The Official Project Censored Show: Recent Episodes
Project Censored
We are Project Censored and after 40 years of creating an annual book showcasing media censorship we are bringing the fight to your ears and eyes. The Project Censored Show is a weekly public affairs program that discusses independent journalism, media censorship, deconstructing propaganda, and supporting a truly free press. The program focuses on “The News That Didn’t Make the News” and each week we conduct in depth interviews with guests and offer hard hitting commentary and analysis on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.
On this episode of The Project Censored Show, independent journalist and winner of the Illinois Library Association’s 2026 Intellectual Freedom Award, Kevin Gosztola, joins co-host Mickey Huff in conversation about the importance of standing up for free expression, fighting against censorship in our own communities, and supporting local journalism to…
The post Media Dictates Democracy appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of The Project Censored Show, Kristi Rudelius-Palmer and William Fernekes of Human Rights Educators USA (HREUSA) join co-host Mickey Huff to discuss their work, HRE programs, and their increased significance in a time of attacks on academic freedom and rising authoritarianism at home and abroad- centering the…
The post Human Rights Education appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of The Project Censored Show, co-host Eleanor Goldfield speaks with associate editor at the Electronic Intifada Nora Barrows Friedman. She returns to the show to discuss the latest news from Palestine: what’s the story with Hamas stepping down, as concentration camps are constructed inside the concentration camp…
The post News That Didn’t Make The News From Palestine appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, co-host Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Palestinian writer and researcher Nadine N. Sayegh to discuss her latest piece State, Soldiers, and Systematic Sadism: The Israeli Military’s Normalization of Sexual Violence. Nadine explains the Israeli hasbara tactic of purple-washing, the global North’s violent feminism,…
The post State, Soldiers, and Systematic Sadism appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, cohost Eleanor Goldfield sits down with Heidi Lim from AI Resist List to discuss reframing AI, and the possible futures that both buck the current iteration of AI and avoid the binary of anti-tech vs. pro-tech. Heidi points out that the purpose…
The post Reframing AI: Human Creativity as Resistance appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, cohost Eleanor Goldfield sits down with Ed from DeFlock. They discuss ALPRs – Automatic License Plate Readers, and the insidious way that they circumvent the 4th amendment – meant to protect against unlawful search. Ed also speaks about the massive network of…
The post ALPRs: The Surveillance State on Wheels appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, co-host Mickey Huff speaks with media scholar Robin Andersen about her latest book, The Complicit Lens: US Media’s Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. They discuss the distortions in Western media coverage and the lack of journalistic ethics and accountability among the…
The post Don’t Say Israel: Analyzing and Combating Censorship and Propaganda appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored show, co-host Mickey Huff talks with media scholar Bill Yousman about press censorship, establishment propaganda, and attacks on academic freedom around issues pertaining to the war on Gaza. Yousman recently edited a special issue of the journal Democratic Communiqué on “Freedom of Expression,…
The post Press Freedom Under Pressure: Media, Academia, and Gaza appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, Leonardo Flores joins the show again to talk about the fallout from the double earthquake in Venezuela. Leo outlines some of the recent US media propaganda attempting to smear Venezuela when, in fact, it is the US paralyzing Venezuela’s disaster response through…
The post Venezuela’s Earthquake Aftermath: Recovery Amid Sanctions and Propaganda appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, Eleanor Goldfield sit down Kels Menchaca, an organizer with the DFW Support Committee to talk about the Prairieland case. With combined sentences of 562 years, the defendants represent the latest intensification in the US government’s violent assault on free speech, freedom of…
The post The Prairieland Case and the US Government’s Assault on Constitutional Rights appeared first on Project Censored.
This week on the program, a special full show with Palestinian author, historian, and academic Dr. Ramzy Baroud about his latest book Before the Flood: A Gaza Family Memoir Across Three Generations of Colonial Invasion, Occupation, and War in Palestine. Dr. Baroud takes us through longue duree, a history that has not been amputated and distorted by colonial narrative. He explains the failings of corporate media, of political discourse, and the need for oppressed peoples to tell their own stories, without countering, without arguing the points of the oppressor. Because dignity cannot be divided. Freedom cannot be sectionalized.
The post Colonial Distortion of Palestine’s History appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield dig into some of the news that did make the news but was wrong. They highlight the need for critical media literacy, especially when we’re confronted with something that pings our confirmation bias. They also dive into some history, the US at 250, the framing of our nationalistic ideals, the society of the spectacle, Idiocracy, and finding our way to solidarity.
The post The News That Did Make the News – But Was Wrong appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, Mickey Huff sits down with public health researcher and journalist Lily Minh Wass to talk about the sycophancy machine. Lily outlines the subtle and disturbing quirks of AI’s large language models, amplifying our human desire to be agreed with, which supersedes the desire to be factual. Lily highlights our cognitive offloading onto AI, breaks down how these systems operate, and more.
The post The Sycophancy Machine: How AI Rewards Confirmation Over Accuracy appeared first on Project Censored.
Meta’s censorship of LGBTQ voices brings together digital activists, legal experts, and LGBTQ communities to combat invisibilization. We discuss the problematic dependency on social media platforms, how this can spur the creation of alternative comms and organizing methods, digital legal frameworks in the EU vs the US, and more. Caspar…
The post LGBTQ Organizing Beyond Meta’s Censorship appeared first on Project Censored.
On this episode of the Project Censored Show, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with professor Abboud Hamayel to discuss the misuse of history, in particular archaeology as a tool of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Abboud also deconstructs the performative solidarity of pity, the entangled histories that make Palestine a lens through…
The post The Misuse of History: Archaeology in Palestine appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with media analyst Nolan Higdon to dig into big tech's hold on higher ed - namely, their aims to surveil, extract, and breach. Nolan digs into a recent hacking scandal, how big tech aligns with the likes of Epstein, and a dark history of eugenics, big tech propaganda, and authentic resistance.
Next up, Dr. Austin Kocher comes back on the program to dig into some recent news that didn't make the news vis-à-vis immigration, from overcrowding court hearings to expedited deportation to handpicking so-called deportation judges, the cruelty is the point. But there are some glimmers in this world full of triggers, and as always, a lot of it has to do with communities fighting back.
The post Big Tech’s Campus Takeover, ICE’s Expanding Reach appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Professor Dave explains. Science communicator Dave Farina joins the show to talk about the emergence of science communicators at a time when science denial is reaching ever soaring heights. Dave discusses the lure and prevalence of erroneous scientific claims and how science literacy and media literacy necessarily overlap and require continued practice and engagement to combat dangerous mis and disinformation.
The post News That Didn’t Make the News: Science Communicators and AI Data Centers appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Dr. Gerald Horne joins the show to ring in 250 years of the US project - how is that going? Dr. Horne sets the record straight not only about what’s missing in our ever censored history books but how that affects our understanding of issues and struggles today. As James Baldwin noted, history is not past, after all. We discuss the selective teaching and pedestaling of state-sanctioned violence, the moving target of whiteness, and more.
The post History is Not Past: 250 Years of the US Project and Examining HondurasGate appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Wanda Bertram from the Prison Policy Initiative joins the show to talk about what we don’t know and what we think we know about mass incarceration. Wanda shares some stats and facts that you’ll never hear on corporate media, and debunks myths that betray our propagandized thinking.
The post Reframing Mass Incarceration, Antiracism, and Abolition appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, researcher and editor Michelle Eid joins the show to talk about literal framing when it comes to photojournalism, and how extractive dehumanizing journalism turns people’s pain and suffering into career-boosting material, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and bolstering the dangerous disconnect that allows atrocities to continue. Michelle highlights the importance of relationship building and archival work, but that how this work is done is critical. Next up, Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield sit down to dissect some recent news that didn’t make the news, contextualize what press freedom looks like from the US to Sweden, and why AI should never be in charge of telling us what news is.
The post Framing Atrocity: Photojournalism and Press Freedom appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with investigative reporter Logan M. Davis to talk about his exclusive reporting on ICE hold rooms, these unofficial black sites that serve as torturous liminal spaces in the larger network of kidnappings, forced disappearances, and deportations. Logan explains how these bus stops with cell doors are acquired, used, and hidden from public view, that the cruelty and terror are the point, and how folks can organize in their local communities to stop them.
The post ICE Black Sites and Press Freedom Decline appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first segment, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with author Nicola Griffith to talk about her recent book release, She is Here. Nicola digs into her work on understanding history as stories, not hard, immovable facts, and that history depends on who tells it. She discusses writing history as an embodied experience, extracting ourselves from binaries and embracing nuance, how the lack of disabled perspectives in literature shapes our ableism, and more.
Next up, Eleanor Goldfield sit down with journalist Liam Syed and organizer Nikki Morse to talk about how Israel's latest quasi-visa program targets foreign activists, more than a handful of whom are Jews, saying they're either a security threat or immigrating illegally, a funny concept for an ethno-state built on illegal immigration, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
The post Narratives of History and Israel’s Policing of Activists appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with Zachary Levenson to talk about the war on sociology and what happens when the academic governing body deems all existing sociology textbooks illegal to teach in the state of Florida. Zach highlights the purposefully vague verbiage of new policies, the anti-intellectualism fueling them, and why educators must never self-censor or comply in advance.
Next up, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with Nolan Higdon to talk about his latest book, MAGAcademy, on how corporatism paved the way for the hostile takeover of Higher Ed. Nolan discusses the neoliberalization of academia, the purposeful devaluing of professors, and the treatment of students as customers that all predate the current attacks on higher ed. Nolan also warns of the dangers of compliance in advance and the smooth rhetoric of corporate takeovers wrapped in social justice ideologies.
The post The Violation and Capitulation of Higher Education appeared first on Project Censored.
This week on the program, we celebrate Independent Media and press freedom with Izzy Fest 2026 and the 18th annual Izzy Award named after the legendary muckraker, I.F. Stone.
First up, we have documentary filmmaker Abby Martin of Empire Files who is sharing the Izzy Award this year for her documentary Earths Greatest Enemy about how the Pentagon is the worlds greatest polluter and why we must all act to reverse the global damage caused by US military.
Next up Izzy judge and professor Victor Pickard discusses the state of our free press, the challenges journalists face from the current administration, and how independent media can light the way to a more informed and just world.
The post Muckrakers & Media Freedom: Celebrating the Izzy Award appeared first on Project Censored.
While corporate media focuses on the 24-hour wartime news cycle, a lot falls through the cracks, entire continents actually.First up this week, we welcome back to the program journalist Jose Luis Granados Ceja to talk about the Greater America plan, and Operation Total Extermination, the latest US policy initiatives for…
The post US Militarism in Latin America and Corporate Colonialism in Honduras appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, journalist Afeef Nessouli joins the show to talk about the situation in Lebanon, and how corporate media deliberately flattens and dehumanizes in service of US-Israeli regional goals. Afeef explains the complex and interconnected networks of resistance and solidarity on the ground, the tangled web of imperialism, and how Lebanese journalists are, like their Palestinian counterparts, working together in impossible conditions to get the truth out about their situation in spite of compounding and violent censorship.
Next up, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with former Director of Student Media at Indiana University Jim Rodenbush to talk about his termination. Jim had the audacity to stand up for the renowned student newspaper the Indiana Daily Student when the powers that be didnt feel it should actually report the news anymore. Jim shares his story and warns of the implications this has on everyones access to a free press, from colleges to professional newsrooms.
The post Networks of Resistance: From Lebanon to College Newsrooms appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with educator and author Allison Butler to talk about her latest book: The Judgment of Gender: How Women are Centered and Silenced in Pop Culture. Allison dissects this seeming contradiction of both centering and silencing women. We dive into some history to orient us in the present, consider the intersections of womanhood, the women in service to patriarchy, and more. Next up, Dr. Shir Hever comes back on the show this time to give a perspective on the war on Iran that you won’t likely hear, even in alternative and independent media. Shir prompts us to consider what the actual goals of the war are through understanding modern warfare, the US/Israeli relationship, and the paradoxical stability of totalitarianism staring at us from this current apocalyptic war.
The post Paradox of Power: Judgment of Gender and Modern Warfare appeared first on Project Censored.
First up on the show, Christian Nationalism, Evangelicalism - some might say that its whats destroying our nation, but are we actually ready to sit with how much it actually defines our nation? Jared Stacy, a former Evangelical Pastor and author of the newly released book, Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis, joins the show to talk about the history and the present of this entwined relationship between the US and Evangelicalism, how conspiracy theories become gospel, and how if we want to address the fallout from this tangle, theological intervention is necessary.
The post Evangelicalism, Conspiracy & the First Amendment appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of today’s show, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with Michael and Em from Project Saltbox to discuss their work of data gathering and analysis vis a vis DHS. They discuss their ICE Warehouse Tracker tool, and how ill-prepared these sites are to house tens of thousands of people. Michael and Em also discuss what the effects would be on communities surrounding these warehouses, and how we can use data to better understand the massive planned network of disappearing people, and thereby act to stop it.
The post Tracking ICE’s Detention Machine & Opposing the Cuba Blockade appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, journalist Stephanie Koithan joins the show to discuss Dilley, a concentration camp predominantly for children. Stephanie discusses some of the horrific stories she’s uncovered through her investigative reporting including instances of gross medical neglect and how difficult it is to do that reporting from what she calls a black site of information, and the retaliation by guards against the children for speaking with press. Next up, Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield dig into some of the news that didn’t make the news with a focus on the US/Israeli illegal and unprovoked attacks on Iran. They discuss the nuance and multitude of facts that corporate media always miss or omit, the importance of historical context, the regional repercussions of these attacks, and more.
The post What Corporate Media Won’t Tell You: Children in Dilley & Attacks on Iran appeared first on Project Censored.
First up this week, Mexico City-based journalist José Luis Granados Ceja joins the show to talk about the recent Mexican operation that captured and killed a notorious cartel kingpin, and how US corporate media is twisting this story to not only give the US undue credit but to further the dangerous and dehumanizing rhetoric of Mexicans as villains. José Luis also digs into Mexico / US relations and how regional solidarity is needed in order to address the violent grandstanding by the US. Next up, Mickey sits down again with media analyst Nolan Higdon to dig into the latest in the Epstein files including the disturbing lack of accountability, the spectacle of the slow release of information, deconstructing propaganda around the files, and more.
The post Narratives of Power: Cartel Media Spin and Epstein Cover Stories appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Medea Benjamin joins the show to debunk a whole lotta US propaganda about Cuba. Having just returned from the island nation, Medea explains the terroristic domino effect that the US fuel blockade is having on the Cuban people, how the US weaponizes aid from Gaza to Havana, and…
The post Cuba Under Siege & How the South Shapes the Nation appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program Eleanor sits down with Martha Dimitratou, founder and Executive Director of Repro Uncensored to talk about the battles to bring reproductive health and sexual education information to the people in a time of escalating digital and indeed analog censorship. Martha talks about how incorrect information is often platformed while science-backed and nuanced information is stifled - and what this means for the physical, mental, and emotional health of those seeking reproductive health information and access. She also outlines tactics to sidestep this censorship, online and off. Next up, Mickey sits down with Norman Stockwell, publisher of The Progressive magazine and indie media veteran to talk about the current state of the media, some history of independent media and why that matters, the importance of becoming the media ourselves, and framing the news outside of the 24/7 extractive cycle. Norm and Mickey also dig into the nuance of attacks on corporate media, and why a truly free press means more, not fewer voices.
