Examining the nature of censorship in an era of global information

Sonoma State University
Fall 2008 – alternate Thursdays
(Aug 28, Sep 11 & 25, Oct 9 & 23, Nov 6 & 20, Dec 4)
Lectures begin at 7 PM
Darwin 103
(Unfamiliar with the campus? Click and print this map)

Tickets per lecture: $5 PREPAID (up to 24 hours before the event)
$10 AT THE DOOR

Free for currently enrolled SSU students

Project Censored and Sonoma State University present a series of lectures that look at the nature of information distribution in the United States by examining the important stories that fell through the cracks of our daily news.

SPEAKERS

Thursday, August 28, 2008

“Can it be called Censorship?” an introduction by Mickey Huff
“Diversity and Orthodoxy in the News Media” a conversation with Michael Parenti

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Constance Fogal – Foreign Policy Specialist
“North American Union: The SPP is a ‘hostile takeover’ of democratic government and an end to the Rule of Law” (Global Research Institute)

Stephen Lendman – Talk Radio Host, Global Research News Hour
“The Militarization and Annexation of North America” (Global Research Institute)

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Joshua Holland – Freelance Journalist
“Iraq death toll rivals Rwanda genocide, Cambodian killing fields” (Alternet)

Marcy Wheeler – Freelance Journalist
“Down The Rabbit Hole (When it comes to surveillance and the treatment of classified information, President Bush is making up the rules as he goes along)” (The Guardian UK)

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Lindsay Beyerstein – Freelance Journalist
“Examining the Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act” (In These Times)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Mary Bauer – Research Director, Southern Poverty Law Center
“Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States” (co-written with Sarah Reynolds) (Southern Poverty Law Center)

Felicia Mello – Freelance Journalist
“Coming to America” (Rangel calls H-2 visa programs “the closest thing I’ve ever seen to slavery”) (The Nation)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Michael Schwartz – Professor of Global Studies, University of New York at Stony Brook
“Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?” (Alternet)

Wes Enzinna—Freelance journalist, NACLA Report on the Americas
“Another SOA?: A Police Academy in El Salvador Worries Critics”

** Bonus Lecture **

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Dahr Jamail – Freelance Journalist
“Iraq: Not Our Country to Return to” and “Occupation Strangles Farmers” (Inter Press Service)

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Jacob Wheeler – Freelance Journalist
“El Salvador’s Patriot Act” (In These Times)

Ben Dangl – Freelance Journalist and Founder, Upside Down World
“ILEA:  US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America” (AlterNet)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Matthew Rothschild – Freelance Journalist and Editor, Progressive magazine
“Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business (the Infragard alliance)” and “Bush’s Executive Order on Lebanon Even Worse than the One on Iraq” (the Progressive)

** Bonus Lecture **
Friday March 13, 2009

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Antonia Juhasz – Foreign Policy Analyst
On “The Tyranny of Oil”

DESCRIPTION
In the fall semester, 2008, Project Censored and Sonoma State University hosts a biweekly series of lectures to examine the nature of information distribution in the United States and to consider the potential for censorship in the most powerful media system that has ever existed. The lecture series will provide a forum for some of the best investigative journalists in our country today, allowing them to give an “insider’s perspective” on the hard-hitting news reports that fell through the cracks of the corporate mass media.

There is a growing consensus among long-time journalists and media observers that the system of news distribution in the United States has become flawed to the point of crisis. The current state of “information overload” creates the potential for a new kind of censorship where information isn’t denied, but it is distorted with regard to “importance” and “relevance.” Commonly, stories with little impact are broadcast eagerly and repeatedly while events that will have deep and long-lasting consequences are relegated to the back page and a single, fifteen-second blurb.

While many brave, committed reporters continue to struggle within the mass media news organizations that exist today, some of the most accomplished journalists of our era have rejected the current system and are instead working within respected independent “alternative” press outlets not afraid to speak their mind. Tired of the self-censorship and second-guessing inherent in American newsrooms—these reporters have decided to tell the truth, as it presents itself, not according to what government officials and corporate owners find acceptable.

This one-of-a-kind lecture series is aimed, not at “blaming the media,” but at taking the time to examine the dysfunctions that plague the current system.

The goal of these lectures is to delve deeply into the common media systems; to expand and deepen the conversation about news prioritization, self-censorship, pressure from advertisers, and the role of influential players.

The lectures ask:
How are important events covered by the major media outlets?
Are there stories or subjects that are consistently left out?
Do mainstream media outlets have a “liberal” or “conservative” bias?
Do distortions in the current system rise to the level of censorship?

This lecture series fulfills Sonoma State University course SOCI 497.1
hosted by Professor Mickey Huff, Associate Director, Project Censored
707-664-3373, [email protected]

Season ticket: $75 (includes all 8 regularly lectures)

To help support or sponsor this one-of-a-kind lecture series, please call 707-664-3160, or email [email protected]