Censored 2014

by Mickey Huff

  28. See, for example, Censored story #7, “2012: The International Year of Cooperatives,” Censored 2013, 62, 79–80; and the spring 2013 issue of YES! Magazine, with the theme “How Cooperatives Are Driving the New Economy.”

  29. For additional recent examples of the democratic impulse in action, see the Censored News Cluster on “Iceland, the Power of Peaceful Revolution, and the Commons,” in ch. 1 of this volume.

  Introduction

  Andy Lee Roth and Mickey Huff

  FEARLESS SPEECH: CRITICAL AND AFFIRMATIVE

  Thirty years ago, in October and November 1983, the French philosopher Michel Foucault gave a series of lectures at the University of California-Berkeley. No doubt aware of the campus having been the locus of the 1964–65 free speech movement, Foucault chose to focus his Berkeley lectures on the origins of our contemporary understanding of “free speech.”1

  Tracing the history of this idea back to fifth century BCE Athens, Foucault explained how the Greek term parrhesia—conventionally translated into English as “free speech”—literally meant, “to say everything.” As such it could carry either a negative meaning—as in “chattering,” indiscriminately—or a positive one, “to tell the truth.”2 As truth-telling, parrhesia amounted to a moral activity that was “an essential characteristic of Athenian democracy.”3

  In Foucault’s analysis, five distinct elements (italicized in the following quotation) defined parrhesia as a specific kind of verbal activity:

  The speaker has a specific relation to truth through frankness, a certain relationship to his own life through danger, a certain type of relation to himself or other people through criticism (self-criticism or criticism of other people) and a specific relation to moral law through freedom and duty.4

  Thus Foucault suggested, by tracing contemporary conceptions of “free speech” back to their Athenian roots, we might reconceive it as fearless speech, “the courage to speak the truth in spite of some danger.”5

  The independent journalists whose reportage features in Censored 2014 each demonstrate that this is a robust, living tradition. Journalists committed to fearless speech risk their freedom and, far too often, their lives, in order to bring us the truth from places and in situations where those wielding power would prefer that silence reigned, as documented in Censored 2014 story #16, “Journalism Under Attack Around the Globe.” Even more frequently, in the course of their work as truth-tellers, journalists give voice to others—themselves engaged in fearless speech—who might otherwise go unheard. As Brian Covert documents in this year’s Censored News Cluster on “Whistleblowers and Gag Laws,” without the dedicated reporting of independent journalists such as Kevin Gosztola, Glenn Greenwald, and Janet Reitman, we would know at best an incomplete story about Bradley Manning and the trial that is ongoing as this volume goes to press: quite simply, the corporate media have failed to cover the whole Manning story.

  Criticism—particularly the critique of those who wield their power indiscriminately or selfishly—is another characteristic of fearless speech, identified by Foucault in his Berkeley lectures, and evident in the independent journalism that Project Censored highlights in this volume. From the causes and consequences of wealth inequality—as reported, for example, by Carl Herman (story #2, “Richest Global 1 Percent Hide Trillions in Tax Havens”) and George Monbiot (story #6, “Bil-lionaires’ Rising Wealth Intensifies Poverty and Inequality”)—to immigration (e.g., Erika L. Sánchez, story #10, “A ‘Culture of Cruelty’ along Mexico-US Border”) and the environment (e.g., Elizabeth Royte, story #18, “Fracking Our Food Supply”), our best independent investigative reporters speak “from ‘below’” to hold accountable those “above.”6

  While true to Foucault’s exploration of the ancient roots of fearless speech, an exclusive focus on criticism gives an incomplete view of journalistic duty, as practiced by today’s independent press and broadcasters and celebrated by Project Censored. As heralded by Sarah van Gelder in her foreword, voiced by journalists across this year’s Top 25, and resounded in our book’s concluding chapter, “The New Story” by Michael Nagler, independent journalism in 2014 is as much about realistic solutions as it is oriented to systemic problems. “Solutions journalism,” van Gelder writes, “must investigate not only the individual innovations, but also the larger pattern of change—the emerging ethics, institutions, and ways of life that are coming into existence.” To be effective, critique requires the balance of affirmation.7

