Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2022

by Andy Lee Roth (Editor), Mickey Huff (Editor)

Overview

As the United States grapples with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s living legacy of systemic racism, and partisan threats to the foundations of democracy, the integrity of news and Project Censored's survey of underreported news stories has never been more important.

This 2022 edition of Project Censored's State of the Free Press offers a comprehensive survey of the most important but underreported news stories of 2021 and  a comparative analysis of the current state of corporate and independent news media, and its effect on democracy.

The establishment media sustains a decrepit post-truth era, as examined the lowlight features: "Junk Food News"-frivolous stories that distract the public from actual news-and-"News Abuse"-important stories covered in ways that undermine public understanding. The alternative media provokes a burgeoning critical media literacy age, as evaluated in the highlight feature: "Media Democracy in Action"-relevant stories responsibly reported on by independent organizations.

Finally, in an homage to the history of the annual report, the editors reinstate the "Déjà vu News" feature-revisited stories from previous editions. State of the Free Press 2022 endows readers with the critical thinking and media literacy skills required to hold the corporate media to account for distorting or censoring news coverage, and thus, to revitalize our democracy.

State of the Free Press 2022 is a joint production of The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644211182
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	752,140
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

ANDY LEE ROTH is the associate director of Project Censored. He has coedited four previous editions of Project Censored’s yearbook, in addition to contributing chapters on Iceland and the commons (Censored 2014), the Military Commissions Act (Censored 2009) and news photographs depicting the human cost of war (Censored 2008). His research on topics ranging from ritual to broadcast news interviews and communities organizing for parklands has also appeared in journals including the International Journal of Press/Politics;Social Studies of Science; Media, Culture & Society; City & Community; and Sociological Theory. He reviews books for YES! Magazine. He earned a PhD in Sociology at the University of California–Los Angeles and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology at Haverford College. As of fall 2014, he teaches sociology at Pomona College and serves on the boards of the Media Freedom Foundation and the Claremont Wildlands Conservancy.

MICKEY HUFF is director of Project Censored and serves on the board of the Media Freedom Foundation. To date, he has edited or coedited six volumes of Censored and contributed numerous chapters to these works dating back to 2008. Additionally, he has coauthored several chapters on media and propaganda for other scholarly publications, most recently Flashpoint in Ukraine from Clarity Press (2014). He is currently professor of social science and history at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is cochair of the history department. Huff is cohost with former Project Censored director Dr. Peter Phillips of The Project Censored Show, the weekly syndicated public affairs program that originates from KPFA Pacifica Radio in Berkeley CA. For the past several years, Huff has worked on the national planning committee of Banned Books Week, working with the American Library Association and the National Coalition Against Censorship, of which Project Censored is a member. He is also a longtime musician and composer. He lives with his family in Northern California.

Table of Contents

Foreword Danielle McLean xiii

Introduction: A Return to News Normalcy? Mickey Huff Andy Lee Roth 1

Chapter 1 The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2020-21

Compiled and edited Steve Macek Analisa Chudzik Andy Lee Roth 21

Note on Research and Evaluation of Censored News Stories 30

1 Prescription Drug Costs Set to Become a Leading Cause of Death for Elderly Americans 33

2 Journalists Investigating Financial Crimes Threatened by Global Elites 37

3 Historic Wave of Wildcat Strikes for Workers' Rights 42

4 "Climate Debtor" Nations Have "Colonized" the Atmosphere 46

5 Microplastics and Toxic Chemicals Increasingly Prevalent in World's Oceans 49

6 Canary Mission Blacklists Pro-Palestinian Activists, Chilling Free Speech Rights 54

7 Google's Union-Busting Methods Revealed 58

8 Pfizer Bullies South American Governments over COVID-I9 Vaccine 62

9 Police Use Dogs as Instruments of Violence, Targeting People of Color 66

10 Activists Call Out Legacy of Racism and Sexism in Forced Sterilization 69

11 Seed Sovereignty Movements Challenge Corporate Monopolies 74

12 Grave Threats to Amazon Rainforest from Domestic Industries and Global Capital 78

13 Corporate Media Sideline Health Experts during Pandemic 81

14 US Factory Farming a Breeding Ground for Next Pandemic 83

15 Thousands of 5G Satellites Pose Risk of Future Space Wars 87

16 Femicide Census Connects UK Killings with Global Wave of Violence against Women 90

17 New Wave of Independent News Sources Demonetized by Google-Owned YouTube 93

18 "Collision of Crises" for Black and Brown Survivors of Sexual Violence during COVID-19 96

19 European Demand for Biomass Energy Propels Destruction of US Forests 98

20 Proposed Domestic Terrorism Legislation Imperils Civil Liberties 102

21 Conservative Christian Groups Spend Globally to Promote Anti-LGBTQ Campaigns 104

22 Dataminr Introduces Racial Bias, Stereotypes in Policing of Social Media 107

23 Coastal Darkening Threatens Ocean Food Chains 110

24 Juvenile Justice Reform Remains Elusive 112

25 Abusers Benefiting from International Anti-Abduction Treaty 114

Chapter 2 Déjà Vu News: What Happened to Previous Censored Stories Shealeigh Void Griffin Curran Rachael Schwanebeck Steve Macek 127

Chapter 3 TikToking Our Return to a New Normalcy: Shrinking Attention Spans, Pervasive Inanities, and the Persistence of Humilitainment-Junk Food News (2020-2021 Pandemic Edition) Jen Lyons Sierra Kaul Marcelle Levine Swinburne Vikki Vasquez Gavin Kelley Mickey Huff 159

Chapter 4 False Balance in Media Coverage Undermines Democracy: News Abuse in 2020-2021 Robin Andersen 193

Chapter 5 Media Democracy in Action with contributions Michelle Rodino-Colocino Brian Dolber (The Gig Economy) John K. Wilson (Academe Blog) Michael Gordon (The Propwatch Project) Sonali Kolhatkar (Rising Up with Sonali) Rachael Jolley (Center for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield) Alison Trope DJ Johnson (Critical Media Project); edited and introduced Andy Lee Roth 229

Acknowledgments 261

How to Support Project Censored 273

About the Editors 274

Index 275