The post Access Emergency: Reproductive Health Education and Independent Media appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, Mickey and Eleanor dive into some critical media literacy, including AI-generated videos and images that ping our confirmation biases, making it all the more important to stay vigilant in analyzing content, regardless of whether or not we want it to be true. We also look at patterns of mis and disinformation, tools and tips for media consumers and creators, and more. Next up, Katie Jones from Fractracker joins the show to talk about the shadowy connection between data centers and fracking. Katie talks about how data centers are in many ways the new fracking boom, and are using many of the same
The post Fact-Checking the Future: AI, Fracking, and Data Center Propaganda appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with professor of communications Dr. Steve Macek to talk about Trumps war on epistemic institutions. Dr. Macek shares specific examples of attacks on vital research that leaves millions of Americans without the necessary knowledge to address basic needs such as hunger and thirst. Mickey and Steve also dissect some Déjà Vu News - the where are they now for stories previously uplifted by Project Censored and ignored by corporate media. Such analysis not only tracks trends in corporate media but also highlights the importance of thinking of news less as a fleeting headline but rather as continuously developing stories that require attention on a rolling rather than 24-hour blip basis. Next up, cohost Eleanor Goldfield sits down with researcher and associate director at the Eisenhower Media Network Christian Sorensen to talk about how the military is a tool of corporate capture, how the military industrial complex hurts the working class here at home, media's bedazzling of military life, and how the US empires greed actually in the long term hurts its own hegemonic objectives.
The post Déjà Vu News: Corporate Media Repeats Its Failures While Empire Marches On appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program we welcome back political and legal geographer Dr. Austin Kocher to talk about the immigration news that never makes the news. Dr. Kocher talks about overcrowded and deadly detention centers, the 287g clause that transforms your local law enforcement into ICE officers, the fundamental flaw in the US immigration legal system, and how we shouldn’t think of borders as a matter of what they are, but rather what they do in service of the state. Next up, my cohost Mickey Huff sits down with frequent guest and political analyst Nolan Higdon to dissect some recent news, focusing especially on AI: what can history tell us about the unintelligence of artificial intelligence, how deep fakes are crowbarring the political divide even further and deeper, the corporate capture of the classroom, and more.
The post Manufactured Borders, Manufactured Intelligence appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, were covering two things youll never hear about on corporate media - or if you do, theyll be demonized: whistleblowers, and targeted boycott movements. First up, were joined by a Capital One whistleblower who talks about how the companys internal dealings with Israeli weapons manufacturers chafes against the companys external PR campaign of progressive and diversity politics. The whistleblower outlines the so-called proper channels they attempted to utilize in addressing their concerns, and what organizing work theyre doing now to hold Capital One accountable to not only their clients but to international law. Next up, were joined by two organizers with the Eject Elbit campaign focused on decoupling the Israeli weapons manufacturer from the financial institutions it relies on. Scotty and Liza share the BDS precedent for their work, recent wins, and upcoming goals. They talk about the medias framing of their work, not least of all using and twisting their Jewishness while continuing to silence and obscure Palestinian voices and calls for justice.
The post Corporate Complicity: A Whistleblower and the Eject Elbit Campaign appeared first on Project Censored.
First up, we welcome back to the program analyst and organizer Leonardo Flores to talk to us about what’s really going on on the ground in Venezuela, contextualizing the push for oil, the drug fiasco that now even the DOJ admits as farce, and cutting through the thick sludge of…
The post Venezuela, War Crimes, and the Media’s Dirty Work appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program we welcome back Dr. Shir Hever to talk about what’s really going on behind the media veil of an infallible Israel. Dr. Hever debunks Israel’s claims that they can become militarily independent, and the effect of both military embargoes and continued BDS pressure.…
The post Ghosts in the Machine: Israel’s Military Myths and the Private Equity State appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show Italian philosopher and author Federico Campagna joins the show to discuss his most recent book, Otherworlds: Mediterranean Lessons on Escaping History. Federico outlines the role of imagination in shaping our reality, the censored histories of those who refused an oppressive reality not because they denied its existence but because they denied its acceptability, and built worlds to shield, shelter, survive and in some cases thrive in some of history's most difficult times. Federico also discusses how myths and nostalgia work for and against us, the nuance missing in an ever-narrowing world view which buries and censors the possibilities of both the past and the present. Next up, Mickey sits down with media professor and author Bill Yousman to talk about disinformation, looking back on his essay for the State of the Free Press 2025 to contextualize where we are now, and where we could be headed with some prescriptive actions. Bill outlines the importance of not falling back on the lazy but easy path of censorship in combating disinformation, and the importance of well-funded public media and education in bolstering ourselves against the tsunamis of nonsense.
The post History, Myth, and Media in an Age of Disinformation appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, a special roundtable discussion with your Project Censored cohosts and the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Director of Advocacy Seth Stern and Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper come back on the show to dive into the viscous morass of rights violations, including those of ICE, and the complicit courts and judges that could do more to rein them in, SLAPP suits as a weapon to silence truth-tellers, the issue of over-classification that serves to paper over the publics right to know what our government is doing in our name, and much more.
The post A Viscous Morass: SLAPP Suits, Secrecy, and Complicit Courts appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, we welcome back the editor-in-chief of Jewish Currents Arielle Angel to talk about the need for new Jewish institutions that reflect not only antizionist Judaism but the myriad traditions of Judaism which zionism has always tried to negate and erase. Arielle also highlights the connections between zionism and American exceptionalism, ideologies that fuel and feed off one another, the power of a grassroots leftist Jewish memory culture, and the pitfalls of self-denial on the Jewish left. Next up, editor for Workday Magazine, Sarah Lazare comes on the show to discuss the purposefully obfuscated connection between labor organizing and immigrants rights. Sarah outlines ways in which workers are building solidarity in the face of violent raids and harassment, and how shallow and extractive corporate media practices perpetuate misinformation and violence.
The post Antizionist Futures and Immigrant Rights in Labor Organizing appeared first on Project Censored.
This week we are rejoined by media scholar Nolan Higdon to discuss his latest work, “Unmasking Epstein: Power, Blackmail, and the Press’s Failures.” We also delve into the increasingly problematic world of Artificial Intelligence, the challenges and threats AI poses, and the importance of critical AI literacy. Next, Mickey speaks to Brown University first year student James Libresco about his latest Dispatch on Media and Politics for Project Censored titled, “A Direct Attack on Freedom of Speech: Trump Takes on Higher Ed.” Libresco addresses media freedom and the student press, as well as the massive pushback to Trump’s so-called “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education,” which actually poses major threats to academic freedom.
The post Scrutinizing Power: Epstein Coverage, AI Threats, and Higher Ed Under Pressure appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Palestinian-American journalist, translator, photographer, and media analyst Laura Albast joins the show to discuss journalism as memory work, and the narrative as a battlefield upon which ever more advanced technology takes aim at Palestinian voices and lived experiences. Laura frames journalism as a commitment - to people and their stories, and talks about how the chasing of headlines and by-lines in the 24-hour news cycle leads to extractive journalism, and how and why movement media can be the antidote. Next up, Economics PHD students Shakked Noy and Aakaash Rao discuss their recent report: The Business of the Culture War which links the contemporary “culture wars” to changes in media technologies as well as economic incentives for cable news. Shakked and Aakaash discuss how their research shows that the economic drive for viewership has incentivized corporate media to turn away from actual political news and towards sensational infotainment, and how the commodification of legitimate rage leaves us dumber and more divided than ever before.
The post Memory Work & Culture Wars: From Palestine to Corporate Media appeared first on Project Censored.
We start this week off with news that didn’t make the news from Sudan. Researcher and analyst Mosaab Baba joins us to contextualize the recent atrocities in El-Fasher, Sudan, highlighting decades-long power struggles not only inside the country but internationally as well. Mosaab explains the goals of these new imperialists and their genocidal beneficiaries, the importance of Sudan’s rich mineral and agricultural assets, and how the guns and money always lead to the familiar players of the UAE, Egypt, the US, and Israel. Next up, John Collins of Weave News comes back on the program to discuss news abuse, using a specific example in upstate New York to highlight how even regional media that did previously stand up to power falls in line behind the fallacy conflating antizioinism with antisemitism. John also discusses the Palestinization of the globe, and prescriptions for both media and media consumers on how to stay critically media literate in these critical times.
The post News that Didn’t Make the News: Atrocities in Sudan and Regional New Abuse appeared first on Project Censored.
Today on this special episode of the Project Censored show, we look back at 50 years of the Project with a roundtable conversation about the forthcoming State of the Free Press 2026. Joined by associate director Shealeigh Voitl and editor-at-large Andy Lee Roth, Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield dig into some of that 50 year history, the echoes of systemic problems within our media and also therefore within our society. They discuss and dissect what critical media literacy really is, solutions and citizen journalism, journalistic ethics and what a press of and for by the people really means, and why we need it now more than ever.
The post Fifty Years of Project Censored: The Fight for a Free Press appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with Dr. Abdalhadi Alijila to talk about his forthcoming book Fearful in Gaza, an autobiographical work that details the lived realities, emotions, connections and contradictions of growing up in Gaza. Dr. Alijila remarks on the changing of academia, once the vanguard of progressive thought and action becoming ever more muted and intellectually impoverished. He speaks on the unending question of humanity, including how social media distorts our view, and the problem of dehumanizing by pedestaling what the occupation has buried beneath subhuman propaganda.
The post The Weight of Humanity: Gaza, Academia, and Acts of Solidarity appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, we welcome back the esteemed historian, professor at American University, and co-author with Oliver Stone of The Untold History of the United States, Peter Kuznick. Mickey Huff recently had a chance to catch up with one of America’s most in-demand historians around the world to discuss the state of the Sate under Trump 2.0. They talk about ongoing tensions from the Middle East to Russia, and rising authoritarianism right here at home. This week, for the full hour, history matters as context for the present, with Peter Kuznick.
The post The State of the State: A Historical Lens on Trump 2.0 appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Maurice Carney, co-founder and Executive Director of Friends of the Congo for this year’s Congo Week. Maurice talks about the situation in the DRC, a vastly underreported human rights crisis perpetrated by Rwanda that incorporates junk food news, media framing, mis and disinformation, and the power of entertaining propaganda to shift the focus from war crimes to basketball, concerts, and even green energy. Maurice highlights the interconnected webs of propaganda from Israel to Rwanda, the billionaire push for Congo’s minerals, and more. Next up, Campaign and Communications Director at the National Homelessness Law Center Jesse Rabinowitz joins the show to discuss the escalating attacks on the unhoused. Jesse points out that homelessness is the result of many failed systems, and how the targeting of the unhoused, much like the targeting of incarcerated, is a test - how much pain and suffering can the system mete out on those who have the least political power? Jesse also notes the dearth of coverage on the criminalization of homelessness, an issue that not only harms everyone in society but could BE anyone in a society where everything from food to housing to healthcare is largely unaffordable.
The post Crisis without Coverage: Rwanda, the Congo, and the Unhoused appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, cohost Eleanor Goldfield welcomes back to the show US marine veteran Matthew Hoh to talk about the realities vs. the stories of the US military. How much does the oath to defend the Constitution really mean in practice? They look at Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s recent performance and how this relates to the hierarchy of complicity within the higher ranking military brass. Matt and Eleanor also give some historical context to the use of the US military as a domestic police force, and how Hollywood and the stories we consume as Americans bolster these ideas of a top-down restorative violence, affecting how we think about the idea of the world’s largest military taking over our streets.
Next up, author Danny Goldberg joins the show to talk about his most recent book, Liberals with Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles. Danny discusses how this history can serve us in the present, how building coalitions with those we disagree with is critical work, and how using the media - even legacy media - can support our grassroots goals.
The post US Military Power, Media Messaging, and Grassroots Strategies appeared first on Project Censored.
Today on the program, we celebrate Banned Books Week: Censorship Is So 1984, Read For Your Rights! Today we’ll speak with several people involved in Banned Books Week, starting with this year’s Youth Honorary Chair for the Banned Books Week Coalition, Iris Mogul. Later in the show we’ll be joined by the president of the American Library Association, Sam Helmick. And we’ll conclude the hour by speaking with the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, Lee Rowland. Today on the Project Censored Show, we’ll spend the hour celebrating the right to read and the right to know. It’s Banned Books Week!
The post Banned Books Week: Censorship Is So 1984, Read For Your Rights! appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the program, cohost Mickey Huff welcomes back to the show journalist and author Kevin Gosztola to talk about several stories threatening free speech and a free press, from the local to the global. Kevin discusses the dearth of local independent media in this country and how his efforts to fill that gap in his community have resulted in escalated threats to his free press and free speech rights. Kevin also highlights a new policy at the Pentagon that essentially demands reporters not be reporters if they want to report from the Pentagon, and how one reporter in Atlanta is facing deportation for being a journalist. Next up, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with Kashmiri filmmaker Arfat Sheikh to talk about his film, Saffron Kingdom. Arfat discusses the myriad threats from the Indian government aimed at Kashmir’s storytellers. He talks about the framing of Bollywood to always portray Kashmiris as terrorists and why Kashmiris need to reclaim the narrative in telling their own stories, in his case tapping into the power of film to humanize the dehumanized.
The post Journalism and Free Expression from the US to Kashmir appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, co-host Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Professor Richard Wolff about the state of our economy as a record number of Americans polled cant pay for everyday necessities, speaking to a rising and chronic crisis-level economic anxiety. Professor Wolff outlines the extreme economic inequality, how ICE raids and anti-immigrant violence only fuel the economic downward spiral, and how a healthy dose of imagination and knowledge of history could cure what ails us. Next, cohosts Eleanor Goldfield and Mickey Huff dig into some of the weeks latest news with a critical media literacy lens, dissecting political violence, free speech, the co-opting of language and more.
The post Economic Inequality, Immigration, and Media Spin appeared first on Project Censored.
This week we’re talking about getting comfortable with uncomfortable ideas. First up, Thea Abu al-Haj joins the program to discuss the unprecedented censorship she and other academic authors experienced when the Harvard Educational Review pulled the plug on an entire issue of their journal dedicated to Palestine. Thea discusses this new level of censorship as a deep and targeted blow to the very core mission of places of higher education: namely to be places of open debate, open minds and where we can all confront uncomfortable ideas with curiosity, reflection, and exploration. Next up, Dr. Robert Talisse joins the show to talk about what he calls civic solitude - the need, indeed the responsibility to remove ourselves from the ever widening divisions in US politics for the sake of our collective benefit. Robert and Eleanor tease out how this relates to a loneliness endemic to the United States, the need to engage with people and ideas that are unknown and even uncomfortable to us, and the problems of an overly mediated world that interrupts our ability to reflect even when we are physically alone.
