Every year, Project Censored highlights “The News That Didn’t Make the News”, and reports what should’ve been in every paper and on every media outlet in America.
This year’s list should be mandatory reading for DL contributors and readers alike. You can click on links for each of the 25 stories, and find out what the corporate-driven media doesn’t want you to know.
The reason they don’t want you to know it? In most cases, the stories uncover corporate infiltration, takeovers, and/or cover-ups of national or global events.
This, IMHO, is the most important problem facing our nation and the world. Since Ronald Reagan, there has been something close to a corporate takeover of government that has continued unfettered for almost 30 years. Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Dubya all curried favor with the corporate community. Forget about Monica Lewinsky, Clinton’s cardinal sin was trying to out Rethug the Rethugs when it came to harvesting corporate cash, and he largely succeeded. After all, it was no coincidence that he named Fast Eddie Rendell (D-Comcast) to head the Democratic Party. And, wasn’t that the same Ed Rendell who, about six minutes after the polls had closed, suggested that Gore should concede?
And, with Eye of Newt unfettering the huge corporations to buy up all the major media, it is no accident that these stories aren’t even covered by what passes for the major media.
Project Censored performs an essential service. But it’s only successful if people actually read these stories and act accordingly.
Here are just some of the stories with which I was not fully-familiar:
Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
Ecuador Declares Predatory Debt Illegitimate
Private Corporations Profit from Occupation of Palestine
This is brilliantly-researched material, and even provides some ideas as to what activists can do to influence policy in these matters.
Walter Cronkite once said that Project Censored, “…is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.”
Were he still alive, I suspect his praise would have an even greater sense of urgency.