  Affirmation also requires courage. In an era when “hope” and “change” may seem like nothing more than a deeper gloss of campaign rhetoric, reporting news stories of genuine change and valid hope takes a certain kind of fearlessness. So, we would expand Fou-cault’s anatomy of fearless speech to encompass affirmative truth-telling, as is found here in Jessica Conrad’s reportage on the people of Iceland voting to treat their nation’s natural resources as a commons (story #9) and independent press accounts of the Creative Commons celebrating its tenth anniversary (story #17). The truth to which we need access in order to fulfill our duties and our potential—as family members, as community members, and as citizens—includes not only knowledge of power and its abuses, but also exemplars of human activity, relationships, and institutions at their very best.

  FATEFUL TIMES AND CYNICISM

  The “fateful times” that comprise the second half of our book’s theme this year certainly include economic inequalities, environmental crises, and the scourge of war. But even the most in-depth journalism on these topics, or the most sophisticated analyses of their intercon-nectedness, will not help if those reports and analyses leave their audiences disenchanted or cynical.

  As teachers and in our public work for Project Censored, we regularly encounter evidence of this dangerous result. For example, when independent journalists first began to document how Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials had consulted on the production of the movie Zero Dark Thirty, we posted one such report on Project Censored’s Facebook page.8 Within minutes, a person following our posts wrote in response, “This is news?” Similarly, during a classroom discussion of the revelation that Barack Obama’s administration had demanded—and the Associated Press had provided—the phone records for a number of AP journalists, a student seemed intent on closing down further discussion by posing the cynical question, “Why are you surprised?”9

  The more we learn about climate-induced species extinctions, the consolidation of a nearly incomprehensible amount wealth in the hands of a global “superclass,” or a “new” imperialism in Africa—to name just three of the crucial topics, expertly addressed by authors in subsequent sections of Censored 2014—the greater the risk that we too may respond cynically, “This is news?” or “Why are you surprised?” Those afflicted are too “cool” (read: jaded) to get upset about the latest environmental catastrophe or political scandal: they have effectively turned away from politics.

  In many ways, the corporate media encourage such responses. But, we confess to being surprised when we recently read—in the New York Times, no less—that conspiracy theories and those who advocate them are to blame for cynicism about politics. In “Sure You Saw a Flying Sau-cer,” Maggie Koerth-Baker drew on psychological research to show that those who believe in conspiracy theories are “more likely to be cynical about the world in general and politics in particular.” She continued,

  Conspiracy theories also seem to be more compelling to those with low self-worth, especially with regard to their sense of agency in the world at large. Conspiracy theories appear to be a way of reacting to uncertainty and powerlessness.10

  From this perspective, the problem is that, although conspiracy theories give their believers a feeling of being in control, they do not actually confer greater control. “Psychologists aren’t sure whether powerlessness causes conspiracy theories or vice versa,” Koerth-Bak-er wrote. “Either way, the current scientific thinking suggests these beliefs are nothing more than an extreme form of cynicism, a turning away
from politics and traditional media.”11

  At the risk of identifying ourselves as suffering from low self-worth or powerlessness, we note that, by emphasizing psychological rather than sociological or historical understandings of conspiracy theories, Koerth-Baker offers at best a partial understanding of the links between conspiracy theories and political cynicism. Kathryn Olmsted, a historian at University of California-Davis, provided useful counterpoint to the predominating low self-worth explanation—though Koerth-Baker paraphrased Olmsted, rather than quoting her directly: “[C]onspiracy theo-ries wouldn’t exist in a world in which real conspiracies didn’t exist.”12

  INSIDE CENSORED 2014

  We organized Censored 2014 into three primary sections.

