rafael Correa refused to let
communities protect their own ecosystems. As a result, corporate predators
can exploit the loophole and are expert at taking advantage. The new Mining
Law already permits large-scale, open pit metal mining in the Andean highlands
and Amazon rainforest.
-
- Nonetheless, Ecuador's Rights of Nature hold hope that
other nations may adopt them and start a process to more fully protect
the environment.
-
- (19) Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor
-
- After receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds,
Bank of America organized opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
- legislation to guarantee workers the right to bargain more fairly and
collectively with management than since passage of the landmark 1935 National
Labor Relations (Wagner) Act.
-
- Business is firmly opposed. On March 10, S. 560: Employee
Free Choice Act of 2009 was introduced in the Senate. It was referred to
the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where it's pending.
Given the Obama administration's opposition, its passage looks doubtful.
-
- (20) Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
-
- Since 1987, the Republican and Democrat-controlled Commission
on Presidential Debates (CPD) has run the process, dictates terms, and
excludes unwanted participants. During the 2008 presidential cycle, the
Obama and McCain teams secretly cut a deal on who could participate, permissible
topics, and the debate format structure.
-
- Since independent candidate Ross Perot participated in
1992, the exercise has been pre-scripted theater without disturbing questions,
shielding major party candidates from unwanted criticism, and excluding
independent ones, like Ralph Nader, from participating. Before he died,
Walter Cronkite called the CPD an "unconscionable fraud."
-
- (20) Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare
-
- Faced with huge budget shortfalls and little help from
Washington, states have been forced to make major expenditure cuts, many
affecting vital social services, including health care, education, and
welfare.
-
- Yet cutting Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
began prior to the present crisis so funds could be redirected to other
priorities. Nationally, welfare rolls dropped over 40% between 2001 and
June 2008, and in some states, like Georgia, up to 90%.
-
- By allotting states fixed block grant amounts regardless
of need and setting a five year limit for recipients, the 1997 law was
deeply flawed as a way to free states and Washington from their obligation
to provide welfare to the needy. As a result, America's social safety net
is fast disappearing.
-
- (22) Obama's Trilateral Commission Team
-
- In 1973, David Rockefeller founded the Trilateral Commission
(TC) to counter a threat of too much democracy. Jimmy Carter was a charter
member. Current and past ones include nearly all presidential candidates
of both parties; leading senators and congressmen; key members of the media;
top intelligence officials; key government agency ones from Treasury, Defense,
State, Commerce, and the Judiciary; numerous top business executives,
and others from academia, labor, and various NGOs.
-
- Eleven TC members are in the Obama administration, including
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, National Security
Advisor Gen. James Jones, National Intelligence Director Adm. Dennis Blair,
Paul Volker, and five top State Department officials, including Richard
Holbrooke and Dennis Ross.
-
- Along with Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) members,
they're the dominant forces in America. They decide who's elected to high
office, appointed to key government positions, how the country will be
run, and for whose benefit.
-
- (23) Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven
Fraud
-
- Organized every three years since 1997, the corporate-controlled
World Water Forum (WWF)'s main goal is the global privatization of water
in coordination with the World Water Council (WWC), dominated by two of
the world's largest water companies, Suez and Veolia, as well as the World
Bank and corporate segments of the UN.
-
- WWC "promotes extraordinarily expensive and destructive
dam and water diversion projects" as well as an agenda to put water
services in private hands through the establishment of Public-Private Partnerships
(PPPs). Operating in countries like Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador and
America, the result has been "huge price hikes, water pollution, depletion
and cut-offs (that) deny people the right to water" if they can't
pay the exorbitant cost.
-
- Activists like Maude Barlow ask "Is water a commodity
(to be sold) to the highest bidder or part of our commons, a public trust
and a human right?" The global struggle is committed for the latter.
-
- (24) Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion
-
- Economist/author Michael Hudson first addressed this
topic in his 1972 book, "Super Imperialism," updated in a 2003
edition. He then revisited it in his award-winning article explaining the
"inter-related dynamics" of:
-
- -- "surplus (US) dollars pouring into the rest of
the world for yet further financial speculation and corporate takeovers;"
-
- -- global central banks "recyl(ing) these dollar
inflows (into) US Treasury bonds to finance the federal US budget deficit;
and most important (but suppressed in the US media),
-
- -- the military character of the US payments deficit
and the domestic federal budget deficit."
-
- The net result is that the global dollar glut finances
US corporate takeovers, speculative excesses, reckless spending, foreign
wars, hundreds of worldwide bases, and a culture of militarism and belligerence
at the expense of democratic freedom, beneficial social change, and human
and civil rights.
