“Project Censored” List: Top 25 Most Censored News Stories of the Year
By Patricia Burke of Safe Tech International
About the Project Censored Top 25 List
“Published each year by Seven Stories Press, featuring dispatches from the ongoing revolution in independent journalism, each book reports the year’s top-25 independent news stories, which corporate media have ignored, misrepresented, or censored; analyzes corporate “junk food” news and “news abuse;” highlights organizations that exemplify media democracy in action; and investigates hot topics in journalism and politics.” – Source
The presentation of the Top 25 stories of 2021-2022 extends the tradition originated by Professor Carl Jensen and his Sonoma State University students in 1976, while reflecting how the expansion of the Project to include affiliate faculty and students from campuses across North America has made the Project even more diverse and robust. The Top 25 stories of 2021-2022 have been selected from several hundred candidate stories submitted by 207 student researchers from ten US college and university campuses. – Source
About Project Censored
“Project Censored educates students and the public about the importance of a truly free press for democratic self-government. We expose and oppose news censorship and we promote independent investigative journalism, media literacy, and critical thinking. Through our website, weekly radio program, annual book, and other programs, we provide this service to the United States, Canada, UK, and the world.
2021-2022 Theme: Billionaire’s Press
Writing for the Santa Fe reporter, “Project Censored, The billionaires’ press dominates censorship beat” Paul Rosenberg explained “Since its founding in 1976, Project Censored has been focused on stories—like Watergate before the 1972 election—that aren’t censored in the authoritarian government sense, but in a broader, expanded sense reflective of what a functioning democracy should be, censorship defined as “the suppression of information, whether purposeful or not, by any method—including bias, omission, underreporting, or self-censorship—that prevents the public from fully knowing what is happening in society.” It is, after all, the reason that journalism enjoys special protection in the First Amendment: Without the free flow of vital information, government based on the consent of the governed is but an illusory dream.”
“Yet, from the very beginning, as A.J. Liebling put it, ‘Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.’”
“In their introduction to Project Censored’s annual State of the Free Press, [ ] Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth [ ] observe, “History shows that consolidated media, controlled by a handful of elite owners, seldom serves the public interest.”
“Despite the promise of boundless access to information, Silicon Valley mirrors legacy media in its consolidated ownership and privileging of elite narratives. This new class of billionaire oligarchs owns or controls the most popular media platforms, including the companies often referred to as the FAANGs—Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet)”.
While a number of media outlets have covered the “Top 10” portion of the list, Project Censored compiled a longer list of 25 stories.
#1 Fossil Fuel Industry Subsidized at Rate of $11 Million per Minute
#2 Wage Theft: US Businesses Suffer Few Consequences for Stealing Millions from Workers Every Ye
#3 EPA Withheld Reports on Dangerous Chemicals
#4 At Least 128 Members of Congress Invested in Fossil Fuel Industry
#5 Dark Money Interference in US Politics Undermines Democracy
#6 Corporate Consolidation Causing Record Inflation in Food Prices
#7 Concerns for Journalistic Independence as Gates Foundation Gives $319 Million to News Outlets
#8 CIA Discussed Plans to Kidnap or Kill Julian Assange
#9 New Laws Preventing Dark Money Disclosures Sweep the Nation
#10 Major Media Outlets Lobby Against Regulation of “Surveillance Advertising”
#11 Wealthy Nations Continue to Drive Climate Change with Devastating Impacts on Poorer Countries
#12 Facebook’s Blacklist of “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations” Stifles Public Debate
#13 “Smart Ocean” Technology Endangers Whales and Intensifies Climate Change
#14 Repression of Palestinian Media
#15 EARN IT Act Threatens Online Freedom of Expression Under Guise of Policing Child Pornography
#16 Dark Money Fuels Transphobic Opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and Equality Act
#17 Former Neo-Nazi Leader Now Holds DOJ Domestic Counterterrorism Position
#18 The Human Mind as “New Domain of War”: NATO Plans for Cognitive Warfare
#20 States Hoard Federal Assistance Funding Amidst Record Poverty Levels
#21 School-Issued Technology Poses Surveillance Risks for Students
#22 US Transportation System “Fuels” Inequality
#23 Federal Safety Agency Underreports Deaths of Offshore Oil and Gas Workers
#24 Indigenous Communities Using Data Sovereignty to Address Food Insecurity
#25 Injustice for Incarcerated Women in Maryland after State Defunds Prerelease Facility
War
There are numerous ways of categorizing themes for the 25 news stories.
Two topics directly address the war industry: #13 “Smart Ocean” Technology Endangers Whales and Intensifies Climate Change and #18 The Human Mind as “New Domain of War”: NATO Plans for Cognitive Warfare.
(In a remarkable demonstration of censorship in action, many of the links regarding NATO and cognitive warfare for Innovation Hub are already dead.)
