Friday, September 12, 2003

-Top 25 Censored (and/or Under-reported) Stroies of 2002-2003

While many of the stories below are particularly relevant to the United States, where the authors and judges are generally based, most should be of concern to all of us.  How many in Japan have read these stories?  And yet when debate takes place on U.S. forces being based in Japan, or on Japan aiding the U.S. in Iraq, it takes place in a narrow frame of what the Constitution allows or should allow, or making an international contribution, noise, crime, etc. 
For example, the Japan Times (whose publisher, Ogasawara, and one of its editors, Glasserman, are on the CIA-founded CSIS) published a whitewash of the U.S. military in Okinawa the other day, claiming they commit fewer crimes than the average Okinawan, completely bypassing the issues of imperialism and terror BY the U.S. against much of the world.

No-one mentions the fact that the U.S. is by its own definition, a “rogue state,” a “terrorist state.  If Japan continues aiding and abetting the U.S., it will also be a terrorist state.  That is what is important to recognize when contemplating the significance of the stories below.

Read the top 25 stories here or [http://www.projectcensored.org/store/storeitems.html] order the book.[/url]
(You should print the order form out and add the book by hand as it seems they have not added the latest version 2004 to the form.) This year’s book includes an introduction by Amy Goodman, Co-host of the national radio news show Democracy Now!. Censored 2004 is a comprehensive analysis of the dangers of media consolidation in the United States and full review of the most important issues involving freedom on information for the American public.

In addition to the 25 Most Censored News Stories for 2002-3 the Censored 2004 includes updates regarding last year’s Most Censored Stories, a review of the Junk Food News and News Abuse stories of the year, an analysis of the Big Five Media Giants by Mark Crispen Miller, and guest chapters on national media issues by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, (FAIR), PR Watch, and the International Index on Censorship. Commentaries on key media issues are included by Robin Andersen, Peter Phillips, Michael Parenti, Normon Soloman, Davey D, Herb Forestel, Nancy Kranich, Tom Lough, and Kenichi Asano.

The stories are:

#1: The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
#2: Homeland Security?
#3: US Removes Pages from Iraq Report
#4: Rumsfeld’s Plan to Provoke Terrorists
#5: The Effort to Make Unions Extinct
#6: Closing Access to Information Technology
#7: Treaty Busting by the United States
#8: US/British forces knowingly use illegal depleted uranium weapons in Gulf War
#9: Where’s Afghanistan?
#10: Africa Faces New Threat of Colonialism
#11: U.S. Implicated in Taliban Massacre
#12: Corporate Speech and Corporate Personhood
#13: US Military’s War on the Earth
#14: Unwanted Refugees
#15: Venezuela: Bush Administration Behind Failed Military Coup
#16: Plan Puebla-Panama and the FTAA
#17: Clear Channel Monopoly Draws Criticism
#18: Charter Forest Proposal
#19: U.S. Dollar vs. the Euro
#20: For-Profit Military
#21: IMF & World Bank Austerity Policies Come to the US
#22: Welfare Reform Up For Reauthorization and Still No Safety Net
#23: Argentina Crisis Sparks Cooperative Growth
#24: Aid to Israel Fuels Occupation
#25: Convicted Corporations Receive Perks Instead of Punishment

Read the top 25 stories here or [http://www.projectcensored.org/store/storeitems.html] order the book.[/url]