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 Media
research specialist Dr. Peter Phillips was a guest at Elon April
19, visiting classes and presenting a talk co-sponsored by the Liberal
Arts Forum and the School of Communications titled "Project
Censored: What the Media Don't Tell You."
Phillips told
Elon students that today more than ever before there's an opportunity
for people to get their news by alternative means and thus become
better and more accurately informed. "There's independent media
emerging all over the world to tell the news from various angles
we don't see coming from the major media," he said. "People
are doing more to fight against the monopolies. We blocked the FCC's
further media consolidation. People wrote more than 2 million letters
of protest to Congress and the FCC. We reversed the further-media-consolidation
trend. There was a huge response."
Project Censored
is a national research effort launched in 1976 by Dr. Carl Jensen,
of Sonoma State University. Upon Jensen's retirement in 1996, leadership
of the project was passed to Phillips. The project's purpose is
to inform the public, advocate for independent journalism, and spark
debate on current issues involving media monopolies. The project's
Sonoma-based research team tracks the news published in independent
journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles
an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have
been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's
major national news media.
The group's
annual publication won the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in
1996 and 1997. In 2003, more than 40 alternative newsweeklies carried
the project's Top 10 Censored stories in metropolitan areas throughout
the country, and Project Censored was featured on more than 125
independent talk radio and television shows.
The group's
"Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-04"
included "Wealth Inequality in the 21st Century Threatens Economy
and Democracy," "Ashcroft Vs. the Human Rights Law that
Holds Corporations Accountable," "Bush Administration
Censors Science," "High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops
and Civilians," "The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural
Resources," "The Sale of Electoral Politics," "Conservative
Organization Drives Judicial Appointments," "Cheney's
Energy Task Force and the Energy Policy," "Widow Brings
RICO Case Against the U.S. Government for 9/11" and "New
Nuke Plants: Taxpayer Support; Industry Profits."
Phillips evening
talk in Whitley Auditorium drew an interested crowd of students,
faculty, staff and community members. Phillips encouraged people
to become involved and promoted the second National Conference for
Media Reform May 13-15 in St. Louis.
For more information
about Project Censored, see the site:
http://www.projectcensored.org/
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