Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006-07

If the mainstream media isn't doing its job, at least somebody is.

Picked up this book called Censored 2008: Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006-07. It's put together by a group out of Sonoma State University in California called Project Censored, an "investigative sociology and media analysis project dedicated to journalistic integrity and the freedom of information throughout the United States," according to the book. For the past 31 years, Project Censored released this list of censored stories. The top 25 stories are chosen from a list of 300 by a panel of national judges and researchers.

Project Censored holds the mainstream media in a low regard, blaming a network of powerful economic and political interests for not reporting to the public stories of major importance to their way of life. This excerpt from the book is quoted at length because it sets the tone of the book, and of the dilemma Americans face today:

Censorship in the U.S is seldom direct or overt. Instead, it results from the corporate media's inability to address a range of truly serious events and issues about which every American should be aware...Without news coverage that extends beyond the narrow range of people, power structures, and politics addressed by the corporate media, we remain blind to the machinations of the powerful and we become further marginalized from the basic democratic tasks of political, economic, and social decision-making.

Project Censored sums it up - the mainstream media is not doing its job and U.S. democracy is more threatened today than ever before as a result. This book, and the stories censored by the big media corporations inspired me to do a series of columns on each story and why it's important for the public to know about them. Just look for the tag line "censored" for anything I write on this site about these stories.

These are important stories to know, and for fellow journalists reading this blog, it is our duty to report the truth no matter what it takes. The stakes are high. Read these stories. Remember our duty to the public. And spread the word.