Project Censored - Articles

WALTER CRONKITE: THE END OF AN ERA – JULY 17, 2009

2009-07-20T18:35:01-08:00

WALTER CRONKITE: THE END OF AN ERA – JULY 17, 2009

The end of an era is a term too often over-used.

But it is a term that is properly used when discussing the passing of Walter Cronkite. It is truly the end of an era in journalism.

No other journalist could do what Walter did.

He could calm a nation troubled by the assassination of its president.

He could warn the nation, and its president, of the quagmire in Vietnam.

He could rally the nation to do its best as seen with the space program.

And now the nation rightfully mourns his passing.

Among his many achievements, Walter was a good friend of Project Censored.

He once said, “Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.”

And he wrote the provocative introduction, “Let the Chips Fall Where They May,” for Project Censored’s 1996 Censored Yearbook.

He deserved the honor of being known as “The most trusted man in America.”

For that’s the way it was.

You Can Now Find Our Investigative Research at the New Media Freedom Website

2009-07-16T04:21:00-08:00

You can now find all of the investigative research that we have done over the years at our new and exciting Media Freedom International Website or click this image:

Please check the website often for news and updates.

Infotainment Society: Junk Food News and News Abuse for 2008/2009

2009-06-17T19:17:00-08:00

By Mickey Huff and Frances A. Capell

The late New York University media scholar Neil Postman once said about America, “We are the best entertained least informed society in the world.” Since the mid 1980’s, Project Censored has examined this phenomenon in the culture of the 24/7-television news cycle. Looking beyond what the corporate news media undercover or ignore, Project Censored surveys what they do spend precious airtime and column inches on while not covering the top censored stories or others in the public interest. Which news stories have been found consistently by such surveys in this so-called information age? “Junk Food News,” said Project Censored founder Dr. Carl Jensen. “It’s like a Twinkie, not very nourishing for the consumer.” This is how Jensen described it back in 1984 when he first began looking at how tabloid sensationalism had inundated the nightly news with the “Where’s the Beef” campaign. Jensen still considers Junk Food News a major problem in journalism and corporate media, particularly on today’s cable and television news. In that tradition, Project Censored “celebrates” the 25th anniversary of Junk Food News this year… Please continue reading this article here: Junk_Food_News.pdf

A Black President Doesn’t Mean Racism is gone in America

2009-05-29T02:05:00-08:00

By Peter Phillips
Racial inequality remains in the US. People of color continue to experience high rates of poverty, significant unemployment, police profiling and repressive incarceration. School segregation is a continuing concern among race scholars as well.
According to a new Civil Rights report published at UCLA, “Reviving the Goal of an Integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge,” by Gary Orfield, schools in the US are currently 44% non-white, and minorities are rapidly emerging as the majority of public school students. Latinos and Blacks are the two largest minority groups. However, Black and Latino students attend schools more segregated today than during the civil rights era. Schools are still separate and not equal more than fifty years after the US Supreme Court case: Brown VS Board of Education. Orfield’s study shows that most severe segregation in public schools is in the Western states, including California, not in the south as many people believe.
This new form of segregation is primarily based on how urban areas are geographically organized—as Cornel West so passionately describes— into vanilla suburbs and chocolate cities.
Schools remain highly unequal, both in terms of money, and qualified teachers and curriculum. Unequal education leads to a diminished access to colleges and future jobs. Non-white schools are segregated by poverty as well as race. These “chocolate” low-income public schools are where most of the nation’s drop-outs occur, leading to large numbers of virtually unemployable young people of color struggling to survive in a very troubled economy.
There is a white people’s side of segregation as well. Diminished opportunity for students of color invariable creates greater privileges for whites. White privilege is a concept that is overtly difficult for many whites to accept. Whites like to think of themselves as hard working and whatever they achieve is due to deserved personal efforts. In many cases this is in fact partly true, hard work in college often pays off in many ways. What is difficult for many whites to accept is that geographical/structural racism still serves as a significant barrier for many students of color. Whites often say racism is in the past, and we need not think about it today. Yet, inequality stares at us daily from the barrios, ghettos, and from behind prisons walls. Inequality continues in privileged universities as well.
An example of white privilege is how Sonoma State University in California (SSU) has recently achieved the status of having the whitest and likely the richest student population of any public university in the State of California. Research shows, that beginning in the early 1990s, the SSU administration specifically sought to market the campus as a public ivy institution—offering an ivy-league experience at a State College price. Part of this public ivy packaging was to advertise SSU as being in a destination wine country location with high physical and cultural amenities. These marketing efforts were principally designed to attract upper-income students to a Falcon Crest like campus.
To achieve the desired outcome of becoming a wine-country public ivy SSU administration implemented a special admissions screening process that used higher SAT-GPA indexes than the rest of the California State University (CSU) system. According to Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres in The Miner’s Canary, high SAT scores correlate directly to both race and income with little relationship to actual success in college.
SSU also conducted recruitment at predominately white upper-income public and private high schools throughout the West Coast and Hawaii. The result was that SSU freshmen students with family incomes over $150,000 increased by 59 percent since 1994 and freshmen students from families below $50,000 declined by 21 percent (2007 dollars). The campus remained over three-quarters white during this fifteen-year period, while the rest of the CSU campuses significantly increased ethnic diversity.
We are at a time in society when a majority of the population has elected a Black president of the United States. This presidency is a hugely symbolic achievement for race relations in the US. We must not, however, ignore the continuing disadvantages for people of color and the resulting advantages gained by whites in our society. Institutional policies and segregation contribute to continuing inequalities that require ongoing review and discussion. Efforts against racism must continue if we are to truly attain the civil rights goal of equal opportunity for all.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University. His recent research study Building a Public Ivy: Sonoma State University: 1994-2007, is on line at: http://www.projectcensored.org/articles/story/building-a-public-ivy/

