Project Censored: The Top 10 Big Stories The U.S. News Media Missed In The Past Year

[Hissyspit]

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=4452&volume_id=254&issue_id=313&volume_num=41&issue_num=49&l=1

Censored!
The top 10 big stories the US news media missed in the past year
BY AMANDA WITHERELL
Wednesday September 5, 2007



Illustration by Mirissa Neff

There are a handful of freedoms that have almost always been a part of American democracy. Even when they didn't exactly apply to everyone or weren't always protected by the people in charge, a few simple but significant rights have been patently clear in the Constitution: You can't be nabbed by the cops and tossed behind bars without a reason. If you are imprisoned, you can't be incarcerated indefinitely; you have the right to a speedy trial with a judge and jury. When that court date rolls around, you'll be able to see the evidence against you.

The president can't suspend elections, spy without warrants, or dispatch federal troops to trump local cops or quell protests. Nor can the commander in chief commence a witch hunt, deem individuals "enemy combatants," or shunt them into special tribunals outside the purview of our 218-year-old judicial system.

Until now. This year's Project Censored presents a chilling portrait of a newly empowered executive branch signing away civil liberties for the sake of an endless and amorphous war on terror. And for the most part, the major news media weren't paying attention.

"This year it seemed like civil rights just rose to the top," said Peter Phillips, the director of Project Censored, the annual media survey conducted by Sonoma State University researchers and students who spend the year patrolling obscure publications, national and international Web sites, and mainstream news outlets to compile the 25 most significant stories that were inadequately reported or essentially ignored.

While the project usually turns up a range of underreported issues, this year's stories all fall somewhat neatly into two categories — the increase of privatization and the decrease of human rights. Some of the stories qualify as both. "I think they indicate a very real concern about where our democracy is heading," writer and veteran judge Michael Parenti said.

For 31 years Project Censored has been compiling a list of the major stories that the nation's news media have ignored, misreported, or poorly covered.

1. GOOD-BYE, HABEAS CORPUS

The Military Commissions Act, passed in September 2006 as a last gasp of the Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by Bush that Oct. 17, made significant changes to the nation's judicial system.

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2. MARTIAL LAW: COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU

The Military Commissions Act was part of a one-two punch to civil liberties. While the first blow to habeas corpus received some attention, there was almost no media coverage of a private Oval Office ceremony held the same day the military act was signed at which Bush signed the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, a $532 billion catchall bill for defense spending.

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7. BLACKWATER

The outsourcing of war has served two purposes for the Bush administration, which has given powerful corporations and private companies lucrative contracts supplying goods and services to American military operations overseas and quietly achieved an escalation of troops beyond what the public has been told or understands. Without actually deploying more military forces, the federal government instead contracts with private security firms like Blackwater to provide heavily armed details for US diplomats in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries where the nation is currently engaged in conflicts.

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http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=4451

Project Censored: The runners up
15 more stories on the Project Censored list

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14. IMPUNITY FOR US WAR CRIMINALS

Source: "A Senate Mystery Keeps Torture Alive — and Its Practitioners Free," Jeff Stein, Congressional Quarterly, public.cq.com/public/20061122_homeland.html, Nov. 22, 2006

15. CHEMICALS DAMAGING DNA

Source: "Some Chemicals are More Harmful Than Anyone Ever Suspected," Peter Montague, Rachel's Democracy and Health News, no. 876, www.precaution.org/lib/06/ht061012.htm#Some_Chemicals_Are_More_Harmful_Than_Anyone_Ever_Suspected, Oct. 12, 2006

16. NO HARD EVIDENCE CONNECTING OSAMA BIN LADEN TO SEPT. 11

Source: "FBI Says, 'No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11," Paul V. Sheridan and Ed Haas, Ithaca Journal, June 29, 2006

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18. MEXICO'S STOLEN ELECTION

Sources: "Mexico's Partial Vote Recount Confirms Massive and Systematic Election Fraud," Al Giordano, Narco News Bulletin, www.narconews.com/Issue42/article2010.html, Aug. 14, 2006; "Welcome to the Nightmare: Al Qaeda de Mexico?" John Ross, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org/ross09132006.html, Aug. 13, 2006; "Evidence of Election Fraud Grows in México," Chuck Collins and Joshua Holland, AlterNet, http://www.alternet.org/story/39763, Aug. 2, 2006

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[Syrinx]

1. rec

[Benhurst]

2. Recommended #3

:bounce: :kick:

[Richard Steele]

3. Before I was a DUer, Project Censored was useful to me. (surprising too, often)

Thanks to DU, Project C hasn't held any surprises
for me for quite some time.

Recommended

[AnneD]

4. Great article...

DU folks for the most part are aware of these stories-Sadly, most other folks can only tell you a few names for the white girls and women that were abducted and/or murdered.

[redqueen]

5. Not "missed"... deliberately ignored / helped hide from public scrutiny. n/t

[LanternWaste]

6. (I'm a bad boy today...)

Nothing about showing receipts at big-box retailers?


:hide:

(I'm a bad boy today...)

[RainDog]

7. k&r

they do a great service to the American people. I wish I had every year of these books because it would be interesting to look back on the stories and see what happened to them...most surely feel down the memory hole, but I hope some were later re-investigated and led to some justice.

[Richard Steele]

8. A kick for Monday evening. nm