Censored 2001: Featuring 25 Years of Censored News and the Top Censored Stories of the Year [Paperback]

Peter Phillips (Author), Tom Tomorrow (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2001

The yearly volumes of Censored, in continuous publication since 1976 and since 1995 available through Seven Stories Press, is dedicated to the stories that ought to be top features on the nightly news, but that are missing because of media bias and self-censorship. The top stories are listed democratically in order of importance according to students, faculty, and a national panel of judges. Each of the top stories is presented at length, alongside updates from the investigative reporters who broke the stories.
Beyond the Top 25 stories, additional chapters delve further into timely media topics: The Censored News and Media Analysis section provides annual updates on Junk Food News and News Abuse, Censored Déjà Vu, signs of hope in the alternative and news media, and the state of media bias and alternative coverage around the world. In the Truth Emergency section, scholars and journalists take a critical look at the US/NATO military-industrial-media empire. And in the Project Censored International section, the meaning of media democracy worldwide is explored in close association with Project Censored affiliates in universities and at media organizations all over the world.
A perennial favorite of booksellers, teachers, and readers everywhere, Censored is one of the strongest life signs of our current collective desire to get the news we citizens need—despite what Big Media tells us.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

PROJECT CENSORED, founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, has as its principal objective the advocacy for and protection of First Amendment rights and the freedom of information in the United States. In 2008, Project Censored received the PEN/Oakland Literary Censorship Award for the publication of Censored 2009. For more information, visit www.projectcensored.org.
PETER PHILLIPS, director emeritus of Project Censored and president of the Media Freedom Foundation, is an associate professor of sociology at Sonoma State University. He is known for his op-ed pieces in the alternative press and independent newspapers nationwide, such as Z Magazine and Social Policy. He is also the winner of the 2009 Dallas Smythe Award, presented by the Union for Democratic Communication.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press; 25 Anniversary edition (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158322064X
• ISBN-13: 978-1583220641
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very complicated hodge podge..., September 20, 2001

By 

"shanen0" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Censored 2001: Featuring 25 Years of Censored News and the Top Censored Stories of the Year (Paperback)

This one is really hard to review. Kind of like trying to write a review of a newspaper combined with a news magazine combined with some essays combined with a rulebook... And it doesn't really fit clearly into any of those categories. Many of the articles were written in the style of newspaper articles, though with longer term perspectives. Others were clearly more like you'd see in a magazine, except for the lack of illustrations. The essays wandered through various venues and styles, but I'm not even sure where to fit things there. There was a very interesting interview with Walter Cronkite, but what category was it? The 'rulebook' part was spread through several sections, describing the mechanics of preparing the book, but including some comments from judges.

The content was quite interesting, actually. Lots of stories that you'd think would be worth coverage in the main newspapers, but which were ignored. Something of interest to almost everyone. The reasons the stories were ignored are mostly pretty obvious. Some are just negative stories, but in other cases apparently just not interesting enough to compete with the 'junk food news' that draws the ratings... Not so much active censorship as selective filtering.

Actually, I had a pretty profound reaction to this book. The news is NOT 'free'--someone is paying for it. The obvious conclusion is that advertising-funded 'free' news is a very bad thing. Advertising is fundamentally NOT about facts and reason. Effective advertising is about creating irrational needs, and though this was only tangentially discussed in the book, it becomes quite obvious when you think about it. That lack of focus on the bigger problems and some production glitches are the main reasons the book couldn't earn that tough fifth star.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The importance of alternative news outlets, November 13, 2001

By 

Cathleen M. Walker "geminiwalker" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Censored 2001: Featuring 25 Years of Censored News and the Top Censored Stories of the Year (Paperback)

This book is more important now than ever. As we sit with our eyes glued to the coverage of the "War" in Afghanistan, it is crucial that we observe the mainstream media with the awareness of how many years they have manipulated, lied, and deceived the American people. We cannot have a true democracy, we cannot make informed choices, we cannot live authentic lives when so much crucial information is kept from us because we don't, for whatever reason, "deserve" to know. Now, more than ever, it's important to realize the importance of alternative news outlets, and the most important part of this book is that it lists them -- all of them -- so you can find them all. Don't limit yourself to the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, The Enquirer, and ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. There's a whole world out there that so far has not entirely been kept from us -- but you have to work to access it. It's well worth the effort, and the rest of us out here digging stuff up could really use your help! Welcome aboard!

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars missing the mainstream of interests, April 27, 2002

By 

Fred Jakobcic (Marquette, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Censored 2001: Featuring 25 Years of Censored News and the Top Censored Stories of the Year (Paperback)

I have been picking up these books for the last eight years. It is amazing what the mainstream media considers news and what they miss and ignore as news, thus they are missing the mainstream of interests of the American public or what should be the interests of the public. Instead, the mainstream goes after fluff and disasters news that is inoffensive to the corporate/business interest of this nation and does not reflect reality of public interest. If CENSORED ever published a nation-wide newspaper, along the lines of USA Today, I would subcribe to it, for relevant, news without spin and news with meaning to the mainstream public.