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2009-04-29T19:19:00-08:00

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Building a Public Ivy

2009-03-17T01:02:00-08:00

1994-2007: A Study of Student Racial Diversity and Family Income at SSU Compared to Other California State Universities

Abstract

Building a Public Ivy
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Sonoma State University

1994-2007

A Study of Student Racial Diversity and Family Income at SSU Compared to Other California State Universities

By Peter Phillips

Research by Nelson Calderon, Sarah Maddox, Carmela Rocha

And

The Spring 2008 Investigative Sociology Class at Sonoma State University:
Ashley Aldern, Reham Ariqat, Elizabeth Bourne, Nate Bradley, Niki Brunkhurst,
Meredith Carey, Lea Carre, Kimberly Copperberg, Erica Elkington, Erin Garnett,
Keri Kirby, Tara Loch, Lisa McKee, Particia Ochoa, Phillip Parfitt,
Kelsey Percich, Nina Reynoso, Juana Som, Miasha Terry, Ruby Virelas,
Nicholas Vos, Daniel Wyatt

Funding for this Study came from California Faculty Association (CFA) SSU Chapter, CFA State Affirmative Action Council, and SSU Center for Community Engagement

SSU Professor Rick Luttmann Provided Math Consultation

Abstract

Sonoma State University (SSU) has recently achieved the status of having the whitest student population of any public university in the State of California. In addition, SSU has the wealthiest freshmen of most, if not all, four-year public universities in California. Research shows, that beginning in the early 1990s, the SSU administration specifically sought to market SSU as a public ivy institution—offering an ivy-league experience at a state college price. Part of this public ivy packaging was to advertise SSU as being in a destination wine country location with high physical and cultural amenities. These marketing efforts were principally designed to attract upper-income students to Sonoma County.
Motivation for these changes was to turn SSU into a residential campus, increase the SSU donor base, and improve time-to-degree efficiency— all measures of success encouraged by the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees and the CSU state-level administration.
To achieve the desired outcome of becoming a wine-country public ivy the SSU administration implemented a dual program, that included a special admissions screening arrangement using higher SAT-GPA indexes then the rest of the CSU system, and recruitment at predominately white upper-income public and private high schools throughout the West Coast and Hawaii.
The resulting lack of diversity and the allocation of resources away from the instructional mission of the University contributed to 74 percent of the SSU faculty voting no confidence in the President in 2007.
A survey of students of color at SSU describes continuing incidents of racial discrimination and generally less racial comfort on campus compared to students of color at the two closest CSU universities.

Read the entire study here: DiversityStudyPhillips.pdf

Deconstructing Deceit: 9/11, The Media, and Myth Information

2009-03-05T01:05:00-08:00

Deconstructing Deceit: 9/11, The Media, and Myth Information
By: Mickey S. Huff and Dr. Paul W. Rea, with online revision research assistance from Project Censored intern Frances Capell

This investigative report concerns itself with the ongoing phenomena of media myth making and the events of September 11th, 2001. Corporate mainstream media have resurrected powerful myths from America’s past to shape public perception in the present. Through the prism of 9/11 as case study, one can see how the corporate mass media are in fact doing more myth making than news reporting, which amounts to a form of censorship. Here, Professors Huff and Rea examine central historic American myths the corporate media and even much of the alternative independent media have extended into the post-9/11 era especially about the events of 9/11 themselves. This analysis looks at how media mythmaking surrounding the events of 9/11, exploiting the strong emotions these events aroused, has prevented a dispassionate inquiry of its causes or of those responsible.

Read the complete article here DeconstructingDeceitOnlineEd.pdf