-
- Today, the world's largest "free lunch....is the
ability of the US Treasury to issue (trillions of dollars) in exchange
for foreign exports, the sale of foreign companies and real estate to US
buyers, (and) US military purchases abroad." They comprise the balance-of-payments
deficit that's "free to the extent that foreign central banks recycle
(their) surplus dollars into Treasury bonds and other US securities...."
-
- (25) Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon
-
- Home to the world's "most biodiverse and intact
rainforest," the Western Amazon "may soon be covered with oilrigs
and pipelines" since vast parts of it will be opened for oil and gas
exploration, "putting some of the planet's most pristine and biodiverse
forests at risk, conservationists have warned." Five nations are threatened,
including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Western Brazil, in areas
called "the lungs of the planet," where the lives of indigenous
people are also threatened.
-
- 2010 Honorable Mentions
-
-
-
- -- Demining Stops in Lebanon - to clear over one million
Israeli-dropped cluster bombs during the last days of its 2006 war;
-
- -- Cuba Years Ahead in Eat Local Movement - the result
of thousands of urban cooperative gardens replacing expensive imported
food;
-
- -- Military Corporate Legacy of the New Secretary of
Education - Arne Duncan privatized and militarized education as CEO of
Chicago's public schools;
-
- -- Latin American Leaders Refute US Drug War - they propose
a new paradigm to replace America's failed one;
-
- -- Guantanamo Worsens Since Obama - after promising to
close Guantanamo and end torture, prison conditions there are as bad or
worse than before;
-
- -- Fault Lines Intersect Nuke Plant Near NYC - sitting
atop newly identified fault lines shows New York is more at risk than previously
imagined;
-
- -- Battle for the Future of SEIU - it pits rank-and-file
members against the failure and power aspirations of its leadership;
-
- -- Constitution-Free Zone for Two-Thirds of US Population
- more evidence of DHS abusing its authority at the expense of constitutionally-guaranteed
rights;
-
- -- Coal vs. Wind in West Virginia - An energy battle
may result;
-
- -- Father Roy Excommunicated? - Roy Bourgeois has been
threatened by the Vatican unless he recants his support for ordaining women
in the priesthood;
-
- -- Air Force Embraces Coal - as a result, the transportation
fuel of the future may be coal-based;
-
- -- Terrorizing Dissenters at the RNC - St. Paul, MN,
the site of the 2008 Republican Convention, was turned into a police state
for the event;
-
- -- UN Negligence is Killing Child Refugees in Kosovo
- three UN-established refugee camps sit atop a toxic waste dump killing
dozens and causing 50 miscarriages because of suspected lead poisoning;
and
-
- -- Secret US Forces Carried Out Assassinations - under
Dick Cheney, the Bush administration ran an "executive assassination
ring" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Latin America, and other parts of the
world.
-
- An Entire Section is devoted to updating previous PC
Stories, including the top one for 2009 on "More than One Million
Killed in Iraq." Occupation and violence keep elevating and depriving
Iraqis of their freedom.
-
- Infotainment Society: Junk Food News and News Abuse for
2008/2009
-
- In 1984, PC Director Carl Jensen called it a "Twinkie,
not very nourishing for the consumer." He now says it's a "major
problem in journalism and corporate media, particularly on today's cable
and television news." The late Communications Professor George Gerbner
(1919 - 2005) once said "they have everything to sell and nothing
to tell." And famed comedian Ernie Kovacs (1919 - 1962) once explained
why television is called a medium - "because it's neither rare or
well done."
-
- PC's Former Associate Director Mickey Huff and Frances
Capell discuss the Top Ten Junk Food News Stories and Top Five News Abuse
Stories for 2008 and 2009. In quoting a Chinese proverb, they conclude:
"Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are
headed."
-
- Stories of Hope and Change
-
- PC examines "strategies that appear to be improving
the health of the community, whether local or global" at a time when
real solutions more than ever are needed. Examples covered include "events
or programs that are actually working for people and that increase the
healthy functioning of governments, economies, the environment and the
human condition."
-
- It proves that organized people can beat organized money
for constructive change as effectively as when famed Chicago community
organizer/activist Saul Alinsky (1909 - 1972) once explained it.
