Customer Reviews

Censored 2000: The Year's Top 25 Censored Stories

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The title of the book is Censored 2000, and the idea is good. One of the books is done every year--it tells of the stories the media prefers you don't know, shows a side to the news seldom seen, showing how the mindless time used for uplifting yet mindless stories about getting some cat out of a tree could be better used to show the facts of the Abu-Jamal case or something more controversial. It makes you think back to those nights you turned the news off with a disgusted sigh, saying, "There's no news." And whether you approve or disapprove of the stories, whether something tugs at you, saying This Couldn't Be...no matter how many times you are positive the book is a heap of lies...it makes you think about truth, the monopoly that may exist in the media. It can do what many other books try in vain to do and miss...it will make you think. And that is the greatest revelation your mind can receive. The book also contains an intro by Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black journalist who was convicted of killing a Philadelphian policeman, though much evidence shows this not to be true. Just reading the introduction makes the book completely worth any money you fork over for it.

I've read several of these annual Project Censored books, and each time I have become more and more disillusioned with the weaknesses of the mainstream news media. The ever-growing corporate control of the network/cable news and newspapers has encouraged several reviewers of this book to cite conspiracy theories and yell out cheesy, predictable slogans like "take the power back!" and assume it's the end of the world. I won't go that far, but the fact that a shrinking number of corporations control a large percentage of the mainstream media, as amply illustrated in this book, is indeed a disturbing trend. I now believe very little of what I see on the TV news, without taking it with a very large grain of salt. The fact that many of the top 25 "censored" stories in this book are based on coverups of corporate lawbreaking or unethical behavior is very telling. The mainstream news has become a vehicle for corporate profits, and any journalistic scoops that could possibly threaten these profits are impossible to find on the TV news.

Some good features of this book are the intros by Walter Cronkite and Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the use of one of my favorite comic strips, "This Modern World" by Tom Tomorrow. Some of the essays by various media watchdogs and analysts are fascinating as well. But this book does have some drawbacks though, including a repetitive condemnation of the mainstream news organizations (you can say it a few times, but a million times is tedious), and there's an annoyingly long write-up of a corporate-backed police crackdown on an independent radio station in Pacifica, California. The Project Censored series overall would benefit from some more focus and less proselytizing. But it's not too hard to avoid those weaknesses and focus on the censored stories, which are mostly worth worrying about. And it's not just a leftist rant, either.

This book outlines the stories that didn't, but should have, made the news. Very informative! Finishing this book has made me even more 'curious' about the daily written, TV and radio news.

This yearbook of sorts is a must read for anyone interested in staying abreast of the important world happenings that don't quite get the coverage they deserve, if any, by mainstream media sources. This year's edition upholds the tradition of this great series by being as informative, provocative, and highly readable as any of the previous years' editions. I was also happy to find that Project Censored has continued to include the inciteful and twistedly entertaining comics of Tom Tomorrow .

Apart from its historical interest, this book should be read for its excellent 'Eclectic Chronology of Censorship from 605 B.C. to 1995'.
The list starts with Jehoiakim, king of Judah, who burns Jeremiah's prophesies which he had ordered himself! It goes over the Zapruder film (still censored) to the Telecommunications Deregulation Bill (TDB) of 1995.

It is a long list of interventions by the moral establishment, against women (e.g. birth control), nudity or Darwinism, and for the protection of its own socio-economic interests.
As the book states: 'Censorship is a tool of a powerful elite which attempts to control society through the manipulation of thought, speech and all other forms of expression.'
The TDB opened the way for mega-mediamonopolies, for which 'maximizing profits and broadcasting junk food news' stand for information of the public.

The first phrase of Fred Friendly's book 'Due to Circumstances Beyond our Control': 'What the American people don't know can kill them' is still shocking but all too real.

This book contains an excellent index and is a must read for all democrats.

this book is an excelent, well researched, well written insight into the events that one would never learn of from any other source.its comics by tom tomorrow are also very intreguiging. i woulkd reccomend this to anyone who want to discover the truth in todays media-driven soceity.

August 1, 2002

These "Censored News" books are a quick, easy way
to figure out some of the "big picture" stuff real
easy, but it doesn't make for reassuring reading.
Some crimes are so huge they can hardly be taken in
from street level. Like trying to figure out what
a skyscraper looks like with your nose pressed
against the foundation stone.

Also valuable are the resources and links listed
within the book.

Beware though: follow too many links on the Internet
and you'll end up on sites run by people who think
the next hundred years have already been scripted by
a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping corporate mages.

The truth is more disturbing. Bread and circuses
simply sell better.

This book sheds much needed light on the poor state of journalism that our country is dealing with. Mark Nuckol's review just helped re-enforce the fact that most Americans are blind about the political decisions that are be made by our government and multinational corporations. Like most people, his views are either black or white with an occassional dab of gray as to not be labeled a static thinker. It is everyone who should educate themselves on the real issues at hand in our society and give your brains the enemas they so badly need.

. . . and the No. 1 censored story of 2000 is that liberal ideologues got suckered into believing Mumia Abu Jamal is innocent!

Mumia may or may not have shot that cop in Philly - I could really care less. But if there was a death penalty for bad writing, he'd sure be a candidate for the chair....If these "Censored" people would just look around, they'd quit whining so much. There are plenty of sources of info and opinion - they seem to be more miffed that they're not on Nightline, with their silly pet theories about lead mines in Kosovo being NATO's cassus belli. I suggest to the editors two little baby steps: 1) read Waugh's novel Scoop - you'll understand "journalism" much better than you do now and 2) subscribe to The Economist. Then drop me line and we'll move to baby steps 3 and 4 on how to become a thinking, educated consumer of information.