The post Palestine, Censorship, and the Responsibility to Reflect appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Mickey Huff sits down with author and professor Omar Zahzah to talk about his upcoming book: Terms of Servitude: Zionism, Silicon Valley, and Digital Settler Colonialism in the Palestinian Liberation Struggle. Omar discusses the impetus for the book which predates October 7th and how the book grew not only to encompass the current genocide but indeed to look at how Palestine and Palestinian resistance serves as a window into a broad system and practice of digital censorship globally. Omar outlines his struggles in refusing the language of silence, and talks about how corporate media enforces censorship, dehumanization and the overall actions of the military industrial complex despite public dissent. In the second half of the program, Eleanor Goldfield welcomes back to the show organizer, lawyer, and author Kamau Franklin to talk about the book he co-edited called No Cop City, No Cop World. Kamau discusses the diversity of tactics used by the diverse movement to stop cop city, the derision by local politicians and indeed media, highlighting the important fact that a local media isn’t enough - it’s got to be local AND independent media. Kamau talks about the importance of the people creating their own narrative for these fights for justice, as well as the importance of reframing the fight against cop city as one of global proportions that isn’t over, it’s just entered a new phase.
The post Resisting Silence: From Palestine to Cop City appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, we welcome back to the show Leonardo Flores, co-founder of the Venezuela Solidarity Network, to talk about the US’ dangerous and honestly stupid escalation against Venezuela. Leo debunks the US’ absurd claims of drug trafficking, contextualizing them in a longer history of using drugs as a cover for violent escalation against nations in Latin America. Leo also talks about the remarkable critical media literacy of the Venezuelan people - something that the government has nurtured for almost 30 years via a varied and healthy media landscape that promotes independent and local media rather than a centralized corporate system. Next up, Nolan Higdon comes back on the show to talk about AI through the lens of critical media literacy. Nolan highlights the importance of not leaning on AI for foundational skills such as reading comprehension and critical media literacy, that AI is not some superior intellect but rather a system built by vehemently anti-democratic and indeed anti-human minds. Nolan explains that while the point isn’t to be afraid of technology, we must understand what the technology really is, what it can do for us and perhaps more importantly what it can do to us.
The post Venezuela, Propaganda, and the Promise (and Peril) of AI appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, DC organizer Natacia Knapper joins Eleanor Goldfield to discuss Trump’s takeover of DC, what makes DC particularly vulnerable to such federal overreach, and what the situation is really like on the ground. Natacia highlights the problematic ways in which corporate media have framed the situation, and why people outside of DC need to be hyper-aware and vigilant because this overreach will not stop in DC. Next up, Mickey Huff sits down with one of Project Censored’s summer interns Jayden Henry to talk about his recent dispatch: Blood, Sweat, and Stitches: How Overconsumption Pushes Garment Workers to the Brink. Jayden discusses his research on this rarely covered topic and draws connections between the consumerist paradigm in the so-called imperial core and the extreme exploitation of workers in so-called periphery nations.
The post Power & Exploitation: DC Overreach & Global Labor Injustice appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, we’re joined by Dr. Ramzy Baroud, a journalist, author, and editor of the Palestine Chronicle. Dr. Baroud discusses cultural hegemony, the insidious tool of colonization that distorts an Indigenous people into submission. Dr. Baroud explains how the Palestinians have resisted this tactic which is why Israel has been forced to leverage ever more horrific violence, particularly in Gaza. Dr. Baroud also outlines the myriad problems in how corporate media portrays Palestinians, and how journalists in Gaza have changed the global understanding of where truth comes from - that truth isn’t shared unless those on the frontlines are also producers of the media. Next up, activist and educator Nikki Morse comes back on the show, this time to talk about their time in the West Bank with the International Solidarity Movement. Nikki describes the accelerated pace of ethnic cleansing, explaining the often intersecting web of oppression vis a vis settlers, police, the army, and Israel’s legal system. Nikki also talks about the importance of how we discuss and frame the West Bank, uplifting voices on the ground, and bringing more people to the frontlines to be in solidarity with Palestinians.
The post From the Frontlines: Media, Colonization, and Resistance in Palestine appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the show, Mickey welcomes back award-winning investigative reporter, Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red. They talk about his latest book, Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, From Farm to Fable. Behind the little red barns dotting the landscape and decorating the products we consume is a dangerous threat. In this groundbreaking investigation, Potter exposes the powerful forces at work to hide the harms of industrial agriculture, its outsize role in the climate crisis, and its links to the global rise of fascism. Later in the program, Project Censored managing editor Mischa Geracoulis guest hosts, speaking with Heidi Boghosian about her new book, Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy With Digital Literacy. The electronic age compels us to confront the delicate balance between the convenience of constant connectivity and the protection of personal privacy, security, and democracy itself.
The post From Factory Farms to Firewalls: Resisting Corporate Power appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Dr. Shir Hever joins us to discuss Israel’s disinformation economy, the zombie economy that is held together by nothing more than lies and deception, and how the ongoing genocide in Gaza has made clear that for most Israelis, the need to oppress is greater than the need to make ends meet. Dr. Hever also highlights the journalistic malpractice of Israel’s propaganda machine, the impressive and vital progress of the BDS movement and how politicians are now leveraging Palestine for personal political gain. Next up, Dr. Margaret Flowers comes back on the show to outline the difference between sanctions and unilateral coercive economic measures. We discuss the recent Lancet report showing that US unilateral measures are responsible for more than half a million deaths a year worldwide. Dr. Flowers outlines the shift to a multipolar world, how nations are side-stepping US hegemony and violence, and how we can engage with these interconnected issues.
The post Oppression as Policy: Israel, Sanctions, and the Global Cost of Control appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Andrew Crespo, professor of law at Harvard University joins us to discuss the mass incarceration system, a system that’s upheld by lawyers and promoted in our institutions of higher learning. Andrew outlines plea bargaining as a bolster and boost to mass incarceration, prisons as sponges for people in poverty, the death of social programs that would legitimately counter crime, and the need to shift our thinking about how our justice system works and for whom, recognizing that our paradigms allow this remarkably harmful system to perpetuate. Later in the show, I’m joined by Dr. Roy Casagranda, a professor of government and the Middle East Affairs expert at Austin Community College. Dr. Casagranda outlines the bloodied red thread that connects the first crusades to the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the creation of Israel, and the war on terror. He also uplifts a purposefully obscured history of cultural vibrancy in the Muslim world where not only did Jews, Muslims, and Christians thrive but where the foundations of our modern world were forged centuries before the European mathematical, scientific, and philosophical advancements we learn about.
The post Systems of Control, Histories of Resistance appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Mickey sits down with Jeff Cohen, founder of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media and author to talk about the passing of independent media great Bill Moyers. Jeff shares stories of Moyers intrepid reporting and his behind-the-scenes organizing and fundraising that allowed truly independent media to flourish. His death is a loss for the alternative independent media world, and a sobering reminder of the need for outspoken voices such as Bill’s in times like these. In the second part of the show, co hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield dig into some of the news that didn’t make the news, and why, as well as asking, is this the best we can do? They kick off with what corporate media won’t tell you about the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, and then dig into some historical context of the insidious Project Esther, the latest in a long line of threats to our civil liberties, going back to COINTELPRO. Sprinkle in some investigative comedy, defense of metal heads, and more - coming up now on Project Censored.
The post Bill Moyers’ Legacy, Censored News, and Civil Liberties at Risk appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, we’re joined by board-certified psychiatrist and writer Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq who details how empathy as a skill requires attention, a commodity in short supply these days. Dr. Mushtaq outlines how the framework of social media allows us to not only dehumanize others but indeed ourselves, to avoid discomfort through a simple scroll, and to become ever more intolerant of those we perceive as insurmountably different than ourselves. She also discusses how this connects to the rise of anxiety, depression, and isolation in our society. Later in the program, journalist, researcher and policy director at Defending Rights and Dissent Chip Gibbons comes back on the show to help us wade through the morass of courts and legal proceedings that create a whiplash of headaches for those trying to negotiate access to supposed rights such as the first amendment. Chip gives historical context to today’s free speech battles and outlines nefarious tactics such as blacklists and their role in legal cases.
The post Short Supply: Empathy, Attention, and America’s Legal Labyrinth appeared first on Project Censored.
Indeed, as our first amendment rights continue to be gravely threatened, real, independent frontline journalists are more than truth-tellers, they are the keepers of ideals we as Americans are taught to revere. so, this week, a special program: excerpts from the 17th annual Izzy Awards Show which took place at the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College in Ithaca New York in early May of this year.
The Izzy awards are named after the famous and indeed infamous and intrepid muckraker I.F. ‘Izzy’ Stone…
So this week, we’re featuring remarks by presenters, journalists and media scholars as well as remarks by this year’s winners. Project Censored director and radio show host Mickey Huff was the host of the awards show. He is also the distinguished director of the Park Center for Independent Media.
The post The Right to Criticize: Honoring Independent Journalism at the Izzy Awards appeared first on Project Censored.
Today on the program in the first segment: Marketing Mars. Zara Zimbardo deconstructs the mythologies of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny as they apply to settler colonialism in space, and the billionaire tech bro infatuation with our closest planetary neighbor, Mars. Looking through several analytical frames, Zimbardo debunks any notion that there is a Planet B to escape to, remarking “we’re encouraged to believe that human ingenuity and industry can turn uninhabitable Mars into a habitable Earth. This fantasy is a distraction from the reality that Earth is being rapidly turned into Mars.” In the second segment today, we are rejoined by investigative journalist Peter Byrne. We look at his latest installments for Military AI Watch. We’ll look at the Stargate Fiasco, World War 3 will be fought inside data centers, and his most recent, AI Battle Space: Weaponizing the 5G Internet of Things.
The post Marketing Mars and AI Battle Space appeared first on Project Censored.
In this episode of the Project Censored Show, guest host Mischa Geracoulis, Project Censored’s managing editor, speaks with legendary photographer, Glen E. Friedman, about his latest book of Bad Brains photographs, Fearless Vampire Killers (Akashic Books, 2025), Glen’s work in photography and music, punk rock’s place in history, and the parallels between independent media and independent music. One of the more enduring attributes of Friedman’s work is its unspoken message of championing freedom, especially apropos when civil liberties and human rights are under fire.
Friedman’s iconic Burning Flags travelling exhibition that launched in Barcelona in 2022 will be making its US debut at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma on September 18, 2025 through February 15, 2026.
The post Glen E. Friedman on His Photography, Bad Brains, and Rebellious American Music appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first segment of this week's Project Censored Show, Mickey welcomes back media scholar Nolan Higdon. They discuss his new podcast Disinfo Detox and recurring special feature “The Gaslight Gazette" that analyzes current events and media coverage of them through a critical media literacy lens aiming to deconstruct deceptive media messaging. They also discuss legacy media's failure to adequately cover Joe Biden’s physical and cognitive decline in the last election, which a new book co-authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper addresses, though the authors shift blame from corporate media to the Democratic Party without noting their own role in lack of in-depth coverage even though there were stories published at the time in the independent press. Later in the show Eleanor Goldfield and Mickey present another installment in their "Is This the Best We Can Do" segment that analyzes the competency of current government appointees for the positions they fulfill. They provide examples regarding the current heads of FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, the former spokesperson for Biden’s Secretary of State, and more.
The post Disinfo, Decline, and Dysfunction appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, Eleanor Goldfield begins by doing what corporate media rarely do, and that is check in on people beyond the 24-hour news cycle and disaster reporting frenzy. Chelsea White-Hoglen, organizer and resident of Western North Carolina comes back on the program to tell us about the compounding crises that have…
The post Out of the Frame: Hurricane Helene Aftermath and the Weaponization of Antisemitism appeared first on Project Censored.
Today in the first segment, Mickey welcomes back Lauren Harper and Seth Stern from the Freedom of the Press Foundation. They discuss several matters including their latest FOIA work on how the Trump administration has been treating immigrants, students and other vulnerable groups across the country. They provide an update…
The post Press Freedoms and Civil Rights Under Attack; and Practicing Civic Self-respect appeared first on Project Censored.
Two places of extreme oppression and turmoil that you won’t hear about on corporate media: Kashmir and Armenia. Today on the program, we’re first joined by professor Ather Zia to talk about Kashmir as a psychic border between India and Pakistan, a stage on which these powers battle out their whims while Kashmir is doing the dying. Ather outlines the insidious great disappearance of Kashmiri writing due to Indian censorship laws and violent retaliation against journalists. She also dissects the nation-state system as one that necessarily requires such violence, the post-colonial myth, deep and disturbing connections to Israel, and more. Next up, Armenian human rights lawyer Karnig Kerkonian comes back on the show to discuss the situation in Armenia, and the Armenian quarter in East Jerusalem. Karnig outlines the absurd peace talks with Azerbaijan as comparable to trying to appease Hitler with Sudetenland, a lesson he feels we should’ve learned well enough 80 years ago. Karnig also discusses the settler violence in the Armenian quarter in East Jerusalem, a place that Armenian Christians have called home for more than a thousand years. The fight to remain goes well beyond East Jerusalem, Karnig says, and betrays the deeper settler colonial reality of what media often portrays as Muslims vs. Jews in the Promised Land.
The post Kashmir and Armenia: Voices from the Margins appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Nikki Morse, Noam Brown and Prince Jooveh talk about the album Bending the Bars, a project created via makeshift jail phone setups in order to uplift and amplify the voices of incarcerated musicians. Our guests discuss the myriad powers of music, from therapy to frontline reporting to bridges between rival gangs and political perspectives. They dive into the barriers and indeed the freedom in creating an album without the support or collaboration of the carceral system, and how their work can be, and indeed should be repeated by others across the prison industrial complex. Next up, journalist and organizer Jen Deerinwater joins the show again, this time to talk about indigiqueer identities, how colonization violently imposed the binary, missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two spirits and relatives, and how this violence is inextricably linked to ecocide. Jen also uplifts the upcoming decolonized beatz, Indigenous world pride, a global event celebrating the powerful creativity of 2SLGBTQIA+ Indigenous artists, performers, and storytellers coming up in late may in Washington DC.
The post Behind Bars and Binaries: Music, Identity, and the Fight for Liberation appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first segment of today’s program Mickey talks with Laurel Krause, Emily Kunstler, and Kelley Lane 55 years after the Ohio National Guard killed four students and wounded nine others at Kent State University as they protested the illegal expansion of the disastrous Vietnam War. There are many lessons…
The post Lessons from Kent State 55 Years Later, and the Power of Truth-telling and Resisting Censorship appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, campus life in the crosshairs. First up, Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Kei Pritsker, the co-director of “The Encampments” and journalist with Breakthrough News. Kei talks about colleges as extensions of the national security state where, at the request of a foreign nation committing genocide, students are brutalized. Kei also shares his experiences creating the film as press and as a part of the community that the encampments built. Next up, Professor Nick Wolfinger talks about his latest book, Professors Speak Out: The Truth About Campus Investigations. Nick and Eleanor discuss the problematic way in which universities are handling complaints about faculty while also debating the difficulty in umbrella guidelines regarding a faculty member’s ability to do their job based on their opinions and prejudices. It’s a slippery slope and when academic freedom is at stake, it’s easy to let our own political leanings push us to the bottom. Can we all embrace discomfort for the sake of academic freedom?
The post Campus Life in the Crosshairs appeared first on Project Censored.
The Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College is honored to announce this year’s Izzy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Media. The Izzy Award is named after legendary muckraking journalist I.F. “Izzy” Stone. It’s the 17th Annual Award from the Park Center that honors the best reporting from the independent press. Today on the program, we’ll talk to some of the Izzy winners and an Izzy judge. We’ll start with Professor Victor Pickard, a long time Izzy judge, speaking about the state of our free press. Then we’ll talk to Max Alvarez of the Real News Network and Chris Albright, a resident of East Palestine, Ohio. They’ll talk about Alvarez’s coverage of the great train derailment there from 2023. Later in the program, we’re also joined by Arielle Angel of Jewish Currents to talk about their important work.
The post Independent and Unafraid: Inside the 17th Annual Izzy Awards appeared first on Project Censored.
This week we’re looking at the insidious and nefarious sides of tech - starting off, a conversation with Esra’a Al Shafei discussing her new site Surveillance Watch, an incredible trove of data formulated into an easily searchable and interactive site that exposes the vast interconnected web of global authoritarian surveillance systems. Esra’a discusses the impunity with which these corporations and financial institutions operate, with no care for borders, side-stepping sanctions, and using genocide as a marketing tool. She highlights the importance of bringing this information to light, of acting to protect ourselves and each other and never normalizing the Orwellian panopticon. Next up, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with investigative journalist Peter Byrne to unveil a new 10-part series titled Military AI Watch: the dangerous militarization of AI and the profiteering behind it. Peter and Mickey discuss the first piece in the series, One Ring to Rule them All where Peter names the cast of characters in this dark fantasy turned reality, their terrifying aims, the monopoly on murder, and more.
The post Eyes Everywhere: Tech Tyranny and the Profiteers of Control appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, author and Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund’s education director Ben Price joins the program to talk about his new book, Wouldn’t You Say, A Collection of Essays on Environment and Community. In the book and in our conversation, Ben explains that what we’re seeing today is not a perversion of the promise of America, it’s actually a proof of concept, a continuation of foundational ideologies never meant to protect we, the people, and certainly not to protect the ecosystems of which we are a part. Ben discusses rights of nature not as a legal north star but as a need to shift our thinking about relationships, between ourselves, the law, and empirical reality. Next up, Dr. Kim Wilson and Maya Schenwar join the show to discuss the book which they co-edited, We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition. Maya and Kim discuss this multi-generational project which also combines voices from the inside and outside, highlighting the contrasts and connections between the carceral systems of literal and figurative cages, and how prisons are and have been the canaries in the coal mine for the restrictions on our basic rights. They discuss abolition as a tearing down but perhaps even more so of a building up, how kids are integral to the creative imagination necessary for building new worlds, and the emergent possibilities outside of our current death-making system.
The post Conversations on Environmental Justice, Abolition, and the Future We Build appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, journalist, researcher and policy director of Defending Rights and Dissent, Chip Gibbons comes back on the show to talk about attacks on journalists in Gaza, attacks on free press here at home, the links between them, and the long history of our shaky and fragile access to first amendment rights. Chip places the targeting of students like Mahmoud Khalil in a timeline of authoritarian moves to protect US political interests over basic freedoms, and how our ignorance of the past is wrecking our present and predetermining a dark future. In the second half of the show, labor activist and co-founder of the National Labor Network for Ceasefire Gene Bruskin joins the show to connect the dots on US foreign and domestic policy, on how chronic injustices here at home make us blind to the fact that we don’t have to live this way, not here, and not over there. Gene talks about the importance of bringing our demands together, of thinking globally, of tactics that work and tactics that don’t, and of reclaiming OUR radical labor history.
The post Challenging Injustice and Reclaiming Radical Labor History appeared first on Project Censored.
In an era when algorithms are reshaping how news is gathered, produced, distributed, and consumed, every journalist, regardless of specialty, needs some degree of algorithmic literacy. We’re joined by 2024-25 RJI fellow Andy Lee Roth, who led a team to create a website about Algorithmic Literacy for Journalists. It provides a practical toolkit to help journalists and the general public better understand the functions, impacts, and ethics of algorithms, including shadowbanning and other forms of censorship. In the second half of the show, we present Frame Check, a new monthly series that will be available on social media and podcast platforms. This new segment on The Project Censored Show is hosted by Reagan Haynie, Kate Horgan, and Shealeigh Voitl. Frame Check explores pop culture, news, and feminism through a critical media literacy lens, helping audiences deconstruct dominant news frames. In the debut segment, the hosts examine how corporate media sensationalizes the manufactured spectacle of Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s relationship—amplifying their antics while failing to critically assess their influence—turning even significant political developments into junk food news.
The post Algorithmic Literacy for Journalists & Frame Checking the News appeared first on Project Censored.
Coming up first on the program, we welcome back Dr. Khalil Khalidy, an orthopedic doctor in Deir al-Balah, Gaza to give us what you’ll never hear on corporate media: updates on the situation in Gaza from Gazans since the end of phase one of the so-called ceasefire. Dr. Khalidy also discusses the insidious Israeli propaganda machine, the psychological effects of colonialism, and some vital history many in the US likely don’t know, including the divide-and-conquer strategy to pull Palestinians from each other, geographically and culturally, from the West Bank to Gaza to the diaspora. Later in the program, cohosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield dig into some of the most recent news that didn’t make the news, in particular the abduction of Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil, the history of who the US deems a terrorist, and the importance of critical media literacy and independent media in these - to put it mildly, turbulent times.
The post The News That Didn’t Make the News: Gaza’s Reality, Propaganda, and the Fight for Justice appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, a special Project Censored episode: “What To Us Is International Women’s Day?,” a variation on the question asked by Frederick Douglass: What to the Slave is the 4th of July? March 8th is International Women’s Day, and while many will and do celebrate this day in revolutionary ways, the truth is that IWD like so many other holidays is often used to serve the vehemently anti-feminist goals of the architects of our oppression. So-called white feminism perpetuates the evils of white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and imperialism - but with a femme facade, pushing us to ask what to us is an international women’s day which doesn’t seek to dismantle the very systems that use, abuse & torment women across the US and the globe? Award-winning journalist Mnar Adley and organizer Afeni Evans will join Eleanor Goldfield for this special hour-long dive into the insidious machinations of white feminism, who gets violently othered and why, the internationalist demands of a revolutionary feminism, and what really to us, is - or could be - International Women’s Day?
The post What To Us Is International Women’s Day? appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, author and organizer Harsha Walia joins the show to talk about the convergence of racist nationalism and border imperialism, and how the attacks on migrants are inextricably linked to the attacks on Indigenous peoples. Harsha also discusses the globalization of border violence, and offers a class analysis that contextualizes the border as a spatial fix for capital accumulation. Later in the show, community organizer Kamau Franklin comes back on the show to talk about the very real fears taking hold of people in these times, how these are different from manufactured fears, and how real leftist media is needed to push through the cacophonous propaganda of empire. Kamau also discusses the importance of the build and fight, imagining and actually creating alternatives to our current system that can scale and provide in the here and now.
The post Borders, Empire, and Resistance: Confronting Racism, Nationalism, and the Fight for Alternatives appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, Mickey speaks with filmmaker Allyson Rice and researcher Dorri C. Scott about the growing number of books challenged and banned in US schools and libraries, something the Trump administration has called a hoax. We hear about the soon-to-be-released documentary, Banned Together, that looks at efforts by local school boards and state-level politicians to restrict student access to books while highlighting the very students who are protesting and fighting back for the right to read. Then, Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy there, warn that the Trump Administration is engaged in unprecedented, and possibly illegal, efforts to reshuffle how federal agencies’ records are kept. They also survey Trump’s multiple attacks on journalists and press in his first month back in office and caution that more assaults on the First Amendment and the public’s right to know will be forthcoming, which, they argue, should be vigorously resisted.
The post Debunking the Book Ban “Hoax” and Resisting Trump Administration Attacks on the First Amendment appeared first on Project Censored.
Up first on the program, associate editor and producer of the weekly livestream at Electronic Intifada, Tamara Nassar discusses the Gaza-like situation unfolding in the West Bank, violence that has been escalating since the start of, and indeed before, the genocide. Tamara outlines the myriad ways in which the occupation oppresses, dehumanizes and murders Palestinians including tricks the Israelis inherited from the British colonial government, and the twisted use of the Palestinian Authority to support Israeli aims behind a Palestinian name. Next, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with journalist and founder of Payday Report, Mike Elk, to talk about corporate media’s failure to cover Day Without Immigrant strike events that happened in more than a hundred cities across 40 states, and how this also speaks to the presence of news deserts and an anemic alternative independent press. Mike also speaks about the need for a multicultural media system, and how unions can protect against raids and other violence aimed at immigrants.
The post Occupied Realities & Uncovered Strikes: The Struggle for Palestinian Rights and Immigrant Justice appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program this week, Palestinian legal expert Hassan Ben Imran comes back on the show to talk about the recent formation of the Hague Group, the ongoing cases against Israel and the limitations of, and hope in international law. Later in the show, cohosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield banter about the sad state of the 4th estate vis a vis coverage of the genocide in Gaza, and how legacy media couldn’t even be bothered to truthfully report on the carnage meted out by US tax dollars. In a new segment that we’ll come back to in many arenas of life, Mickey and Eleanor ask if this is the best we can do — be it these so-called journalists, or the latest cabinet picks.
The post Is This the Best We Can Do? Hope and Limitations in International Law appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Mohawk journalist Isaac White speaks to Eleanor Goldfield about being guilty of journalism. Isaac was arrested last year while covering a land claim demonstration despite clearly identifying himself as press and having credentials on his person. Isaac’s story also highlights the importance of and dangers to local and Indigenous media. As we’ve covered before on Project Censored, there’s already a dearth of local media, but add to that Indigenous local media, and this forced scarcity means that reporters like Isaac who would be connecting communities and holding local leaders to account have to find a living elsewhere, a move that affects the entire local area. In the second half of the show, my cohost Mickey Huff sits down with Dr. John Collins, a founder & editorial director at Weave News, author, and professor at St. Lawrence University to talk about the power and mandate of grassroots independent media in these times. John explains that journalism is too important to be left to the powers that be and what we need right now more than ever is news of, for and by the people. John also talks about his books and years of work on Palestine, and how Palestine is in fact not only an issue unto itself but also a lens for examining colonialism, capitalism, media, the politics of representation and more.
The post Defending Local & Indigenous Media in an Age of Scarcity appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, economist Dr. Richard Wolff joins co-host Eleanor Goldfield to set the record straight on what tariffs really are, and how bizarrely hypocritical it is that the famously anti-tax republican party is now the party that wants a lot of taxes - taxes aimed at you and me. Professor Wolff also explains the wrong-headed thinking about immigration - that in fact, steady immigration into the US is and has been a sign of a healthy economy, so the fact that the nation can’t and won’t embrace immigration today is actually a big red flag that our economy is weak - as further evidenced by how well the BRICS nations are doing compared to the G7. In the second half of the show, co-host Mickey Huff speaks with journalists Maya Schenwar and Negin Owliaei about how media must NOT back down to Trump’s threats against press freedom. Maya and Negin outline the multi pronged attacks that journalists and media organizations are facing, remarking that none of us alone can surmount these problems but that real active solidarity and community building is key - along with contextualizing our today in the struggles of yesterday, and NEVER complying in advance.
The post Don’t Get Distracted: Bitter Economic Pills & Threats to Free Press Hit Everyone appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the program, co-host Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Leyna Quinn-Davidson, the Fire Network Director for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources about the confluence of issues that are quite literally fueling the fires in LA County. Leyna highlights how we have to shift our thinking about not only how fires burn but their historic and vital role in bolstering healthy ecosystems. She also pinpoints some simple actions people in the area can take to protect their homes and perhaps more importantly their communities, since what your neighbor does or doesn’t do in these situations will directly affect you. In the second half of the show, experienced conflict correspondent Theia Chatelle joins the program to talk about suing Yale PD, a frustrating but enlightening process that uncovered a vast and deep web of surveillance and repressive tactics aimed at students engaging in constitutionally protected speech and protest. Theia discusses the frightening levels of coordination between campus police, local and federal law enforcement, Zionist organizations and even counter-terrorism agencies. She connects this to a larger pattern of repression across US colleges, universities, and towns and cities beyond campus borders, where the panopticon-style surveillance follows anyone and everyone who could be deemed a threat to the status quo.
The post Fires, Frontlines, and Surveillance: Looking into Environmental and Civil Rights Crises appeared first on Project Censored.
This week we swing into the new year, 2025, with Mickey engaging media scholar Nolan Higdon. They discuss the incoming administration, Trump 2.0, the failures of the punditocracy and what might mean for press freedom in his second term; social media and an end to so-called fact-checking; and why we will continue to need a truly independent press to keep us informed moving forward. Later in the program, media scholar Steve Macek joins the conversation, and it’s Deja Vu all over again as they revisit previously censored news stories around significant current events (including in Gaza) and how the ongoing lack of establishment media coverage around key issues contributes to low information voters and allows myriad injustices to persist at home and around the globe.
The post Pressing Issues for 2025: Trump 2.0, Media Failures, and the Fight for Press Freedom appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the program Eleanonr Goldfield speaks with Shrouq Aila, an investigative journalist, producer and researcher in Gaza. Shrouq describes the situation on the ground in Gaza, the target on her back as a journalist, what she asks of her fellow journalists in these times, and the layered struggles of being the story that you are covering.
In the second half of the program, Marine corps veteran Matthew Hoh comes back on the show to talk about his recent trip to occupied Palestine / Israel. Matt describes the parallel phases of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Israeli culture that makes entertainment out of genocide while simultaneously denying that genocide
The post Reporting Under Fire: Gaza, Genocide, and the Truth Behind the Headlines appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Mickey sits down with Omar Zahzah, a Lebanese/Palestinian organizer, writer, poet, freelance journalist and assistant professor of Arab/Muslim ethnicities and diaspora studies at San Francisco State University. Omar discusses his forthcoming book from the Censored and Seven Stories presses titled Terms of Servitude:…
The post Digital Settler Colonialism, Gaza, and the Struggle for Palestinian Liberation appeared first on Project Censored.
What happens when wealthy investors buy up local news outlets? Well, in addition to gradually shutting them down and restricting what they report, ironically creating news deserts, they can also memory hole online news archives. For the first part of the program, Mickey Huff is joined by investigative reporter Peter Byrne. Byrne talks about unplugging the news and history in San Francisco, navigating the existential fragility of online news archives.
Later in the program, you’ll hear excerpts from an event held at Ithaca College in November, cosponsored by the Park Center for Independent Media, Project Looksharp, and Project Censored. Mickey Huff hosted co-editor of State of the Free Press 2025 Shaeleigh Voitl, and contributors Robin Andersen, and Steve Macek. You’ll get an overview of Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2025, hear some of the top underreported news stories of the year, and much more.
The post Unplugging the News: The Fight for Local Journalism and the State of the Free Press appeared first on Project Censored.
