The Top Overlooked, Underreported, Ignored and/or Censored News Stories Of The Year — Or Are They?

Published on September 9th, 2006

For the past 30 years, Project Censored out of Sonoma State University in California has published a list of the 25 news stories you probably haven’t heard of or read about in the mainstream media, but should have. The Project Censored website has complete descriptions and citations on each story.

The top 10

1. The Feds and the media muddy the debate over Internet freedom
2. Halliburton charged with selling nuclear technology to Iran
3. World oceans in extreme danger
4. Hunger and homelessness increasing in the United States
5. High-tech genocide in Congo
6. Federal whistleblower protection in jeopardy
7. U.S. operatives torture detainees to death in Afghanistan and Iraq
8. Pentagon exempt from Freedom of Information Act
9. World Bank funds Israel-Palestine wall
10. Expanded air war in Iraq kills more civilians

But is this a valid list? While they don’t get hammered on constantly like the war and various other issues, I know for a fact I’ve heard a number of these stories discussed on NPR, for example. Plus, with the rise of blogs (including DU — we’ve had posts on at least two of the above) and Internet news-based reporting, does it really matter what ‘big media’ is reporting or not since practically everything is discussed somewhere daily online? And if it does matter, is ‘censorship’ the right word for why they aren’t reported on much?

For an alternative view on the whole Project Censored endeavor, here’s an essay from a couple of years ago from, of all sources, Mother Jones.

18 users responded in " The Top Overlooked, Underreported, Ignored and/or Censored News Stories Of The Year — Or Are They? "

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# 1 William K. Wolfrum said, on September 9th, 2006 at 6:09 am

Well, first of all, I think “Censored” is much more attention-getting than “Underreported,” so I say we give Project Uncensored a pass on that. As far as NPR and bloggers, well, just because you’re informed, doesn’t mean most of the U.S. is.

And blogs are nice, but as long as my folks tell me that they’re giving people my “e-mail” when they mean they are giving people the URLs to my blogs or articles, than I think bloggers still don’t have the audience many seem to think they do.

As long as Bush has an approval rating higher than about 15%, people are woefully ill-informed.

–WKW

# 2 Tim Champ said, on September 9th, 2006 at 6:16 am

Maybe it’s me – but if it were real censoring we wouldn’t hear it.

These people don’t understand real censoring – real censoring means people get killed, jailed or tortured and the information they try to get out is stamped out of existence.

Talk to a ex-pat from China or Russia about real censoring. Heck – take a look at current day China or Iran.

Quit calling wolf or people will soon not care.

# 3 Uncle Jim said, on September 9th, 2006 at 6:36 am

The nice thing about writing today is that there’s so little writing involved. Writers are looking for popularity, so they focus on things like marketing and promotion. Today a writer has to be a publisher as well. It’s not enough to be just a writer. Now the writer has to be a good editor as well as a writer and publisher. With RSS it’s simpler to publish. With Youtube you can have your own webvision version of the television news and you can podcast. Building a large base of viewers is difficult to do, much in the same way writing is difficult to do. It’s taken somebody like Dvorak a couple of decades to get to the level he is at. RSS, Youtube or podcasts can’t replace dedication, devotion and old fashioned stick toitness. I made that up. I write and that’s about it. I still like to set aside time to read. Most people who write seriously, like to write about what they are reading or dealing with. Find something nobody else is writing about and you have an exclusive.

# 4 William K. Wolfrum said, on September 9th, 2006 at 6:53 am

Also, I think the Mother Jones article is pre-9/11, so now, a group like Project Uncensored has renewed importance.

–WKW

# 5 Uncle Jim said, on September 9th, 2006 at 7:05 am

Writing fiction is a good way to bypass censorship. It’s just fictional after all. Fiction also sells well. Here’s a starter course. Experiment.

“Write a Novel is a form of open courseware: Learning materials placed online for free use by anyone who wishes to do so. At this point, it is an experiment; if it succeeds, Capilano College may create more such guides, along the lines pioneered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/novel/

A great resource!

# 6 Hal Jordan said, on September 9th, 2006 at 7:17 am

In this day and age, censorship is unnecessary because people badly want to live normal, fun lives undistracted by any sad news about how their government attains that illusion of normalcy.
The Soylent Green era is upon us after all. It’s business as usual folks, go back in line for yer bizkits, ye cannibals.

