Analysis of Project Censored: Are We a Left-Leaning, Conspiracy-Oriented Organization?
June 17, 2009 by Adam Armstrong
Filed under Lifestyle, Politics
By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff
Critical thinking and fact finding are not left leaning, they are the basis of democracy, and we proudly stand for the maximization of informed participatory democracy at the lowest possible level in society. To this end, Project Censored supports social justice and media democracy in action.
The most common complaint about Project Censored is that we are more critical of powerful Republicans and conservatives than Democrats and liberals. The second most often announced complaint that that we cover news stories that are really not "censored" or are part of some crazy conspiracy theory.
In regards to censorship our definition has been quite clear all along. Any interference with the free flow of information is censorship. Even if the interference is structural or not deliberate, it has the same impact by creating a lack of public awareness on critical issues. This means that when The New York Times chooses to cover the updates on celebrity deaths, marriages, or divorces, and ignores the ACLU's release of military autopsy reports proving that the US was torturing prisoners to death in Iraq and Afghanistan (Censored Story #7, 2007), that is censorship. It is censorship even if most of The New York Times journalist didn't know about the ACLU report, they certainly should have--It was an AP release! The ACLU report was only covered in a dozen or so newspapers (not the NYT) and went widely unnoticed. For a story this important to go virtually unreported implies a degree of overt censorship.
Further, if journalists ignore topics related to 9/11, election fraud, electromagnetic weapons, contrail irregularities, because they might be labeled "conspiracy theorists," that is censorship as well. Any decision to cover up, ignore, avoid, steer away from, or simply fail to investigate--even if the investigation is not fruitful-- is censorship because it implies a willful choice to not cover a particular story. Ignoring important news stories for whatever reasons is not commensurate with principles of a free press.
Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracies tend to be actions by small groups of individuals instead of massive collective plots by governments and corporations. However, small groups can be dangerous, especially when the individuals have significant power in huge public and private bureaucracies. However it is very unlikely that conspiracies can be interlinked in a macro way bridging the gaps between dozens of corporations and government bureaucracies. There are just too many connections for possible leaks and exposures.
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