Today in the first segment of the show, Mickey Huff speaks with associate director of Project Censored, Andy Lee Roth, and the Project’s digital and print editor, Shealeigh Voitl. They talk about Project Censored’s new book State of the Free Press 2025 that looks at the top underreported or censored news stories from the past year that corporate media censored, otherwise distorted or ignored altogether. Later in the conversation, Andy and Shealeigh talk about moving beyond fact-checking and their educator resource guide on the power of news frames, and how news framing helps shape public opinion. Later in the program, cohosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield talk about a recent piece she wrote on news literacy for activists and organizers: Critical Media Literacy provides grassroots movements with practical tools for pursuing their goals. Eleanor and Mickey also discuss the troublesome bill, HR 9495 that passed through the House recently. It is a draconian bill that would allow the Treasury Secretary to unilaterally strip a nonprofit of their status if they’re deemed a terrorist-supporting organization. This is incredibly dangerous given the political motivations of a potential Treasury Secretary to silence particular nonprofits on the basis of the focus of their message.
The post Censored News, Media Framing, and the Threat of HR 9495: A Conversation with Project Censored appeared first on Project Censored.
What does the genocide in Gaza have to do with the working class here at home? Well, quite a lot. Imperialism is a home game and the same corporations and international interests that make bank off of blood oppress the US workforce for that same bottom line. This week in a special hour interview episode, three guest experts join the Project Censored Radio show to discuss the US supply chain and war: labor educator Gifford Hartman, researcher and CGPU-UAW union member Abdullah Farooq, and 40 year rail and marine transportation veteran Fritz Edler.
Together they outline not only the current actions and efforts of workers to connect the dots between oppression here at home and abroad, but also the silenced and buried history of workplace organizing against war, including direct action and strikes. Our guests also dive into the importance of public ownership of transportation such as rail, the nefarious ways in which automation fuels both the war machine and destitution here in the US, and what a just transition away from war could mean not only for workers here but indeed around the whole world.
The post Connecting the Dots: The War on Workers Is The War Abroad appeared first on Project Censored.
In this episode of the Project Censored Show, guest host Mischa Geracoulis, Project Censored’s curriculum development coordinator, speaks with two of the contributors to the “Media Democracy in Action” chapter from Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2024.
In the first segment, Mischa talks with Maria Armoudian—senior lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and co-director of the Center for Climate Biodiversity and Society—about the need to rethink traditional news values in the 21st century. Focusing on issues around the climate crisis, Armoudian argues that because the media too often report climate issues as news items, they fail to communicate the urgency of these issues while normalizing a perpetual economic growth-expansion model that exacerbates these challenges.
In the second segment, media critic, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and author Jen Senko joins the program. Senko is best known for her film The Brainwashing of My Dad. Senko's work tracks the history of media in the United States, particularly the rise of hyper-partisan media, and its ongoing effects on society. Highlighting some of that history, she illuminates the calculated moves made by politicians and billionaires that have brought us to where we are today.
The post Rethinking Media Values: Climate Crisis and Hyper-Partisan Influence in the 21st Century appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Eleanor sits down with an empty seat – a seat that could easily be filled by dozens if not hundreds of Kashmiri journalists and activists who cannot speak out due to the complex and constant threat of violence by the Indian government. Eleanor contextualizes the current situation in Kashmir while paralleling it to another settler colonialist struggle in Palestine, why we must connect these struggles, and how critical media literacy is vital in the case of silenced stories such as Kashmir. In the second half of the show, Ben Norton joins the program to discuss the recent BRICS summit, how our corporate media fell over itself to frame it as no big deal, the what, how and when of de-dollorization, and what the recent election means for our economy, or rather our economies – one for the rich and the one for the rest of us.
The post Silenced Voices: Kashmir, Palestine, and BRICS Uncovered appeared first on Project Censored.
Iconic consumer and civil rights activist/author Ralph Nader returns to the program to discuss his latest two books with Mickey. They unpack Nader’s analysis from Out of Darkness and Let’s Start the Revolution, which includes commentary on the need to dismantle the corporate state, boost civic engagement from the grassroots level up, and demand that dark money and billionaires be driven of the political system. Next, Mickey talks with former Project Censored director, political sociologist Peter Phillips about his new book Titans of Capital: How Concentrated Wealth Threatens Humanity.
The post Let’s Start a Revolution; Usurping the Titans of Capital appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey's first guest this week is Project Censored's Associate Director, Andy Lee Roth. Roth is a 2024-25 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow where he is developing an "algorithmic literacy" toolkit for journalists. He explains why today's journalists need a basic understanding of the algorithms used by internet and social media tech giants to better serve the public. Issues around horse race poll coverage, shadow banning, and algorithmic gatekeeping are discussed. Then in the second half of the show, Maya Schenwar of Truthout and Lara Witt of Prism introduce the organization they co-founded, the Movement Media Alliance; they explain why social-justice-oriented media outlets should work together, both to enhance their impact and to better the working conditions for journalists in independent media.
The post Algorithmic Literacy for Journalists; and a New Movement Media Alliance appeared first on Project Censored.
Now that the cameras have long since left Hurricane Helene’s trail of devastation, what is the situation on the ground? And what was it about Appalachia that made the devastation so great, and the mutualist response so powerful?
In the first half of the show Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief coordinator and street medic Jena about her work in Western North Carolina and elsewhere, how bad the destruction really is, the dearth of government support, and how communities are using their own cultural roots to get what they need. Jena outlines the vast and varied mutual aid web, current needs on the ground, and creative and beautiful ways in which we can all engage in solidarity rather than charity. In the second half of the program, Eleanor speaks with Chelsea White-Hoglen, a lifelong resident of Western North Carolina with a vast background in community organizing. Chelsea explains the scale of the impact on such a rural, poor and geologically complex area as Appalachia, how disaster relief blossomed out of existing community structures, how this next phase of the crisis is an economic one, and how this could be a turning point for a region historically misunderstood, cast aside and disenfranchised.
The post Resilience Rising: Community, Care, and the Aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Appalachia appeared first on Project Censored.
With the 2024 US elections drawing near, host Mickey Huff moderates an expert panel discussion with three media scholars and educators about how critical-media-literacy education can enhance civic engagement. They outline the many challenges posed by social media, hyper-partisanship, and fake news, but also explore what educators can do to engage today's students and equip them with critical tools necessary to deconstruct media messaging and bridge communication barriers, both inside and outside the classroom. This program is also a special broadcast that is part of the Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival. See here for more details.
The post Crisis, Culture, and Civility: Critical Media Literacy Education and Election 2024 appeared first on Project Censored.
It’s the 10th annual US Media Literacy Week sponsored by NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education. We at Project Censored also celebrate Media Literacy Week, critically. On the program today, co-host Mickey Huff welcomes Dr. Nolan Higdon, media scholar and author of many books including The Anatomy of Fake News. Today we’ll talk to Nolan about a brief resource guide to fake news in the 2024 election with helpful hints for the voting public. We’ll talk about the history of fake news, mis- and disinformation and its impacts on the public, and what we can do about it that doesn’t involve censorship. In the second half of the show, co-host Eleanor Goldfield sits down with photojournalist Orin Langelle to talk about his new photography book release, Portraits of Struggle, a small but powerful selection of photographs and stories from a 50-year career. Orin talks about what he’s learned from the frontlines, how he was shunned by corporate media for telling the truth, the importance of documenting a history that is constantly stolen from us, and more.
The post Media Literacy Week: Guide to Fake News and Voices from the Frontlines appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the program, Mickey Huff speaks with independent journalist and author Kevin Gosztola, author of Guilty of Journalism about the cast of Julian Assange. Gosztola joins the show to talk about the Council of Europe Parliamentarians vote that agreed that Julian Assange was in fact a political prisoner. Assange recently spoke to the Parliament and urged them to oppose the US government’s transnational repression and assaults on journalists and press freedoms around the world. Later in the program, Mickey speaks with media scholar Steve Macek about foreign spending to influence US elections and how it goes well beyond Russian covert operations, and in fact involves many other countries and even other entities. But are the corporate media paying attention? Steve Macek explains how they’re not, and what you need to know about the influence of dark money in advance of Election 2024.
The post Attacks on Democracy from Press Freedoms to Dark Money in Politics appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, international human rights lawyer Karnig Kerkonian joins the show to discuss Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of the Artsakh Armenians from the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Karnig outlines the genocidal intent of President Ilham Aliyev, what the US knew and didn’t do to stop it, and how the international community should respond, not least of all as this year’s climate summit, COP29 is being held so ironically in what Karnig calls the petrol-dictatorship of Azerbaijan. Next up, journalist, researcher and policy director at Defending Rights and Dissent Chip Gibbons joins the show to discuss Israel’s targeted and mass killing of journalists on the ground in Gaza. Chip highlights the vehement hypocrisy with which the US pretends to uphold freedom of the press while not only ignoring the murder of journalists but while pushing for a media blackout and censorship of reports from Gaza.
The post Greenwashing Genocide in Armenia & Targeting the Truth in Palestine appeared first on Project Censored.
The voices of Palestinians in Gaza are some of the most censored in the world. If they are not killed outright, they are silenced by purposeful omission in order to support Israel’s narrative. It is therefore vital that alternative media work to find and platform these voices, and that people…
The post Voices from Palestine: A Doctor’s Testimony from Gaza appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey hosts the special annual Banned Books Week program. This year we celebrate being "Freed Between the Lines.”
In her best-selling novel Speak, young adult author Laurie Halse Anderson wrote, “Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” Since the American Library Association (ALA) and Association of American Publishers helped launch Banned Books Week (BBW) 42 years ago on the heels of the Supreme Court Pico case, that dysfunctional family of censorship has unfortunately grown significantly. Across the United States, the past several years has brought a staggering increase in book challenges, bans, and other attacks on the right to read and academic freedom, but there are many signs of hope which BBW celebrates.
On today’s program we welcome the new president of ALA, Cindy Hohl. We discuss the latest report just released from ALA on the state of the right to read with some hopeful notes. Then we’re joined by BBW Youth Honorary Chair Julia Garnett about how young people are on the front lines of censorship battles in schools and they are fighting back and winning, as we hear from the interim director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, attorney Jeff Trexler, about a history of attacks on comics and other literature, and we’ll learn of some recent legal victories, but also of challenges to come. Project Censored has been a proud supporter and part of the Banned Books Week Coalition for more than a decade.
The post Freed Between the Lines: A Banned Books Week Special appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Quechua and Jewish writer and student Rabbi Daniel Delgado joins us to confront the elephant in the room: are Jews Indigenous? As someone who is both Indigenous and Jewish, Daniel discusses the history and context of the term Indigenous and how the claim of Jewish Indigeneity is almost always brought up to absolve Zionists from accusations of colonialism, occupation and genocide, and why this claim is such a remarkably effective and insidious propaganda tool. In the second half of the program, award-winning journalist and author Joel Whitney joins us to discuss his latest book, Flights: Radicals on the Run, a look at censorship through surveillance, violence, oppression and the quite literal hunting of artists, poets, journalists, organizers, and more. Through these varied biographies, Joel highlights the US government’s intolerance for anyone who is effective in working towards positive change in this country. All this and more, coming up now on Project Censored.
The post Unpacking the Jewish Claim of Indigeneity and Flights: Radicals on the Run appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey recently spoke with Jeff Cohen, founder of FAIR, and author of Cable News Confidential, about his time as senior producer to the late Phil Donahue's MSNBC program. It was among the highest rated shows on the network at the time but was cancelled on the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq because network execs didn't want him to interview anti-war guests. Cohen talked about corporate media censorship, the state of our so-called free press today, and why we need vibrant, independent media outlets to report in the public interest. Later in the show, Mickey welcomes back author, historian, and media critic Norman Solomon. They discussed the paperback release of his latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine, with a new afterword that analyzes the US media propaganda campaign and censorship around Israel’s ongoing assault on the Palestinian people. US and Israeli officials claim these are acts of self-defense after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on a music festival. Many others around the world, including the International Court of Justice, have called the ongoing belligerent acts harming mostly innocent civilians a plausible genocide.
The post The Need for Independent Media: Voices For Peace in a World at War appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, we have a special program as we share an excerpt of a conversation held earlier this summer between Project Censored co-host Eleanor Goldfield; The Real News Network Editor-in-Chief, Maximillian Alvarez; author and journalist Kevin Gosztola, author of Guilty of Journalism; and Policy Director at Defending Rights and Dissent,…
The post Guilty of Journalism: The Future of Press Freedoms After the Release of Julian Assange appeared first on Project Censored.
This week on the program, a special episode featuring Project Censored’s recent “Decoding Democracy” series, a collection of interviews showcasing media scholars, journalists, and activists discussing how an informed public and an independent press are vital aspects of any free and just society. These excerpts are part of the larger…
The post Decoding Democracy: Excerpts From a Series Exploring Critical Media Literacy Education, Independent Journalism, and Civic Engagement appeared first on Project Censored.
This week, we’re talking colonialism and capitalism – on earth and in space. In the first half of the show, Eleanor Goldfield sits down with Jen Deerinwater and Ezra Star to discuss Disability Divest, a project that seeks to hold disability advocacy groups accountable – more specifically: how can you…
The post Colonialism and Capitalism: From Earth to Space appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first segment, we learn about the phenomenon of “dark money,” political campaign contributions designed to be difficult or impossible for the public to know about or trace. Mickey talks with media scholar Steve Macek about GOP plans for legislation to make it even easier to keep these contributions…
The post Dark Money and Project 2025: A Deep Dive into Political Secrecy and Conservative Ambitions appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Eleanor Goldfield speaks with incarcerated journalist Jeremy Busby who joins us from prison to talk about his powerful work in exposing horrendous prison conditions and the sadistic treatment of prisoners. Jeremy speaks of extreme retaliation that he’s faced from prison officials for his…
The post Exposing Prison Conditions and the Fight for Palestinian Rights appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, cohost Eleanor Goldfield speaks with lawyer and worker health and safety advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress watch division, Juley Fulcher about her recent report, Scorched States, an expose of the inadequate or wholly lacking protections for workers facing extreme heat in the age…
The post Scorched States and the Fight for Workers’ Rights: Unpacking Heat Exposure and Immigration Narratives appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Palestinian-American Mohammed Abouhashem, who on October 21st of last year left the US Air Force after 22 years of service. Abouhashem discusses his decision to leave amidst the murder of six of his family members in Palestine. He describes…
The post The Fight for Freedom: A Palestinian-American Veteran and the Julian Assange Case appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey’s guest for the hour is media scholar Nolan Higdon. They discuss how the principles of critical media literacy could help the public make sense of the current, chaotic election season in the US, and also how the divide and contrasting worldviews between the older and younger generations can be…
The post America’s Media Literacy Deficit: Navigating Elections and Generational Divides appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first part of the program, Eleanor Goldfield speaks with journalist and analyst Ben Norton about the ongoing proxy war between Russia and NATO happening in Ukraine, the US’ bludgeoning of multiple peace deals, and the ultimately pointless struggle against a multipolar world. Ben also highlights the recent media…
The post A Declining Empire & Its Delusional Allies appeared first on Project Censored.
Independent journalist Kevin Gosztola, author of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange, rejoins the program to discuss Julian Assange’s plea bargain with the US Department of Justice that finally frees the WikiLeaks founder from Britain’s Belmarsh Prison. Assange, who was detained there for more than five years,…
The post Freedom for Julian Assange and Navigating our Digital Democracy appeared first on Project Censored.
