Customer Reviews

Censored 2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09

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This book is a breath of fresh air in a stagnating media system. Where the mainstream media is dedicated more to reporting the antics of Britney Spears (or her sister) than giving us actual news, Project Censored is focused on finding and reporting the most important stories of the year. And there's no one better to get down to the real news than the team at Project Censored. This group of well-respected, conscientious professors, students, and interns knows exactly how to unearth the facts and stories hidden from the public.

Their research methods say it all. They comb through 200 publications and 1000 websites to find the news not covered in the U.S. media. They then pump up the volume on their dig for the truth by delving into three different databases -- Lexis Nexis, Dow Jones, and PearlQuest -- looking for any coverage of the stories by mainstream media. When they do find a story, they examine it to see how long the story was and whether it was broadcast during prime times or in off hours. If that isn't enough, they then send the stories to industry experts to check the veracity of the information. By the time they're done, the staff at Project Censored have completely vetted each and every story. Their exhaustive research gives them the perfect platform to report what's missing in the news and to challenge those in power, both on the left and on the right.

Censored 2010 is just another example of their exemplary reporting skills. Nice job, Project Censored! Keep up the great work.

The Censored Yearbooks are bright suns in the dark and dismal US media scene, which spews nearly only circus sideshows or propaganda for the military-industrial complex and its quest for global dominance. The media are becoming irrelevant and even destructive for democracy. The newspaper `business' is dying. People don't like to pay for propaganda.
Censure, manipulation of reality or non-inclusion of important stories under legal (threat of lawsuits), economic (advertising) or political pressure are legion.
The following important issues were not worth making headlines in 2008-2009: the systemic erosion of human rights and civil liberties (habeas corpus), the world's catastrophic climate change, the depletion of the world's natural resources, the 35 year decline in real labor wages, the height of the child mortality in the US, an US unemployment rate of at least 15 %, a US multi-trillion national debt, a US defense budget as big as that of the rest of the world combined, the real culprits of the global economic meltdown or military misadventures in sovereign States.

The Top 25 Censored stories of 2008-2009 contain such important issues as the roots of the Somalian piracy (toxic waste dumping and illegal fishing in their waters), the investments of members of Congress in major defense contractors, election fraud and the mysterious death of a `man in the middle', secret control of Presidential debates, destruction of the environment by oil exploration (Amazon rain forest) or by the dumping of toxic and nuclear waste (US, Somalia), racism, lobbyism, welfare cuts and (for the Nobel Prize Committee) Barack Obama's appointments of members of the Trilateral Commission and corrupt military leaders (trillions of dollars disappeared in the Department of Defense accounts).

In the follow-up of former Top 25 censored stories, this yearbook signals the settlement by Shell Oil of a lawsuit launched by anti-oil protesters and by the family of the great writer K. Saro-Wiwa scandalously condemned and executed on order of a Nigerian tribunal. Also, flammable thermitic materials have been found in dust samples produced by the destruction of the WTC towers on 9/11 (!).

This all important yearbook, brilliantly illustrated by Khalil Bendiz, is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.

With today's media dominated by large corporations who are at best hesitant to report some of the most important stories, if those stories challenge powerful corporate interests, Project Censored is badly needed.

This years Project Censored Yearbook, documents many important stories that have been negleted by the mainstream media such as the origins of Somali piracy, the continued U.S. backed repression in Haiti, the fact that U.S. schools are as segregated as they were in 1954 at the time of the Brown Vs Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, and the corrupt backgrounds of many of Obama's military appointees.

The stories may depress the reader, but the Project Censored Year Book also contains uplifting stories of how people around the world are organizing to fight for social change.

CENSORED 2010 is by far the most comprehensive, informative, and interesting yearook published since I founded the Project in 1976. Congratulations to the entire Censored 2010 Team!

I'm a bit of a news junkie, but I had no idea about much of the stories featured in this book. I can't believe there aren't more reviews. Everyone should own a copy of this.
The Yes Magazine section was especially awesome in that it's positive under-reported stories provided some hopeful rays of light off in the distance.

These books are put out every year and it is a great book to read every year to find out the truth of what's going on. Something the news media has failed to report for years the truth. It is written by College Students but they report all the facts that happens not only in America but in the world.

Here's a compilation, that is primarily about the perceived sinking of the ship "Freedom of the press" with other assorted there's a million stories in the naked city. The book is righteous and compelling, yet I have more than this sense that your everyday whatever citizen won't get pass the book's somewhat awkward facade or even for that matter premise. Heck, well excuse me..., things like this book become just like banging ones head against the wall. For me the book just has too many snippets, in other words the book is like some graduate paper with dumb down language. So in conclusion, if you don't read very many current event books, this is an easy read and should teach you some new tricks. If you are like me on the otherhand and read mostly non-fiction books, I'll simply defer my recommendation. Every generation suffers future shock, stock car racing?, "Oh! yeah..!" (Randy "Macho Man" Salvage).

This book is far from a collection of "censored" or underreported news stories. Instead it's a collection of far-left conspiracy theories given legitimacy by far-left academics. Pronouncing studies "valid" is no way of proving something is true. No amount of belief establishes any fact and if a million people believe a stupid thing, it's still a stupid thing. The "under-reporting" is truly a misrepresentation in the age of the Internet. Every single story in the book was reported, however uncritically all over the place and claims to the contrary are simply false. Anyone on the Internet can read the full text of thousands of daily papers around the world and translate any language automatically. Nothing is censored. I can't possibly be persuaded that simply because the "mainstream" media does not repeat conspiracy theories over and over and represent they are "true" that this is censorship.

The book is simply a one-sided and distorted view of the supposed "censored" stories. There is no pretense that any other side or opposing view or contrary evidence exists. The only evidence is the usual appeals to authority and popularity. There's no hard evidence of anything here. Read with total scepticism and research the topics on the Internet yourself. There is so much coverage of these supposed "censored" stories you'll kick yourself for spending money on this book. No one can make a legitimate claim of censorship any more.

In Carl Jensen's day where there was no online transcript of every radio and television show (as there is now) and only the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature as an index to find published stories, Project Censored made a valid contribution pointing out under-reported stories that deserve more attention. However, today reading this drivel is a complete waste of time. How can we accept as credible scholarship that 9/11 was "controlled demolition" and that the failure of the media to "report" it is censorship? Anyone can Google the Popular Mechanics debunking or the Nova PBS specials and know for sure the "controlled demolition" claims are provably false. It makes no difference if "scientists agree" there are "questions". Project Censored has now progressed beyond any conceivable credibility.

There is that hard core that will believe what you will -- no logic or evidence or scholarship has convinced you otherwise and I know I never will. Sonoma State University's standing in academia is substantially harmed by publishing this level of baloney and intellectually dishonest stuff as "journalism."