  Section I features our listing and summaries of the Top 25 Censored Stories for 2012–13, as well as in-depth analyses of those stories in the form of Censored News Clusters by Brian Covert, James F. Tracy, Susan Rahman and Donna Nassor, Targol Mesbah and Zara Zimbardo, Susan Rahman and Liliana Valdez-Madera, and Andy Lee Roth, who each contribute news clusters that “connect the dots,” by identifying overarching themes that link individual stories and by offering background analysis of the types of stories most likely to be underreported or censored in corporate coverage.

  Three additional chapters add breadth to this first section’s analysis of the Top 25 stories.

  Chapter 2 revisits six selected Top 25 Censored Stories from previous years, focusing on their subsequent corporate coverage and the extent to which they have either become part of broader public discourse, or have remained “censored” by corporate media. Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon work with Project Censored intern researchers and writers Andrew O’Connor-Watts, Jen Eiden, Allen Kew, Emmie Ruhland, Aaron Hudson, Rex Yang, Sam Park, Amitai Cohen, Michael Kolbe, and Matthew Carhart to bring us up-to-date on news media coverage of key past stories addressing the emerging police state, Federal Bureau of Investigation-involved and subsequently thwarted terror plots, economic global ruling elites, the US and al-Qaeda in Syria, sexual assaults on women in the US military, and President Obama’s use of drones and the ongoing assassination campaign.

  Chapter 3 features Project Censored’s annual review of Junk Food News, News Abuse, and the ongoing problem of Infotainment. Project Censored interns Michael Kolbe, Sam Park, and Kimberly Soiero, Jen Eiden, along with Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon, survey a year’s worth of establishment news coverage to contrast the corporate low-lights, distractions, and propaganda with the independent press’s stellar alternatives. From the Korean rapper Psy’s dance craze and the return of MC Hammer to election debates involving Big Bird and national lamentations over the Twinkie, this year’s offerings, from the insipid to mendacious, are so far off the infotainment charts that “U Can’t Touch This.”

  Chapter 4, “Media Democracy in Action,” takes readers on a tour through the “no-spin” zone—territory that increasingly appears outside the range of corporate news media. Daniel Ellsberg’s essay, “On Civil Courage,” sets the tone for this chapter on free press and free speech advocates who make a difference, and really connects with Foucault’s analysis of parrhesia, or fearless speech, outlined earlier. “Media Democracy in Action” also features Josh Wolf of Journalism that Matters, William Creely with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Christopher M. Finan of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, Acacia O’Connor on the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Kids’ Right to Read Project, Tony Diaz of Librotraficante, Beau Hodai of the Center for Media and Democracy and DBA Press on “Dissent or Terror,” Sunsara Taylor on Stop Patriarchy, John Collins and The Weave, and Ken Walden on “What the World Could Be.” This chapter is meant to inspire us to action and further build community around free speech, free press, and free thought ideals.

  Section II addresses the importance of critical thinking and media literacy in addressing narratives of power. Crucial skills for all community members and citizens, critical thinking and media literacy go to the heart of Project Censored’s ongoing mission to educate students about the importance of a truly free press for democratic self-government.

  Do you know the Disney origins of our misconception about lemmings? Using the myth of lemmings’ alleged inclination to collective suicide as its organizing metaphor, in Chapter 5, Elliot D. Cohen identifies six critical thinking skills and illustrates their effective use by applying them to corporate news coverage on a range of contemporary issues. Cohen not only invites us to dig deeper, he provides the tools to do the heavy lifting in developing independence of thought.

  In Chapter 6, James F. Tracy deepens the analysis of conspiracy theories, cynicism, and public use of reason by looking at the phenomenon of conspiracy panics. He draws on the work of Erich Fromm and C. Wright Mills, among others, to address “the prevailing myth of terrorism as an existential threat to the Western world,” and at the same time goes beyond even historian Kathryn Olmsted’s observation, calling for the public use of reason in identifying and understanding actual national and international conspiracies as state/corporate crimes against democracy, thus providing a platform from which to safely and openly discuss significant yet controversial matters.