The Progressive magazine teamed up with Project Censored for its June/July issue and took an in-depth look at media literacy in the context of the upcoming election. On this week’s program, Mickey speaks with Norman Stockwell, publisher of the venerable political journal about how and why the partnership came about;…
The post Critical Media Literacy and Civic Engagement in an Election Year appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Eleanor Goldfield speaks with professor and author Mohammed Bamyeh about the no-state solution, an idea rooted in Palestinian and regional history that speaks of legitimate liberation in the face of continued state-imposed oppression and colonialist violence. Mohammed also explains the origins and outgrowth…
The post The No-State Solution & The Case For Open Borders appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, cohost Eleanor Goldfield talks with Vanessa Nosie from Apache Stronghold about the profit-driven priorities of what we’d assume are protective agencies like the US forest service. Vanessa draws a red thread of connection between historical and present-day colonization, uplifting the spiritual and survivalist…
The post The Apache Stronghold & Euphemizing Genocide appeared first on Project Censored.
This week on the Project Censored Show, Mickey welcomes back to the program Peter Kuznick, Professor of History at American University and best-selling author with Oliver Stone of The Untold History of the United States. They discuss the ongoing Russian attacks in Ukraine along with US/NATO reactions, as well as…
The post Reinvigorating Diplomacy: Global Tensions and Press Freedom appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Cofounder and Executive Director of Shout Your Abortion Amelia Bonow joins Eleanor Goldfield to highlight the shifting times and paradigms on abortion access. Amelia points out that Roe v Wade was never enough, that everyone deserves safe and easy abortion care, and that…
The post Not Asking Permission for Abortion & New Hope for Assange appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, journalist and activist Eugene Puryear joins Eleanor Goldfield to pull back the curtain of imposed corporate censorship on Congo. Eugene highlights the myriad forces of green imperialism scarring both land and people as the Congolese find themselves in a crowded crossfire of countries…
The post Uncensoring Congo & Digging Up Buried Leads in Gaza appeared first on Project Censored.
Andy Lee Roth, associate director of Project Censored, and Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, join Mickey on the Project Censored Show to discuss the latest moves in Congress to go after nonprofits, especially news outlets, that challenge official policies and narratives of the…
The post The Threat to Press Freedom in Congress and Beyond appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Eleanor sits down with author and history professor Dr. Gerald Horne to discuss the ongoing and growing student protests across the country, the violent response to them by the police state, and how this tracks with a history of student uprisings. Dr. Horne…
The post Echoes of Rebellion: Student Protests, State Violence, and Spatial Power appeared first on Project Censored.
This week on the Project Censored Show, in advance of World Press Freedom Day, Mickey talks to media scholar Andrew Kennis about his recent book, Digital Age Resistance: Journalism, Social Movements, and the Media Dependence Model. They talk about how legacy media frame various social movements, applying the “worthy and…
The post World Press Freedom Day: Independent Media, Social Justice, and the Vox Populi appeared first on Project Censored.
From East Palestine to Palestine, people need help. In the first half of the show, Eleanor sits down with East Palestine, OH residents Zsuzsa Gyenes and Chris Albright to discuss the ongoing fallout from the catastrophic train derailment in February of last year. Zsuzsa and Chris talk about a purgatory…
The post From East Palestine to Palestine, People Need Help appeared first on Project Censored.
Britain’s High Court of Justice has ruled whether Julian Assange can appeal an extradition order that would send him to the U.S. Independent journalist Kevin Gozstola, author or Guilty of Journalism, explains to Mickey the implications of the order, and whether the US might file new charges against the Wikileaks…
The post Press Freedom and the Assange Appeal; Green Colonialism, Tribal Consent, and the Climate Crisis appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, researcher and US military veteran Christian Sorensen joins Eleanor Goldfield to discuss the business of war, the mapping of it, the remarkable spread of it, and the very real ability and need to shift this trillion dollar industry to something more sustainable and…
The post The Business of War & The Cost of American Delusions appeared first on Project Censored.
This week’s show presents excerpts from a recent panel discussion about the “Military-Entertainment Complex.” Inspired by the recent documentary Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA Took Hollywood by media scholar Roger Stahl, the expert panelists examined the remarkable extent of US governmental influence over films, television, and video…
The post Silver Screen War Machine: Decoding the Military-Entertainment Complex appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Libertie Valance and Cindy Barukh Milstein join host Eleanor Goldfield to talk about how a small coop bookshop in Asheville, NC came to be the keeper of more than 20,000 youth books banned in Florida, the emergence of the Banned Books Back! initiative,…
The post Banned Books Back! & We Are All Sacrifice Zones appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, we welcome back Hassan Ben Imran, board member at the Law for Palestine organization. Hassan gives host Eleanor Golfield updates on the ICJ case of genocide and how he believes the case is pushing the movement for Palestinian rights from the streets into…
The post The Growing Legal Fights Against Israel & Many Voices For Assange appeared first on Project Censored.
On this week’s program, Mickey talks with communications professor and filmmaker Roger Stahl about his most recent documentary, Theaters of War: How The Pentagon and CIA Took Hollywood. They discuss how the military entertainment complex works, showcasing its vast propaganda influence on mass media. Legal analyst and author Barbara McQuade…
The post Hollywood’s Pentagon Propaganda, Deconstructing Disinformation, and Critical Media Literacy Education in the US appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first segment, Mickey talks with Norman Stockwell, publisher of The Progressive magazine, founded in 1909. Stockwell discusses the vaunted history of the publication coming out of a golden era of muckraking journalism. We highlight some of that important history as well as address the current state of our…
The post Muckraking Journalism and The Progressive Magazine; Updates on Julian Assange appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, David Lorant, a farmer based in Rennes, France joins host Eleanor Goldfield to contextualize the widespread farmer protests that just recently saw farmers in tractors blockading major motorways across the country, calling for what media has spun as right-wing anti-ecological demands. David debunks…
The post It’s Not What It Seems: French Farmers Protest Outside of Political Ideologies & Astroturfing in Alaska appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with attorney Art Belendiuk and media activist and journalist Sue Wilson to talk about the poisoning of our airwaves, with propaganda. Art and Sue outline a case in Baltimore that highlights how media corporation Sinclair is trying to…
The post Polluting Airwaves & Yemen’s Bold Moves for Palestine appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, journalist Alan MacLeod joins Eleanor Goldfield to discuss his personal battle against censorship as well as the ways in which corporate media work to propagandize the public to support Israel. He also outlines the attempts of a small group of Neocons to connect…
The post Battling Censorship, Propaganda, and Nuclear Colonialism appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey’s guests for the hour are philosophers Leonard Grob and John K. Roth, coauthors of the 2023 book, Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy. They outline what is at stake as the US enters another contentious election year with unpopular, problematic frontrunners in both major parties; wars of…
The post Warnings: the Holocaust, US Global Relations, and our Endangered Democracy appeared first on Project Censored.
We kick off this year focusing on press freedoms. We welcome back to the program independent journalist Kevin Gosztola, author of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange. Gosztola joins the program to discuss the latest updates on Assange’s extradition case, the CIA spying lawsuit and a Congressional…
The post Exploring Press Freedoms: Updates on Julian Assange’s Extradition appeared first on Project Censored.
This week – the legal criminality of genocide: of perpetrating it, supporting it – and in the US, of decrying it. In the first half of the show, Hassan Ben Imran from Law For Palestine joins Eleanor Goldfield to discuss the recent case of genocide brought by South Africa to…
The post The Legality of Genocide: On International Law & Thoughtcrimes on US Campuses appeared first on Project Censored.
Project Censored’s yearly publication, State of the Free Press 2024, hit the shelves in December. The work details the many issues regarding corporate media, from the spread of news deserts to biased and incomplete reporting, while highlighting the public interest journalism of the independent press. On this week’s program, Mickey…
The post State of the Free Press 2024: A Discussion of Ongoing Censorship appeared first on Project Censored.
The Jewish National Fund sounds nice enough, especially with their quaint tree-planting campaigns, but as our guest, Palestinian organizer Abdullah Elagha points out, this greenwashed front hides a myriad of atrocities, from ecocide to ethnic cleansing. Elagha outlines the history and present of the organization, a recent fundraising for Israel…
The post Exposing the Jewish National Fund and Radioactive Fracking appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey’s first guest, journalist Abby Martin of The Empire Files, explains how corporate media has carefully avoided presenting the full atrocity of the Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and the years of oppression in both Gaza and the West Bank. She also discusses the tragic consequences, which…
The post Media Censorship and Attacks on Press Freedoms: Genocide in Gaza, Julian Assange appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of the show, Eleanor sits down with bestselling author and Emmy-nominated filmmaker James Bamford to discuss Israel’s nefarious attacks on our rights to free speech and assembly here in the US. Bamford shares details about the clearly illegal activity of foreign agents working to suppress movements…
The post The Stranglehold of Silence: Suppression of Free Speech in the Israel/Palestine Conflict appeared first on Project Censored.
Our understanding of every issue suffers without context, and perhaps most glaringly today – the issue of what’s happening in Israel/Palestine. In the first half of the show, Jacquie Luqman joins the show again to contextualize Israel as a settler colonialist project, how that links to the pan-African…
The post Context, Connections & Cracks in the Facade of Propaganda: A Deeper Look at Israel/Palestine appeared first on Project Censored.
Be it in the Mediterranean or the heart of Africa in Congo, colonialism isn’t past, it’s a modern day disaster. In the first half of the show, journalist and activist Eugene Puryear joins Eleanor Goldfield to bring us information on the so-called silent holocaust taking place in the Congo where…
The post Colonialism Today: From The Crisis in Congo to Capsizing Boats in the Mediterranean appeared first on Project Censored.
This week Mickey examines media coverage of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, particularly the one-sided reporting of the Israel-Palestine conflict by corporate media, and Big Tech actions to suppress Palestinian perspectives. Today’s guests discuss how media bias and lack…
The post The Israeli-Palestine Conflict: Corporate Media Failure and Big-Tech’s Facilitation of War Crimes appeared first on Project Censored.
You may have heard of Julian Assange, but chances are that you haven’t heard about him from inside the CIA, State Department and US military. In this special episode, Eleanor first talks with former CIA counterterrorism officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou about what Assange would face if extradited to the…
The post A Look At Assange From Inside the CIA, State Department & US Military appeared first on Project Censored.
Eleanor Goldfield opens the program with a conversation about Gaza; her guest, Nora Barrows-Friedman, rebuts common Israeli / US talking points, and identifies Zionism as the actual obstacle to peace. Then Shealeigh Voitl tells Mickey about some of her recent research and writing. She finds fundamental differences in how corporate…
The post Challenging Narratives: Unmasking Zionism, Media Bias, and the ‘EARN IT’ Act appeared first on Project Censored.
If two people sit down for a cup of coffee in Georgia, they might leave with RICO charges. That’s how our first guest this week, Ellen Barfield explains the draconian Georgia RICO – that’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charges that her husband faced over a decade ago, and…
The post More Draconian Than You Thought: A Look at Georgia RICO Then and Now appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey dedicates this show to Banned Books Week 2023 (Oct. 1-7). Now in its 41st year, Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating and promoting the freedom to read while opposing efforts to ban or censor certain books from libraries, especially in school settings. This past year has seen…
The post Let Freedom Read: Banned Books Week for 2023 appeared first on Project Censored.
It all comes back to capitalism. In the first half of the show, economist, author, and show host Dr. Richard Wolff joins us to talk about empowerment beyond the strike, and how we can manifest true democracy in the workplace. He gives us a grotesque look inside the board room,…
The post Capitalism: The Ultimate Anti-Life System appeared first on Project Censored.
You’ve likely heard a lot about Maui in recent weeks but chances are you haven’t heard a lot from Indigenous or frontline mutual aid activists working to protect and support their communities in the dearth of government support and protection. In the first half of the show, Native Hawaiian Kamiki…
The post Unveiling Maui’s Unheard Voices: Indigenous and Mutual Aid Activists Speak Out appeared first on Project Censored.
Media scholar Steve Macek joins Mickey for a look at a case from Philadelphia, where media activists are challenging the broadcast-license renewal of the local Fox TV station. Macek says…
The post Challenging Media Integrity and Labor Rights: Fox TV Renewal and Sex Work Perspectives appeared first on Project Censored.
’Tis the season of the bomb. Muckraking investigate reporter and author David Lindorff joins Mickey Huff to discuss his forthcoming book: Spy For No Country: The Story of Ted Hall…
The post The Untold History of the Start of the Nuclear Arms Race with Dave Lindorff; & Ongoing Attacks on Freedom of the Press Must Stop appeared first on Project Censored.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline, a zombie fracked gas project that found new life in the dark corners of the debt ceiling relief bill continues to struggle through the rough terrain…
The post Resilience Amidst Controversy: Unveiling the Struggles of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Unearthing Adult Supremacy appeared first on Project Censored.
Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week’s Project Censored Show. As US-China relations worsen, independent journalist Danny Haiphong says what lies at the root is the desperation of a US ruling class…
The post Imperialism and Neocolonialism Around the Globe: US-China Relations; West African Nations appeared first on Project Censored.
Earlier this year, members of the News Enlightenment Initiative (NEI-Germany) and Project Censored partnered to recruit an international jury of news professionals and media scholars to identify and highlight “News…
The post Media Freedom Matters: Exposing International News Neglect, Censorship, and Agenda Cutting Across the Globe appeared first on Project Censored.
Historian Peter Kuznick joins Mickey to discuss the new Christopher Nolan movie “Oppenheimer.” While his overall evaluation is positive, Kuznick notes that the movie fails to address the crucial fact…
The post Historian Peter Kuznick’s Take on Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” Movie & The Unaddressed Impact of Dropping the Atomic Bomb / Unveiling the Catastrophic Truth: Peter Phillips and Bill Tiwald Discuss the Harsh Realities of “Limited” Nuclear War appeared first on Project Censored.
On this week’s Project Censored Show: In the first half of the program, host Eleanor Goldfield speaks with investigative reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis. They talk about police accountability…
The post Police Accountability / Global Women for Peace United Against NATO Conference appeared first on Project Censored.
Raza Rumi, director of the Park Institute for Independent Media at Ithaca College in NY, joins Mickey for a wide-ranging conversation about the importance of non-corporate media and media literacy.…
The post The Importance of Independent Media and Critical Media Literacy Education in a Democratic Society appeared first on Project Censored.
In light of the recent Fourth-of-July holiday, Eleanor’s first guest – historian Gerald Horne – shares his analysis of a likely motive for independence on the part of colonial America’s…
The post The colonial origins of the concept of “whiteness” / How bisexuality is treated within Native communities appeared first on Project Censored.
On the latest Project Censored Show, Mickey talks with independent journalist and author Norman Solomon about his new book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military…
The post The so-called “War on Terror” Featuring Norman Solomon / Lee Camp Discusses His Book “Dangerous Ideas” appeared first on Project Censored.
On this Project Censored Show Eleanor Goldfield interviews Venezuelan political analyst Leonardo Flores, who gives updates on the ongoing illegal imprisonment of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab by the United States.…
The post Political Analyst Leonardo Flores, Matilda Bliss, and Veronica Coit appeared first on Project Censored.
Kevin Gosztola returns to Project Censored to explain the latest developments in the Julian Assange extradition case, including the recent ruling from the UK’s High Court of Justice. He also…
The post Latest Developments in the Julian Assange Extradition Case / Honoring the Late Daniel Ellsberg and His Work appeared first on Project Censored.