-
- Examples include:
-
- -- citizen groups in all 18 Iraqi provinces successfully
promoting peaceful elections;
-
- -- New York grassroots organizers and volunteers using
the state's fusion voting laws to win over citizens for higher wages, fair
taxes, affordable housing, civil rights, and campaign finance reform;
-
- -- 1,500 campaign donors pledging "not to donate
to any federal candidate unless they support legislation making congressional
elections citizen-funded, not special-interest funded;"
-
- -- pro-Israeli groups like Americans for Peace Now (APN)
and J Street calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during Operation
Cast Lead last December and January;
-
- -- Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introducing a bill to
strengthen federal whistleblower protections;
-
- -- Canada's Stephen Harper-led government apologizing
for the treatment of native peoples;
-
- -- a successful democracy movement in Brazil;
-
- -- a European-led "revolution in chemical regulation"
requiring thousands of chemicals to be assessed for potential toxicity;
-
- -- a federal appeals court telling the EPA that its pollutants
standards are "contrary to law and unsupported by adequately reasoned
decision making;"
-
- -- a New York Times/CBS poll showing that the majority
of Americans want Washington to provide universal single-payer health coverage,
and most physicians back it, including 17,000 doctors, medical students,
and health professional members of Physicians for a National Health Program;
-
- -- brain research on Buddhist monks revealing the benefits
of meditation;
-
- -- evidence that the human brain is hardwired to reward
caring, cooperation, and service;
-
- -- at a time of agribusiness dominance and rising prices,
urban farms have become an important resource for providing cheap, local
amounts of food for growing numbers of people;
-
- -- these gardens have proliferated in Cuba, an idea that
could become a world model for "localized food sovereignty and sustainability;"
-
- -- communities are making food a matter of local interest;
-
- -- grassroots efforts are achieving good food policies
in America;
-
- -- community stewardship of water is reclaiming a tradition
of local control;
-
- -- Bangladesh's successful model of fair water governance;
-
- -- the US Conference of Mayors voting to encourage municipal
water use over high-cost corporate-controlled sources;
-
- -- sustainability efforts by a central Appalachian Network
for a low-carbon regional economy;
-
- -- successful holistic range management methods for more
productive ranches, healthy ecosystems, biodiversity, healthy water, mineral
cycles and land;
-
- -- Canadian native communities gaining power over regional
resources;
-
- -- Congress approving a massive public lands bill to
protect two million acres of wilderness in nine states and 1,000 miles
of rivers;
-
- -- Ireland and British Columbia, Canada banning uranium
mining;
-
- -- Brazil pledging to reduce deforestation by 70% over
the next decade;
-
- -- the first US Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
requiring that Northeast power plants buy permits for carbon emissions;
-
- -- soil being used to reduce CO2;
-
- -- America becoming the world's largest wind-energy producer;
-
- -- Portugal building the world's largest solar photovoltaic
farm to supply enough electricity for 30,000 homes;
-
- -- rising investment levels being made in renewable energy;
-
- -- community banks functioning as an alternative to Wall
Street giants;
-
- -- the Common Good Bank model distributing profits back
to the community and making all lending and spending decisions through
participatory democracy;
-
- -- cooperatives turning wage slaves into worker-owners;
-
- -- calls increasing for a minimum corporate tax that
could raise billions of dollars to stimulate economic growth;
-
- -- Ecuador questioning the legitimacy of foreign debt;
-
- -- Washington possibly losing its right to appoint future
World Bank presidents;
-
- -- Net Neutrality hopes for passage increasing, but not
without stiff corporate opposition against it;
-
- -- community land trust solutions offering hope for the
foreclosure crisis; also, in Landmark National Bank v. Kesler (August 2009),
the Kansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Mortgage Electronic
Registration Systems' (MERS) right to bring a foreclosure action; over
half of all new residential mortgages are registered with MERS; the ruling
applies to other mortgage holders in Kansas, but it sets a precedent that
other states may follow;
-
- -- the Pathway to Housing program calling for a "housing
first" approach to address the problem of chronic homelessness;
-
- -- in opposition to America's war on drugs, a Latin American
Commission on Drugs calling for a new paradigm; and
-
- -- Ecuador becoming the first country to declare constitutional
rights for nature.
-
- Truth Emergency: Inside the Military Industrial Media
Empire
-
- Former PC Director Peter Phillips and former Associate
Director Mickey Huff discuss the terrible toll from America's imperial
wars, with special emphasis on the carnage in Iraq. In America today, a
"literal Truth Emergency" exists given the absence of "a
truly free press" to report accurately on events and developments
abroad or at home at a time of grave economic crisis, affecting growing
millions, and misdirected spending for militarism and banker bailouts.