  In Chapter 7, John Pilger provides a candid insider’s view of censorship within liberal and progressive circles among those who normally decry such censorious actions. Pilger discusses how his documentary The War You Don’t See, documenting the many failures of the press in wartime, became the film some liberal foundations didn’t want people to see in the US. In Chapter 8, Rob Williams concludes the section with a critical analysis of two recent Hollywood films, Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, showing how “political interests are quick to exploit Hollywood’s uniquely powerful reach to propagandize, rather than to educate.”

  The third and final section of Censored 2014 offers four case studies of “unhistory” in the making, while this section’s fifth and ultimate chapter provides a positive alternative. As in Censored 2013, we adapt Noam Chomsky’s term “unhistory” to convey the importance of bringing to public attention and holding in collective memory a range of issues, events, and sociohistorical patterns that the corporate media and power elite might otherwise prefer—or actively encourage—the public to ignore or forget.13

  Thus, whereas establishment academics often analyze “power elites” in the abstract, in Chapter 9, Peter Phillips and Brady Osborne examine the transnational “superclass” in specific detail, summarizing their findings from an exhaustive analysis of the 161 specific individuals who represent “the financial core of the world’s transnational capitalist class.”

  Though followers of Project Censored may feel like they have learned all they need to know about the problematic role of Apple and its subcontractors in China, Nicki Lisa Cole and Tara Krishna deepen our understanding in Chapter 10, “Apple Exposed.” By examining Chinese news coverage—some of which they translate into English for a first time here—Cole and Krishna find that US reporting on Apple in China “has been clouded by a Western lens, and that it has overwhelmingly ignored the voices of workers themselves, rural Chinese citizens affected by environmental pollution, and those displaced by ongoing construction of new factories.”

  In Chapter 11, Brian Martin Murphy, who served for six years as editor in chief of Inter Press Service’s African bureau, surveys the recent history of conflict in Saharan Africa to put the current crisis in Mali into perspective. His account illuminates standing US interests in the region and disentangles the indigenous Tuareg role, two angles of the Mali story that are crucial to a deep understanding of ongoing events in the region, but which US corporate media coverage either obscures or omits.

  In “The Sixth Mass Extinction,” our penultimate chapter (in perhaps more ways than one), Julie Andrzejewski and John C. Alessio amplify the theme of climate change addressed in Sarah van Gelder’s foreword. Andrzejewski and Alessio identify obstacles to assessing and taking seriously what we know scientifically about the impact of c
limate change on animal extinction. In keeping with our focus on critique and affirmation, they provide six important steps that we can take to “reverse the forces driving the extinction process.”

  Finally, shifting from the threats and challenges of “unhistory” to building a better future, Michael Nagler of the Metta Center for Nonviolence explains why we need a “new story” and explains how to tell it, using the Center’s clear and realistic “Roadmap” as a guide. Nagler’s chapter brings Censored 2014 full circle, back to the keynote of Sarah van Gelder’s foreword heralding solutions journalism, providing powerful ideas and practical actions for a better future.

  NOW’S THE TIME

  The cover of Censored 2014 features detail from artist Marcia Annen-berg’s striking piece, “No News Is Good News.” We do not believe there is a more salient image to convey the theme of this year’s book, “Fearless Speech in Fateful Times.” In “No News Is Good News,” the cord, which pulls back the veil to reveal the day’s news, is adorned by a bow that features the US flag’s stars and stripes. Truth-telling—including whistleblowing and other forms of fearless speech—is patriotic, as those who engage in fearless speech remind us when they invoke defense of the Constitution, protection of the commonwealth, and informing the public as the driving motivations for their selfless acts of civil courage.

  As Project Censored’s associate director and director, and as coeditors of Censored 2014, the message of Annenberg’s artwork, with the creativity and integration of history behind it, reminds us of two crucial insights integral for building a better future. First, in the hands of independent journalists—who number too many for even such an extensive volume as this to identify and appreciate completely—the US has a robust free press worthy of the loftiest ideals expressed in the US Constitution and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Second, and related, given the urgency of those journalists’ dispatches and our authors’ keen analyses, we hope that Censored 2014 will inspire you, too, with our abiding feeling that, more than ever, now is the time to do something good in service of a better future, for ourselves, our communities, and the world.