To open the program, Mickey and former Project Censored intern Reagan Haynie speak with Alan MacLeod, senior staff writer for MintPress News. He’s just written about a new phenomenon in…
The post E-girls and Truth in Military Recruitment plus Gun Violence and the Intersections of Patriarchy and Capitalism in the US appeared first on Project Censored.
In the first half of this week’s show, Mickey speaks with three students campaigning against censorship in Texas, including Banned Books Week’s Youth Honorary Chair, Cameron Samuels. They’re associated with…
The post Censorship and Book Banning in Texas…and Going Remote: A Teacher’s Journey appeared first on Project Censored.
On this week’s Project Censored show, Eleanor speaks with journalist and activist Morgan Artyukhina for a powerful and vital analysis of the vicious attack on trans rights. Morgan highlights how…
The post Trans Rights Activist Morgan Artyukhina, and Community Organizer Kamau Franklin appeared first on Project Censored.
On this week’s Project Censored Show, Eleanor Goldfield recently spoke attorney Steven Donziger – the man caught in the crosshairs of one of the largest corporations in the world, Chevron…
The post Demanding Accountability From Chevron with Steven Donzinger and the Struggle of Frontline Community Journalists with Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit appeared first on Project Censored.
Program Summary: In the first half of this week’s show, Mickey and Project Censored intern Reagan Haynie speak with investigative reporter Alan MacLeod of MintPress News. MacLeod explains that a…
The post National Security State Propaganda, the Fourth Estate’s Deadly Follies, and Why We Need a Truly Independent Press in Support of Human Rights and Freedom of Expression as we Celebrate Press Freedom Day appeared first on Project Censored.
On the latest program, we celebrate Daniel Ellsberg Week (April 24-30), co-sponsored by The Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy & and RootsAction Education Fund, as we honor whistleblowers in support of…
The post Celebrating Daniel Ellsberg Week: A Special Episode of the Project Censored Show with Kevin Gosztola and Daniel Ellsberg appeared first on Project Censored.
Mickey hosts the first segment of the show. His guest Kenn Burrows describes an upcoming conference “From Polarization to Integration,” to be held April 21 on the San Francisco State…
The post Media Matters: Polarization and Propaganda; and Medicare and Ongoing Privatization of Healthcare in the US appeared first on Project Censored.
On this week’s program, we hear an array of ideas about the condition of American journalism and the state of our so-called free press: red flags about the decline of…
The post The State of Our So-Called Free Press: A Panel Discussion from St. Mary’s College appeared first on Project Censored.
Eleanor Goldfield hosts the program this week— Across France, millions of people are taking to the streets and blocking them in a rapidly escalating show of defiance and disdain for…
The post Resistance to Neoliberalism in France and the Political Economy of the US Empire in Decline appeared first on Project Censored.
Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week's program, and in her first segment, she speaks with the Program Director of the National Priorities Project, Lindsay Koshgarian. They examine the Biden Administration's proposed Pentagon budget, which -- at $886 billion -- would set a new record for annual military spending while the US social and physical infrastructure collapses. Then, 20 years after George W Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, Eleanor talks with military veteran Matthew Hoh, who points out that the US had already been making war against Iraq in various forms for decades before the 2003 invasion. Hoh also explains what factors induce young men to enlist, as well as the roots of the life crises encountered by many combat veterans and the wreckage that war leaves in its wake.Image by Mike Cook from Pixabay
Over the weekend, demonstrations took place in several US cities to mark the 20th anniversary of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, and to demand that the US and NATO stop escalating the Russia-Ukraine war. On this week's Project Censored Show, Eleanor Goldfield and Mickey Huff discuss both those conflicts. First, Eleanor speaks with antiwar organizer Brian Becker about the prospects for the US peace movement in the context of the Ukraine conflict. Then in the second half-hour, historian Peter Kuznick joins Mickey to remind listeners about the predetermined agendas and pervasive lies that underlay the invasion of Iraq, and the devastating consequences for the Iraqi people.Notes:Brian Becker is national director of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), one of the groups that organized the March 18 antiwar demonstrations. Peter Kuznick is Professor of History at American University in Washington DC, and also directs the Nuclear Studies Program at that institution. He and Oliver Stone co-authored "The Untold History of the United States."
Mickey's guest for the first half-hour is Mnar Adley, CEO and editor-in-chief of MintPress News. She explains Israel's everyday brutality against Palestinians and how most Western media fail to cover it. She also points out the powerful interests that aim to discredit and defund independent media like MintPress for their coverage of the ongoing occupation. Then in the second half of the program, independent journalist Ann Garrison summarizes recent developments in the Horn of Africa region, and the Biden Administration's efforts to undermine the governments there, even supporting the "Tigray" civil war in Ethiopia, which killed hundreds of thousands, and displaced millions.Notes:Mnar Adley is the founder and editor-in-chief at MintPress News. She founded MintPress as a venue for accurate reporting on the Middle East and the US military-industrial complex. Ann Garrison is an independent journalist based in northern California. Her writing has appeared in the Black Agenda Report, the Grayzone, and the San Francisco Bayview. She is also a co-producer of Pacifica Radio's "Covid, Race and Democracy." She traveled to Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2022 to investigate conditions there first hand.Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
On this week's program, two critical media literacy scholars join Mickey to examine a range of current events. First, Allison Butler addresses the notorious "past her prime" comments by CNN's Don Lemon, his non-apology apology, and level of sexism and ageism in news media. Butler also discusses the book, Empire of Pain, which looks at how the Sackler family (of Purdue Pharma) changed both the medical profession and the media world with their heavy direct-to-the-public drug advertising. In the second half of the show, Nolan Higdon examines the persistence of the "Russiagate” propaganda narrative despite the absence of supporting evidence.Butler’s recent piece on the Lemon affair was published by Ms. Magazine, and her rejoinder to Lemon in USA Today.Higdon’s latest op-ed with Huff on Russiagate was published numerous places, including as a Dispatch at Project Censored.Notes:Allison Butler teaches in the Department of Communications at the University of Massachusetts, and is Vice President of the Media Freedom Foundation, Project Censored's parent organization, and co-author of The Media and Me. Nolan Higdon is a lecturer in education at the University of California Santa Cruz campus. He's also the author of the book The Anatomy of Fake News and other works of media analysis.Image by Thomas Breher from Pixabay
As we come to the end of Black History Month, Eleanor Goldfield recently talked with Pan-African theorist, organizer, and author Max Rameau about community control over policing - that’s not community policing. He highlights the importance of shifting power vs reforming institutions, organizing to take power, not ask for it, and the connectedness of all issues from housing and education to policing. Next, Eleanor spoke with Eliana Carlin in Lima, Peru where she leads us through the clash of crises her country and her people are in the midst of - from the deep rot of corruption to the violence of state forces to a constitutionalised neoliberal ideology. Listeners in the US may see our own struggles mirrored on the streets of Peru - a grotesque reflection that we must combat over here and over there, for the sake of all of our connected fights for liberation.Song: Peruvian Cocaine by Immortal Technique
This week's program focuses on the ongoing case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. In the first half of the program, Mickey speaks with Gabriel and John Shipton, brother and father of Assange, about the forthcoming documentary, "Ithaka." This film approaches the Assange case from the perspective of family members trying to win Assange's freedom. Later in the program, journalist Kevin Gosztola discusses his soon-to-be published book on the Assange case, explains how it differs from other publications about the matter, and why his case matters so much for press freedoms around the world.NotesGabriel Shipton is Julian Assange's brother, and a professional film producer. John Shipton is the father of Gabriel and Julian. Information about the documentary, and their U.S. speaking tour, can be found here. Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of ShadowProof. He has covered the Julian Assange legal proceedings in the UK from their beginning, as well as other press freedom and whistleblower cases dating back to Chelsea Manning. His new book on the Assange case, Guilty of Journalism, will soon be available from The Censored Press/Seven Stories Press March 7. Gosztola also writes at The Dissenter.
In the first half of the program, Shealeigh Voitl and Steve Macek a look at how corporate-media coverage has failed over the course of years to adequately inform the public of corporate interference in matters of environment and human health in a segment dedicated to Project Censored’s Déjà Vu news research. Mickey's guests use this theme to examine issues ranging from microplastics pollution to water privatization to aggressive marketing of infant formula. In the second segment, Andy Lee Roth joins Steve Macek and Mickey to discuss former Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. He's being sued by an energy billionaire about statements made on the campaign trail. Is this action a new variety of SLAPP suit, meant to suppress open discussion of public issues (notably Dark Money in politics)? Tune in as Roth and Macek discuss their recent Truthout article and the influence of Dark Money in US politics.Notes:Steve Macek is Professor of Communications and Media Studies at North Central College in Illinois,and is co-coordinator of Project Censored's Campus Affiliates Program. Shealeigh Voitl is Project Censored's Editorial Assistant, a co-author of the "Déjà vu News" chapter in Project Censored's annual media-review volume, and a journalism graduate of North Central College in Illinois. Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored, co-editor of the Project's annual media-review volume, and co-coordinator of the Project's Campus Affiliates Program. He has published widely on media issues. The Roth/Macek article about the Texas lawsuit can be found here.Music-break information:1)"Water Song" by Hot Tuna2) "Ride Across the River" by Dire Straits3) "Money" by Pink Floydthe Project Censored Show:Hosts: Mickey Huff & Eleanor GoldfieldProducers: Anthony Fest & Eleanor Goldfield
This week, Eleanor Goldfield addresses two radical frontline fights thousands of miles apart but deeply connected through their visions and struggles for a livable and just future. Eleanor sits down with Sasha Lorenz from the Lützerath Lebt movement to discuss the recent literal bulldozing of people’s lives for the sake of some 280 million tonnes of brown coal. Sasha outlines the context of this struggle in Germany’s dirty push for more coal mining amidst greenwashing campaigns and continued capitalist and colonialist enterprises. In the second segment, Coyote from the Defend Atlanta Forest movement joins the show again to discuss the recent murder of forest defender Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran. The situation on the ground and in the trees in Atlanta, and both of our guests, leave us with messages of real and growing hope - the kind that can not be stifled by coal ash or murdered by police brutality. All this and more coming up this week on the Project Censored Show."You Don’t Miss Your Water Till Your Well Runs Dry" - by Rising AppalachiaImage by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay
On this week's program, Mickey welcomes back author and media critic Alan MacLeod for the hour. MacLeod describes the close ties between the major Silicon Valley technology companies and the US military/security establishment. Among the examples he cites lucrative government contracts given to some of Elon Musk's companies (Starlink); the cooperation of Facebook, Twitter and other web giants in suppressing critical opinions (“censorship by proxy”); and multiple instances of U.S. intelligence officials moving into high-ranking executive positions at the tech companies often to allegedly curate "mis- and disinformation.” They discuss what’s being called the “military-entertainment complex" and note that some video games, notably Activision's "Call of Duty," are designed to inculcate pro-intervention, jingoist attitudes in the young people who play these games, which function as a form of propaganda or mass psy-op in support of US/NATO wars.Notes:Alan Macleod, Ph.D., is a senior staff writer at MintPress News, and the author of two books on journalism. He writes extensively about media bias, propaganda, censorship, and fake news.Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay
It was recently Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and some may have noticed the US empire and its racist, capitalist, and imperialist cheerleaders were also cheerleading for Dr. King. If this made you angry, confused, or just curious as to what Dr. King’s legacy actually is in the context of US empire, you’re in the right place. Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week’s program and begins by speaking with Jacqueline Luqman to discuss Dr. King’s real legacy, what got him killed, what's missing from the story, and how we can truly honor Dr. King. Next, Setareh Ghandehari from Detention Watch Network joins the show to walk listeners through the Biden administration’s “updates” to immigration policy, which as Setareh points out, are hardly updates but rather a continuation of right-wing, xenophobic, anti-immigrant and also failed policies that will cause immeasurable harm to thousands. All this and more coming up now on this week's Project Censored Show.Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Kevin Gosztola returns to the program to explain the latest developments in the Julian Assange extradition case. Although Assange remains in a UK prison, there have been political developments elsewhere in the world that may influence the outcome of the case, including in Assange’s home country, Australia. He and Mickey also address the Twitter Files and note key differences between how these are being handled. Gosztola then reminds listeners of some of the documents Assange brought to light via WikiLeaks over the years and what his prosecution means for free press principles.Later in the show, independent journalist Sam Husseini speaks with Mickey about working to uncover the truth when both politicians and corporate media circumvent or suppress it. Husseini notes an unwillingness among reporters to ask tough but important questions about major topics. Among the examples he cites include the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the nuclear weapon ban treaty from a Trump/Putin press conference in Helsinki, and the possible origin of the coronavirus in a Wuhan lab. He notes how these and other pertinent questions are either not asked, or become distorted into a Trump-vs-Democrats type of argument that is then often dismissed.Notes:Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of Shadowproof. He has covered the Julian Assange legal proceedings in the UK from its beginning, as well as other press-freedom and whistleblower cases. His new book on the Assange case, Guilty of Journalism, will soon be available in bookstores. Gosztola also curates the newsletter for The Dissenter and co-hosts the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast.Sam Husseini is an independent journalist whose work can be found at husseini.substack.com. He has also worked at the Institute for Public Accuracy, the media watch group FAIR, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and been published in The Nation, Counterpunch, and elsewhere.Music-break Information:1) "Glad / Freedom Rider" by Traffic2) "Blowin' In The Wind" by Neil Young3) "Abacab" by Genesisthe Project Censored Show:Hosts: Mickey Huff & Eleanor GoldfieldProducers: Anthony Fest & Eleanor Goldfield Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
With the U.S. having a military presence in nearly every African nation, Dr. Rose Brewer, a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of African-American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota and member of the Black Alliance for Peace, makes the case for "U.S. out of Africa." Brewer faults the Congressional Black Caucus for failing to challenge the military-industrial complex's agendas either at home or abroad. Then, why do why African American women die in childbirth at a much higher rate than white women? In examining this question, Sam Sewell, a midwife and reproductive rights activist, points to many biases and failures in the American system of health care. Both of these human rights stories, and their broader themes, lack significant in-depth coverage by the corporate media in the U.S. Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week’s program and shines a light on these important underreported topics.Notes:Dr. Rose Brewer is a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of African-American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace. Sam Sewell is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) practicing in the Washington DC area. She's been a board member at NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, and at the Arlington Commission on the Status of Women.Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
The first Project Censored Show of 2023 is devoted to climate change, and the oil industry's obstruction of policies that would seriously confront the climate crisis. The speakers on the program are former NASA scientist James Hansen, pioneering climate-change writer Bill McKibben, and Canadian environmental journalist Geoff Dembicki. They were interviewed in December by artist and independent curator M. Annenberg, in conjunction with an environmental-art exhibition at New York's Ceres Gallery.Notes:Dr. James Hansen was for many years the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and is now at Columbia University. Author Bill McKibben's 1989 book, "The End of Nature" was the first book on climate change for the general reader. Journalist Geoff Dembicki is the author of "The Petroleum Papers," a compilation of oil industry documents showing the industry's efforts to confuse the public about the causes of climate change.Image by Kanenori from Pixabay
In the first half of today's program, Mickey speaks with Project Censored's Andy Lee Roth about some of the “Top 25” censored / under-reported news stories, as well as the common characteristics of these stories. Later in the show, Nolan Higdon and Mickey examine some of the developments since Elon Musks' takeover of Twitter. They also discuss the recent declassification of another batch of JFK-assassination documents, and what they show about federal officials' relations with the press.Notes:Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored, co-editor of the Project's annual volume of censored stories, and co-coordinator of the Project's Campus Affiliates Program. He has published widely on media issues. Nolan Higdon is a university lecturer in media studies and history. He's also the author of "The Anatomy of Fake News," Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Mickey, Eleanor and their guests spend the hour examining the background to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, going back to the eastward expansion of NATO, the 2014 Ukraine coup, and other factors. Their guests, both long-time peace activists, make the case for a cessation of arms shipments to Ukraine, and a negotiated end to the war. In the first half of the show, Eleanor interviews Phil Wilayto. Then we hear excerpts of a conversation Mickey had with Medea Benjamin at a KPFA-FM / Project Censored event in Berkeley, CA earlier this month.Notes:Phil Wilayto is cofounder of Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, as well as the Virginia Prison Justice Network. He's also coordinator of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign , and the author of several books, including Notes from Iran.Medea Benjamin co-founded both the women's peace organization Code Pink and the fair-trade group Global Exchange. Her recent books, include Inside Iran and Kingdom of the Unjust. Her latest book is War in Ukraine, co-authored with Nicholas Davies, and published by OR Books.Music-break information:"Blasting Cap" by Preston ReedImage by Peace,love,happiness from Pixabay
This edition of the Project Censored Show we feature two of the country's best-known peace advocates, each with a new book out. First, Medea Benjamin discusses the Russia-Ukraine conflict, emphasizing aspects that US corporate media are not covering. Then we hear a rebroadcast of a September interview with author Chris Hedges, where he related some of the stories told in his new book, "The Greatest Evil Is War."Notes:Medea Benjamin co-founded both the women's peace organization Code Pink and the fair-trade group Global Exchange. Her recent books, include "Inside Iran" and "Kingdom of the Unjust." Her latest book is "War in Ukraine," co-authored with Nicholas Davies, and published by OR Books. Chris Hedges is a former New York Times foreign correspondent and a prolific author. His latest book, "The Greatest Evil Is War," is based on interviews with dozens of victims of war, including wounded veterans, families of soldiers, and civilian survivors of battle.