-
- In January 2008, a Truth Emergency Movement held its
first summit to devise ways to promote and distribute truths to a population
starved for them and defeat the military-industrial-media complex's dominance.
They quoted famed journalist George Seldes (1890 - 1995) saying that "Journalism's
job is not impartial 'balanced' reporting. Journalism's job is to tell
the people what is really going on."
-
- It's for committed alternative sources to counteract
corporate media propaganda, and for a popular super-majority to rely on
them for real news, information, and analysis to stay informed. Otherwise,
a free and open society is impossible.
-
- Pentagon Propaganda, Spin, and Lies about America's Imperial
Wars
-
- They come from dominant domestic and international media
sources; so-called National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting, and the
BBC; state propaganda services like Voice of America; many figures in academia
and the clergy; and ideologically driven conservative and extremist organizations
that control most vital information given the public. Without them, imperial
wars aren't possible because enough popular opposition could be marshaled
against them. Most Americans today distrust the popular media. It's time
they directed that sentiment for real change.
-
- Fear & Favor: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
(FAIR)
-
- FAIR's Peter Hart writes about how the global economic
crisis has impacted corporate newsrooms and the media overall as "owners
who gambled on debt-financed expansions" have been hammered by shrinking
advertising and subscriber revenues, with no light at the end of the tunnel
in sight.
-
- Surveys show that large majorities of broadcast and print
journalists say financial pressures have increased, and about one-fourth
cite considerable owner and advertiser influence in their newsrooms.
-
- Consider Fox News, for example. A summer 2001 Seth Ackerman
FAIR article cited its "extraordinary right-wing tilt (as) The Most
Biased Name in News." Its founder and president, Roger Ailes, was
described by former GHW Bush aide Lee Atwater as operating on "two
speeds - attack and destroy." Reputedly, he only hires on-air staff
who assure him they're Republicans, yet Fox insists its reporting is "fair
and balanced."
-
- The UK-Based Index on Censorship
-
- Currently, defamation is casting a chill on free speech
as a recurring theme. In the past year, UK libel law favored claimants
by being hostile to free expression. In addition, "libel tourism,"
letting overseas plaintiffs sue in British courts, has turned the country
into a virtual "international tribunal for defamation," but not
without countermeasures from other countries, including in America where
New York, Illinois, and Florida passed laws protecting their residents
from English libel suits. Congress is also considering a law to make them
unconstitutional.
-
- The Index on Censorship magazine devoted an entire issue
to the state of defamation around the world, and found that while the spirit
for reform is strong, scant change followed.
-
- The Hyperreality of a Failing Corporate Media System
-
- Andrew Hobbs and Peter Phillips explain that "Hyperreality
is the inability to distinguish between what is real and what is not,"
typical of how the corporate media operate, especially Fox News. Since
most people rely on television for information, they're "embedded
in a state of excited delirium and knowinglessness," the same sentiment
expressed by an old TV sitcom law professor complaining about new students
"com(ing) in(to his classroom) with a head full of mush...."
-
- In the corporate media, model democrats like Hugo Chavez
are called strongmen, autocrats and dictators. Figures like Rush Limbaugh
and Glenn Beck become folk heros for the extreme right. Others as bad get
prime time exposure while real journalists are nowhere in sight.
-
- Is PC a Left-Leaning, Conspiracy-Oriented Organization?
-
- Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff would agree about a conspiracy
for truth over propaganda, lies, disinformation, and junk news. Each year,
"over 200 faculty and students from multiple disciplines and political
orientations work with PC," and since 1976 "Over 1,500 students
have been trained in media research techniques," ones that produce
real journalism, not the fake, deceptive corporate-controlled kind that
delivers everything but what people need to know.
-
- They quote media scholar Robert McChesney saying in his
book, Rich Media, Poor Democracy:
-
- "A media system set up to serve the needs of Wall
Street and Madison Avenue cannot and does not serve the needs of the preponderance
of the population." Stories getting almost no coverage are those on
what "the political and economic elites are in agreement."
-
- Phillips and Huff add: "Without media freedom, not
only can democracy not thrive, it simply cannot exist."
-
- Electoral Fraud, Eroding Democracy, and Media Complicity
in 2008
-
- At a time of the latest technology and corporate-controlled
electronic voting, it's easier than ever to rig elections, and convincing
evidence shows that's precisely what happened in 2000 and 2004. Not only
did the Supreme Court hijack the 2000 election, but the Florida recount
showed Gore won the state and the election. Fraud was even more extreme
in 2004, denying John Kerry the office he won.
