Showing posts with label Project Censored. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Censored. Show all posts
Friday, January 1, 2010
Just In - Project Censored Top Censored Stories of 2009/2010
.
Project Censored Top Censored Stories of 2009/2010
- 1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
- 2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
(Da Buffalo's personal favorite)
3. Toxic (AND NUCLEAR) Waste Behind Somali Pirates- 4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
- 5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
- 6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
- 7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
- 8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions
- 9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
- 10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
- 11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine
- 12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connell—Karl Rove’s Election Thief
- 13. Katrina’s Hidden Race War
- 14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts
- 15. World Bank’s Carbon Trade Fiasco
- 16. US Repression of Haiti Continues
- 17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
- 18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature
- 19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor
- 20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
- 21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare
- 22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team
- 23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud
- 24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion
- 25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon
About Project Censored:
Project Censored was founded by Carl Jensen in 1976, and is a media research program working in cooperation with numerous independent media groups in the US. Project Censored’s principle objective is training of SSU students in media research and First Amendment issues and the advocacy for, and protection of, free press rights in the United States. Project Censored has trained over 1,500 students in investigative research in the past three decades..
Through a partnership of faculty, students, and the community, Project Censored conducts research on important national news stories that are underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the US corporate media. Each year, Project Censored publishes a ranking of the top 25 most censored nationally important news stories in the yearbook, Censored: Media Democracy in Action, which is released in September. Recent Censored books have been published in Spanish, Italian and Arabic.
The Project works in cooperation with SSU academic classes Sociology of Media and Sociology of Censorship, where students earn credit for their research and participate in writing the annual yearbook. Additionally, Project Censored sponsors and supervises over 60 student interns a year who do in depth investigative research, sponsor campus events and speakers, and organize a series of Modern Censorship Lectures each fall semester. Students also participate in writing the Project Censored quarterly newsletter (circulation 9,000) and assist with maintaining the Project Censored website www.projectcensored.org, which receives over a million views a month from all over the world. (In Full Here)
.
Monday, June 8, 2009
*Infotainment Society*: Top Ten Junk Food News Stories for 2008 and 2009 - Project Censored, CSUS
Photos of Jessica Simpson performing at a Florida Chili Cook-off looking a bit heavier than usual surfaced during the week of January 26, 2009. The purportedly unflattering shots of a curvier looking Simpson in an outfit that included "a muffin-top-inducing leopard belt" immediately made news headlines. Was she pregnant? Was she picking up eating habits from her NFL star boyfriend? Or was she simply hungry for publicity? President Obama even noticed Simpson was “in a weight battle” during a pre-super bowl interview.
The US is not only becoming a nation of obese people, but is on the verge of another phenomenon the equivalent of cultural and mental obesity.
*Infotainment Society:Junk Food News for 2008/2009 *
By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff
The late New York University media scholar Neil Postman once said about America, “We are the best entertained least informed society in the world." From Jessica Simpson’s weight and Brangelina’s escapades, to Britney Spears’ sister and the Obama’s First Puppy, Americans are fed a steady “news” diet of useless information laden with personal anecdotes, scandals, and gossip.
Since the middle of the 1980’s, Project Censored at Sonoma State University has annually researched this phenomenon. Topics and in-depth reports that matter little to anyone in any meaningful way are given massive amounts of media coverage in the corporate media. In recent years, this has only become more obvious.
For instance, CNN’s coverage of celebrity Anna Nicole Smith’s untimely death in early 2007 is arguably one of the most egregious examples of an over abused news story. The magnitude of corporate media attention paid to Smith’s death were clearly out of synch with the coverage the story deserved, which was at most a simple passing mention.
Instead, CNN broadcast “breaking” stories of Smith’s death uninterrupted, without commercials, for almost two hours, with commentary by lead anchors and journalists. This marked among the longest uninterrupted “news” broadcasts at CNN since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Anna Nicole Smith and 9/11 are now strange bedfellows, milestone bookends of corporate news culture.
While news outlets were obsessing over Smith’s death, most big media giants were missing a far more important story. The US ambassador to Iraq misplaced $12 billion in shrink-wrapped one hundred dollar bills that were flown to Baghdad.
This garnered little attention due to the media’s morbid infatuation with Smith’s passing. This is clearly news judgment gone terribly awry if not an outright retreat from journalistic standards. The once trivial and absurd are now mainstreamed as “news.”
More young people turn to late night comics’ fake news to learn the truth or tune out to so-called reality shows often scripted as Roman Holiday spectacles of the surreal.
