On this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast we talk with Mickey Huff, the director of Project Censored and its annual look at the 25 most underreported stories.

Huff talks about how this age of digital news is both the best and worst of times for journalism. Outlets for independent reporting have skyrocketed, but the majority of them lack the power of mainstream corporate media. Thus the MSM behemoths often decide what news we hear.

And the news is further distorted by the power of social media to promote junk news and disinformation — all of which is processed by our shrinking attention span.

This results, Huff says, in a pervasive level of censorship, whether intentional or not. Amid this gloomy backdrop, he reminds us that independent media, like WhoWhatWhy, have become all the more vital in preserving the free press.

Each year, Project Censored surveys the media landscape to bring light to the top 25 most censored or underreported stories of the past year — it’s a reminder, he points out, of how much work there is yet to be done.

Of course all of this is made worse by a lack of media literacy on the part of so many citizens.

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