#13 “Smart Ocean” Technology Endangers Whales and Intensifies Climate Change
Although not everyone embraces operating narratives regarding carbon and climate change, humanity’s assault on the ocean environments and waters of the planet is undeniable. SafeTech International and Natural Blaze began reporting about the Internet of Underwater Things around the time of the 2021 Winter Solstice. See more here.
Koohan Paik-Mander‘s “Whales Will Save the World’s Climate—Unless the Military Destroys Them First,” BuzzFlash (via the Independent Media Institute’s Local Peace Economy project), December 13, 2021″ is number 13 on this year’s Project Censored’s List.
“Joint military and industry efforts to develop new ocean technologies and infrastructure—which engineers and advocates call the “smart ocean”—will have lethal consequences for whales, significantly undermining their “indispensable role” in sequestering carbon and mitigating climate catastrophe, Koohan Paik-Mander reported in December 2021” [ ]
Whales “enable oceans to sequester a whopping 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year,” Paik-Mander wrote. But “year-round, full-spectrum military practices” undertaken by the US Department of Defense have “fast-tracked us toward a cataclysmic environmental tipping point.” [ ]
The “smart ocean” envisioned by engineers and in the process of being weaponized by the US military depends on sonar, which can be lethal for whales. A March 2022 report in Science found that sonar triggers “the same fear response” in many whale species as calls emitted by killer whales, “their most terrifying predators.” In attempts to escape the perceived threat, many whales stop feeding, flee for their lives, or strand themselves in groups on beaches. [ ]
The developing “Internet of Underwater Things” will dramatically expand the scope of sonar use. Until now, sonar has been used primarily for military purposes, but data networks using sonar and laser transmitters will “saturate the ocean with sonar waves” to enhance civilian and military communications, according to Paik-Mander. The Department of Defense’s Joint All Domain Command and Control system will interface with this sonar data network to connect aircraft, ships, and submarines in service of “satellite-controlled war,” Paik-Mander wrote. The Pentagon has already sought bids from companies including Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, and Google to manage the program’s data storage cloud”.” – Koohan Paik-Mander,
Koohan is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
Also Not Reported in the Corporate-Owned News: Other Species Also Being Harmed by Manmade Frequencies
Another unspoken aspect to suppression in news reporting; other species are also experiencing adverse biological responses to manmade, unnatural frequencies, including humans.
Billionaire Monopoly
Social media is now in the news regarding Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
Given the power of the FAANG cartel [Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet)], it’s no wonder that the Tesla exec wants to control his own uncensored soapbox.
He is well connected to dual use technology applications through Neuralink and through his contracts with the military. “SpaceX goes full defense contractor with national security-focused Starshield”
Although the justification for Neuralink is that it will assist disabled individuals, for the militarized mindset, technology capable of altering brain function has tremendous appeal, as noted on #13 by Project Censored: #18 The Human Mind as “New Domain of War”: NATO Plans for Cognitive Warfare.
“The objectives of cognitive warfare are “to make everyone a weapon” and “to harm societies,” rather than simply targeting an enemy’s armed forces. Furthermore, cognitive warfare is “potentially endless since there can be no peace treaty or surrender for this type of conflict.” For these reasons, “the human mind is now being considered as a new domain of war.”
Yet Neuralink is apparently under investigation for over animal welfare issues., including deaths of experimental animals.
Regarding the militarization of space, according to Tech Crunch, “SpaceX’s launch services have already become an invaluable resource for the U.S. government, but the company is now jumping into the deep end of the pool it had heretofore only splashed around in. Starshield, a new vertical within SpaceX, will provide “government entities” (think three-letter agencies) with secure communications and bespoke satellite designs. “this move helps separate government work from consumer work.” “grafting a military/aid operation onto a consumer product has led to unforeseen consequences.”
Humanity’s Response: Consciousness and Community
One of the unforeseen consequences of Musk’s and other’s mixing company with the military and wrecking the planet is the reality that a growing portion of the population does not support war, or exploitative dual-use technologies. This includes products promoted under the guise of educational, social, safety, communications, and environmental “sustainability” uses, when they are actually being implemented for surveillance, dominance, and control objectives.
Many platforms have been launched in response to the insidious censorship created by tech giants working in tandem with economic power brokers, who are now one and the same.
New communities are thriving, independent of caged narratives, some live, some virtual.
The World Council for Health is one example of a progressive, inclusive, evolutionary community discussing censored topics.
Communities are cultivating skillsets that focus not only on desired results and outcomes, but also evaluating “how to get there.”
Tools including meditation, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and methods for improving conscious communication and problem solving are being incorporated into collaborative efforts.
Countless groups have begun to recognize that “tech won’t save us” and are envisioning how to create the future that we want, instead of simply opposing what is not wanted. From Zack Bush and the Farmers’ Footprint, regenerative agriculture, organic consumers and slow food, to health care, energy policy, and education“ a shift in consciousness is reflecting the need to create goodness, truth, and beauty, here and now.
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree” – Martin Luther King