# 7 Uncle Jim said, on September 9th, 2006 at 7:41 am

Mixing fiction with news produces a new reality or a more interesting reality. I was reading about writers being paid by the government to write about what a stinker Castro is. Like that’s news or something. Now there are reporters writing about reporters who wrote stories that were fictional, as if the reality wasn’t enough to convince readers that Castro is a stinker. I wonder who Castro is paying to write stories about how great Cuba is, because of Castro of course. Cuba is underreported, overlooked or more likely ignored. I’ve never written about Cuba. I imagine Cuba censors what Cuban writers can write about Cuba. Cuban writers can come to the United States and get paid to write about why they left Cuba and it’s suddenly newsworthy, if you are interested in Cuba. I’m sure writers in Cuba are writing about how bad the United States is. The problem is that people aren’t fleeing Florida for Cuba. There’s a good story line. Cuba attracting more retirees with low cost of living, write in Cuba.

# 8 AB CD said, on September 9th, 2006 at 7:47 am

WorldNetDaily does it’s own list every year.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48392

# 9 Uncle Jim said, on September 9th, 2006 at 8:04 am

I remain convinced that the only hope for Cuba is golf. If we sent Tiger Woods to Cuba, we would have the whole place looking like Florida in no time at all. He’s got his own big ship to get there. It’s bigger than my house. Castro would be powerless against an invasion force of American golfers. You can stop a military, you can’t stop golf. Trying to stop it would be mission impossible. This story is being overlooked. Because of golf, Cuba could become our 51st state dedicated to the pursuit of life, liberty and good Scotch.

# 10 Mister Mustard said, on September 9th, 2006 at 9:14 am

>>WorldNetDaily does it’s own list every year.

Yeah, but look at the bullshit stories they cite. “Keeping Terry Schiavo Alive Would Have Been a Good Thing”, and “Successes in Iraq”.

Those stories were never “spiked”, they were just neocon talking points that no credible journalist would have wasted keystrokes on. Sheesh. Leave it to WorldHateDaily.

# 11 Steve Simpkin said, on September 9th, 2006 at 9:50 am

#9
Oh Man! I thought the tin-foil hat I was wearing would keep others from reading my mind! Damnit! Why are all my best ideas brought up by someone else before I can post them!

Steve

# 12 ECA said, on September 9th, 2006 at 10:01 am

Can we take all these words for Censorship and change it to,
“Underreported”

Its like when China invaded Tibet..
There was a big complaint on WHERE to put it in the paper…
It ended up on the Obit page 1 column, 2 paragraphs.

# 13 ECA said, on September 9th, 2006 at 10:25 am

http://www.newsdesk.org/news/

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=21206

http://www.un.org/events/tenstories/

http://www.sfbg.com/39/49/cover_censored.html

I canfind ALOT more..

# 14 Uncle Jim said, on September 9th, 2006 at 1:29 pm

Sorry for preempting you Steve. Actually this idea goes back to the Kennedy Administration. The President couldn’t convince the CIA that the intelligence community plan was doomed to fail, so they ended up stuck with the original miserable failure of military adventure called the Bay of Pigs. Fast forward four decades and the same thinkers came up with the Iraqi invasion plan. We are getting better at invasion, the occupation problem still lingers. If we occupied Cuba, kicked Castro out and turned the whole thing into vacation/golf mecca not too many people are going to bitch. The quality of life can’t get much worse in Cuba. Billions of dollars of investment would flow into Cuba and the good times would roll. The whole story is ignored, overlooked or whatever because the media is focused on the rock and hard spot in Iraq which is one giant sand trap!

# 15 Mike Novick said, on September 9th, 2006 at 1:51 pm

I looked through some of those WorldDaily lists and I wouldn’t call it a neo-con site, though it leans that way. More of a Christian nativist site. Complaining about the border as a conduit for terrorists, nuclear terrorism vulnerability, immigration, vulnerability of airports, bio-chip implants, Potential adverse impact to American citizens of the USA PATRIOT Act and other post-9/11 legislation and executive orders, and The impact of the Total Information Awareness program in the Office of Information Awareness in the Homeland Security Department, sounds like Dvorak Uncensored.

# 16 BryanP said, on September 10th, 2006 at 3:55 am

Hearing about something on DU doesn’t count. Anybody/Anything from there loses all credibility. They are to the left what freepers are to the right – complete fringe whackjobs who embody the worst stereotypes the rest of us have about Dems.

# 17 Uncle Jim said, on September 10th, 2006 at 5:57 am

DU counts because somebody has an investment in it and people take an interest in it, which is why it has credibility. DU may be many things, boring isn’t one of them.

# 18 ECA said, on September 10th, 2006 at 9:14 am

As I was told long ago.
Fix the little things and the BIG ones go away or they never happen.

Its like giving Aid to other nations.
HELP the Aid get to where its needed
Wonder the world and rebuild whole nations.
Bring the world into the future, DONT beat it into submission.
BUT, you also have to fix your own house before you can help others.

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