-
- The process repeated in 2008 in the form of millions
of disappeared votes with electronic ease. Without verifiable paper receipts
or paper ballots, however, recount checks aren't possible. Today, America's
privatized voting process lets corporate interests decide at the ballot
box who's elected and who's not. It's even easier when the losing side
won't complain and when the dominant media support the sham.
-
- Expanding Investigative Research for Independent Media
and Human Betterment
-
- PC Director Peter Phillips explains that "Investigative
research is the use of social science research methods to conduct data
collection and analysis of important socio-economic issues for broad public
dissemination - much like in-depth investigative reporting."
-
- In an academic setting, it uses alternative media channels
to get vital information to the public, and asks key questions like:
-
- -- who has most power;
-
- -- whose decisions most affect our lives;
-
- -- how are power positions gotten;
-
- -- what advantages do they have; and
-
- -- how do they affect others in society?
-
- In the West and especially America, class, race, socio-economic
status, ethnicity and gender advantage an elite few over most others, and
having a black president makes no difference. Today, inequality is endemic
in the country, and evidence shows it's growing more entrenched.
-
- Human Trafficking and Domestic Prostitution
-
- By far, prostitution is the leading form of human trafficking
in America, accounting for nearly half of it. The rest shows up in domestic
service, agriculture, sweatshops, factories, restaurant and hotel work,
and various other types of human exploitation. It persists for lack of
regulation, work condition monitoring, and a growing demand for cheap labor
and plentiful sex enabling unscrupulous scoundrels and criminal networks
to exploit powerless people, including children, for profit.
-
- The US Department of Justice (DOJ) states that the average
entry prostitution age is from 12 - 14, and a congressional finding estimated
that up to 300,000 children are at risk at any time. In addition, the lack
of safe and legal migration facilitates trafficking, and few societal protections
are available for victims. The profiteers take full advantage.
-
- Water as Commodity or Commons?
-
- Attracting many thousands from around the world, the
World Water Council's (WWC) fifth World Water Forum (WWF) was billed as
"the world's biggest ever water-related event." Yet it was one
of the year's least reported stories because of vocal opposition to its
privatization agenda that will make water available only to those who can
afford the exorbitant cost. As part of the commons, clean water is a human
right, not a commodity to be exploited for profit.
-
- In her book Water Wars, Vandana Shiva says:
-
- "Water is a commons because it is the ecological
basis of all life and because its sustainability and equitable allocation
depends on cooperation among community members."
-
- Author Maude Barlow adds:
-
- "You cannot trade or sell a human right or deny
it to someone on the basis of an inability to pay."
-
- WWF participants plan to do just that by charging prices
unaffordable to billions.
-
- Lesbian and Gay Standpoint Films
-
- Writer James Joseph Dean examines them from 1980 - 2000,
"focus(ing) on lesbian and gay characters' lives from the point of
view of a lesbian and gay subculture." Throughout this period, Hollywood
began normalizing homosexuality images, but "almost always isolate(d)
the gay and lesbian from a larger lesbian and gay subculture" and
continued to portray heterosexuality "as the normative identity of
the majority." As human beings, Dean argues that society must afford
gays and lesbians normal and equal recognition and tolerance.
-
- Final Comments
-
- The Project Censored team has made PC a national treasure,
dedicated to media democracy in a free and open society. As guardians of
power, today's dominant media system is in crisis because it's bottom-line
driven, unresponsive to public needs, and concerned only about the interests
of wealth and power.
-
- As a result, fiction substitutes for fact. News is carefully
filtered, dissent marginalized and denigrated, and supporting the powerful
substitutes for full and accurate reporting. The fallout has imperial wars
called liberating ones. Civil liberties are suppressed for our own good.
Washington has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street, and patriotism
means supporting militarism, violence as a way of life, global dominance,
lawlessness, torture, and an Orwellian society in which "war is peace,
freedom is slavery, (and) ignorance is strength."
-
- Democracy requires a free, open, vibrant, and diverse
media, elements totally absent under our corporate-driven system. PC holds
it accountable by revealing what it suppresses.
-
- Support Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation
(MFF) that works closely with PC. Read Censored 2010: The Top 25 Censored
Stories of 2008 - 09, and follow PC daily at projectcensored.org and MFF
at mediafreedominternational.org. They're our best hope to restore freedom
in a healthy and functioning democracy, something very much absent in today's
corporate-dominated America.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
<mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net>lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
- Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy
listening.
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