Welcome to the Infotainment Society: American Media in the 21st century.
Here are the Top Ten Junk Food News Stories for 2008 and 2009 as chosen by Project Censored students and the online community via http://projectcensored.org:
1. Olympic Medalist Michael Phelps Hits a Bong
2. Jessica Simpson Gains Weight
3. First Lady Michelle Obama's Fashion Sense
4. The Brangelina Twins
5. Lindsay Lohan Dating a Woman
6. The Presidential First Puppy
7. Heidi Montag "Marries" Spencer Pratt
8. Barry Bonds Steroid Trial
9. Jamie-Lynn Spears Gives Birth
10. The Woes of Amy Winehouse
The British tabloid News of the World published an exclusive photo of Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking marijuana from a bong on Sunday, February 1, 2009, with the headline, “What a Dope.” The picture was allegedly taken during a November house party while Phelps was visiting the University of South Carolina. The incident occurred nearly three months after the swimmer won eight gold medals for America at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Phelps quickly apologized to the public for his "regrettable behavior. " The bongs owner reportedly tried to sell it on eBay for $100,000.
In the weeks following, Phelps lost his sponsorship from Kellogg's cereal.
(More on how the media and sponsor companies 'played' our Number One contenda'.
February 17 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary
Given the fact that Kellogg kept Michael Phelps on after his drunk driving conviction a few years back (2004) even though alcohol is a major killer and is responsible for more social and economic mayhem (broken families and broken bank accounts for a start) than could ever be calculated accurately in the US, Kellogg's removal of Phelps should be seen for what it is... Boycott bait.)Photos of Jessica Simpson performing at a Florida Chili Cook-off looking a bit heavier than usual surfaced during the week of January 26, 2009. The purportedly unflattering shots of a curvier looking Simpson in an outfit that included "a muffin-top-inducing leopard belt" immediately made news headlines. Was she pregnant? Was she picking up eating habits from her NFL star boyfriend? Or was she simply hungry for publicity?
President Obama even noticed Simpson was “in a weight battle” during a pre-super bowl interview.
The US is not only becoming a nation of obese people, but is on the verge of another phenomenon the equivalent of cultural and mental obesity. We are a nation awash in a sea of information yet we have a paucity of understanding. We are a country where over a quarter of the population know the names of all five members of the fictitious family from The Simpsons yet only one in a thousand can name all the rights protected under the first amendment to the US Constitution. Journalistic values have been sold out to commercial interests and not even our core, national and constitutionally protected values are sacred.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and Director of Project Censored.
Mickey Huff is an Associate Professor of History Diablo Valley College and Associate Director of Project Censored.
Frances A. Capell, a Project Censored intern, contributed research.
For the full report see: www.projectcensored.org
The complete list of 'Contendas' and more @ Project Censored
...and now... A word from our sponsor
(Courtesy Cracked Magazine Online)
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Ex-Chief Prosecutor At The Hague Says Kosovo Incumbent Prime Minister Implicated In Torture Of Serbs
That's right... The US just gave an al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist/drug dealing group national recognition.
“Fireworks lit up the night sky over Kosovo’s capital Pristina, where thousands of giddy ethnic Albanians braved subfreezing temperatures to ride on the roofs of their cars, singing patriotic songs and chanting: “KLA! KLA!” the acronym for the now-disbanded rebel Kosovo Liberation Army.To put it in terms that most Americans can easily understand, if not easily comprehend:
[Source WAS Forbes, SPIKED!... Now HERE]
“During his stint as NATO Supreme Commander (1997-2000), Wesley Clark was in permanent liaison with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Under Wesley Clark’s command, NATO directly sponsored a terrorist paramilitary army, with links to Al Qaeda and the trans-Balkan narcotics trade.” [source]
...and the pressure is ON!
Switzerland bans Del Ponte book
BELGRADE -- The Swiss Foreign Ministry has prohibited the promotion of Carl Del Ponte’s book “Hunt”. According to the ANSA agency, the former Hague Tribunal ... [Source]
More
The Ex-Chief Prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Carle del Ponte, has published a book in which she reveals that many top leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army,
including the incumbent premier Hashim Tachi
...and (Former PM) Ramush Haradinaj
...were implicated in the torture of Serbs seized during the armed conflict in Kosovo.
After being murdered, the captives' bodies were used as donors to supply transplant organs.
Carle Del Ponte says the revelations are made post factum, because her attempt to launch an inquiry into crimes by Kosovo Liberation Army leaders received no backing [Source]
Thanks For Stopping By
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