In this episode of the Project Censored Show, your host Eleanor Goldfield discusses war and fascist violence - from the very personal history of a presidential candidate to the streets of Hebron. She first sits down with army veteran and investigative reporter/producer Mike Prysner to discuss his latest work digging into the sordid past of Ron DeSantis, a man whose path to state (and possibly soon to be federal) power has been paved with horrific war crimes and torture, which up until now he has been able to avoid consequences. She then sits down with professor, artist, and activist Adam Broomberg to discuss his personal relationship with apartheid - from growing up in South Africa to now battling the state of Israel, on behalf of , but not least of all, for his fellow Jews. Broomberg compares the apartheid states of his youth and his present, and discusses how to broach the topic of zionism within your Jewish families.Song: Bahrek Gaza by Mohammed AssafPhoto Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mickey opens this week's program in conversation with Aaron Good; they examine the post-WWII U.S. rise to global dominance, and how that underlies many of our current events, notably the Russia-Ukraine-NATO conflict. In the second half of the show, Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Chris Garaffa about the prospects for stronger net-neutrality protections in the months ahead, as well as the broader issue of how to "democratize the internet."Aaron Good is the author of "American Exception: Empire and the Deep State," a new book from Skyhorse Publishing. He also hosts a podcast titled "American Exception." He holds a Ph.D from Temple University. In the tradition of Peter Dale Scott, Aaron's writing emphasizes the role of a 'deep state' (a powerful, secretive, unelected governing force) in history. Chris Garaffa is co-host of the Covert Action Bulletin podcast, and is a frequent radio guest on issues of technology and surveillance.Music-break information1) "Ride Across the River" by Dire Straits2) "Voyager" by the Alan Parson Projectthe Project Censored Show:Hosts: Mickey Huff & Eleanor GoldfieldProducers: Anthony Fest & Eleanor GoldfieldImage by Yatheesh Gowda from Pixabay
The 2022 Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas took place in Oakland, CA in late October. This week's Project Censored Show presents excerpts from the plenary roundtable that addressed shortcomings of corporate media, each from a different perspective, and explained how a more critically media literate public and robust independent press could foster real humanitarian progress as we face multiple existential crises. Mickey Huff moderated the roundtable discussion which included Robin Anderson, who writes the media watch group FAIR, and for Project Censored; she is professor emerita at Fordham University; Maximilian Alvarez, editor-in-chief at The Real News Network; Eduardo Garcia; a freelance environmental journalist who writes on the climate crisis; and Mnar Adley, CEO and editor-in-chief at MintPress News.
Music-break information:
"The Resistance" by 2 Cellos
The Project Censored Show:
Hosts: Mickey Huff & Eleanor Goldfield
Producers: Anthony Fest & Eleanor Goldfield
Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week's episode, and spends the hour on conditions in Iran, where demonstrators have taken to the streets in response to the death of a young woman in the custody of the Iranian "morality police." Leila Zand is an Iranian-American activist and scholar who joins the show to contextualize the events of the past month in Iran. She highlights the importance of understanding the history of Iran, and the US, and cautions against using events as an excuse for continued US imperialist aggression. People all over the world have the right to self-determination, be it in terms of government or how they dress. Zand’s work pushes for these ideals to be actualized without violence.
Notes: Leila Zand is an Iranian-American peace activist and scholar, based in Washington DC. She presently works with the womens' peace organization Code Pink.
Music-break info: "Mahtab" by Marjan Farsad
On this Project Censored Show we discuss Media Literacy Week and more specifically Critical Media Literacy. We then discern the different approaches to media literacy which have been co-opted including corporate and a-critical media literacy. We explore this issue with experts Allison Butler and Nolan Higdon.
In this episode of the Project Censored Show Eleanor Goldfield looks at the potential for a Class I railroad strike. This struggle exemplifies the power of workers and how much corporations and their media lackeys fear collective power - particularly when that collective power represents some $2 billion a day in economic leverage. Eleanor outlines the most recent happenings on this issue and then she sits down with Mark Burrows, Railroad Workers United (RWU) member and a 41-year veteran of the railroad industry. They discuss the ongoing assault on railroad workers, not only from their corporate bosses, but from the corporate media as well. Burrows describes the lived experiences of workers like him, and how workplace demands have risen while safety standards and wages have fallen.
On this week's program we hear a panel discussion held in observation of Constitution Day (mid September) at Diablo Valley College, where Mickey teaches. Three expert panelists examined the state of the media, the threats posed by book-banning campaigns and cancel culture, as well as the societal changes underlying these trends. For some time, the United States has been on the road to what many scholars and pundits repeatedly refer to as a coming Civil War 2.0. Major political figures call the coming elections a "war for the soul of America." With increased attacks on academic freedom from the left and right, and a massive uptick in book challenges and bans across the country, our panelists discuss the need for open dialogue, constructive communication, and advocate for protecting the right to teach, to read, and to disagree. Our guests present strategies to reduce tensions in our contentious political climate through critical thinking, as well as reciprocity and empathic listening, while seeking alternatives to censorship in the quest to overcome current challenges and ameliorate our differences.
Notes: Betsy Gomez is coordinator for the national Banned Books Week Coalition. Nico Perrino is Executive Vice-President at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education. Nolan Higdon is a university lecturer in media studies and history. He's also the author of The Anatomy of Fake News, Let’s Agree to Disagree, and other books on media and society.
This week, Eleanor Goldfield digs into mining - past and present. First, author and organizer Mitch Troutman discusses his latest book, The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: The Pennsylvania Miners who Seized an Industry. Mitch shares the importance of remembering and sharing a radical past, as he puts it: nothing was ever inevitable and that history is taught best when it gives us agency in the present. He also explains the role of media in uplifting the miner’s struggle, something more difficult to recognize in today’s media landscape. Next, Eleanor talks with Jamie Kneen from Mining Watch to discuss the fallacy of green growth vis a vis lithium - a metal that many are saddling with utopian hopes for the future while the reality screams of neocolonialist extraction in line with other precious metals in a global capitalist market. Kneen highlights the importance of scale in discussing a livable future as well as the dirty fallout from lithium mining.
For the first segment of this week's show, Mickey talks with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges shares some of the stories from his newest book, The Greatest Evil Is War. The book is based on interviews with dozens of victims of war, including families of soldiers, wounded veterans, and civilian survivors of battle. Hedges lays out the many costs of war, and having seen it up close, calls for its unequivocal end across the world. In the second half-hour, historian Peter Kuznick explains the often untold historical legacy of the recently-deceased former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Kuznick says that Gorbachev not only brought vital reforms to the USSR, but made unprecedented arms-reduction proposals that might have put the world on course to complete nuclear disarmament, had the Reagan Administration not rejected the ideas. Both guests call out the horrors of war and the need for a seriously rejuvenated global movement for peace.
Notes: Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist with a long career as a foreign correspondent around the world, including battle zones like Iraq and the Balkans. His books include War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Death of the Liberal Class, America: The Farewell Tour, and his new work The Greatest Evil Is War. Peter Kuznick is Professor of History at American University in Washington DC, and also directs the Nuclear Studies Program at that institution. He and Oliver Stone co-wrote The Untold History of the United States.
Image by Annette Jones from Pixabay
On this Project Censored Show, host Mickey Huff dedicates the hour to Banned Books Week 2022 (Sept. 18-24). Now in its 40th year, Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating and promoting the freedom to read, and resisting efforts to ban books from library shelves, especially in school settings. Mickey's four guests bring a variety of perspectives to the program, but are united in their opposition to censorship and staunch advocacy of the freedom to read. Project Censored is a longtime co-sponsor of the Banned Books Week Coalition.
Notes: -Betsy Gomez is coordinator for the Banned Books Week Coalition. -Cameron Samuels is a recent high school graduate and activist from the Katy Independent School District near Houston, Texas. Cameron was named the Youth Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week (the first time the title has been awarded) for actively opposing book banning in the District as a student there. -Jordan Smith is the digital editor at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. -Nico Perrino is Executive Vice-President at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education, an organization specializing in protecting academic freedom.
Image by Pretty Sleepy Art from Pixabay
The latest Project Censored Show features a recording of a panel discussion from this summer's Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival, held in Washington DC. Mickey and Project Censored's Associate Director, Andy Lee Roth, moderated a discussion with journalist Kevin Gosztola and Rebecca Vincent of Reporters Without Borders. This panel, "Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange" examined how the imprisonment and prosecution of Assange for his work with WikiLeaks will have a negative impact on journalists and publishers. The final ten minutes of the show is an update with Kevin Gosztola explaining to Mickey the latest developments in the Assange extradition case.
Notes: Kevin Gosztola is an independent journalist, and the publisher of ShadowProof. He's also the author of "Guilty of Journalism: the Political Case Against Julian Assange," to be published in early 2023 by The Censored Press. Rebecca Vincent works at Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization that advocates for press freedom worldwide.
On the first half of this week’s show Eleanor speaks with musician, producer, and songwriter Samantha Blanchard - talking to her about the exploitation of artists in today’s often cookie cutter market, the sad trope of paying dues, and the harsh clash between capitalism and art - which is in fact just human emotion. They also discuss an upcoming EP of hers which covers several Elvis songs, his legacy, and the responsibility of white artists in regards to the black, and indigenous artists who they borrow from, and who largely never got their due.
On the second half of the show, Eleanor speaks with organizer India Walton about the student loan debt crisis. India shares her thoughts on the Biden administration’s latest announcement, as well as the road ahead. They discuss how those closest to the problem are closest to the solution, including canceling student loans, free higher education, and everything else under the sun.
In the first half of the show, Mickey talks with attorney and author Heidi Boghosian and Project Censored associate director Andy Lee Roth about the confluence of surveillance and censorship, and how that impacts journalism. Many people believe they have nothing to hide online, but that myth is dispelled by today’s guests as they address everyday precautions citizens can take to defend their privacy online. Later, Clayton Weimers of Reporters Without Boarders joins the discussion with Mickey and Andy to address the rising incidences of violence (or threats of violence) against journalists, how they should be confronted, and the impacts they have on a free press and society at large.
Notes: * Heidi Boghosian is executive director of the AJ Muste Institute, and former executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Her most recent book is I Have Nothing to Hide, And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy. * Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored, co-editor of the Project's annual volume of censored stories, and co-coordinator of the Project's Campus Affiliates Program. He has published widely on media issues, including most recently, The Deadly Business of Reporting Truth. * Clayton Weimers directs the Washington DC bureau office of Reporters Without Borders, an international institution which works to protect journalists around the world; it also publishes the annual "Press Freedom Index" ranking of countries around the world on press freedom issues.
Hosts: Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield
Producers: Anthony Fest and Eleanor Goldfield
For the first half of the show, Eleanor Goldfield looks into unionizing workers at a Trader Joe's store in Minneapolis and what issues they are facing. She speaks with organizer Sara Beth Ryther about the efforts as part of growing nationwide movement of organized workers. Then we hear a rebroadcast of a conversation recorded last year between Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth, the associate director of Project Censored, about how big tech companies are increasingly turning to proprietary algorithms (instead of human editors) to decide what material they post on their platforms, ultimately determining the news we see.
Notes: Sara Beth Ryther is an employee at the Trader Joe's store in Minneapolis, MN and a leader in the campaign to organize workers at that store. Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored, co-editor of the Project's annual volume of censored stories, and co-coordinator of the Project's Campus Affiliates Program. He has published widely on media matters, including the article discussed from The Markaz Review on "The New Gatekeepers."
This week on the Project Censored Show, we start off the hour in conversation with Dr. David Goldfield, who is an Historian and long-time academic who has just recently been asked to censor some of the shocking and uncomfortable aspects of his work so as to not “offend anyone.” As he puts it, if you offend no one, you teach no one. Mickey, David, and I highlight the importance of never censoring the past, lest we distort our present, and thereby condemn our future to one built on falsehoods.
In the second half of the show, Eleanor is joined by journalist Mirna Wabi-Sabi to discuss food waste as a colonialist and capitalist paradigm…moving beyond the argument for individual responsibility for climate change and incorporating global systems in our understanding of both the problem, and indeed, the solution.
Image by Hermann Traub from Pixabay
Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week's show. This past May, the US Supreme Court narrowed the protection of the Sixth Amendment, by ruling that a person convicted of a crime cannot cite ineffective legal representation in state court as grounds for appeal to the federal courts. In the first half of today's program, attorney Mark Loudon-Brown explains the implications of that decision. Then in the second half-hour, Eleanor explores some of the ways big-party power brokers attempt to block third parties from the ballot, as well as constrain the influence of grassroots activists.
Notes: Mark Loudon-Brown is a senior attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights, and previously was a public defender in New York City. He holds law degrees from New York University and Georgetown University.
For the first half of this week's show, Mickey brings on co-organizers and participants of the upcoming 2022 Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival in Washington, DC, including Marcel Reid, Michael McCray, and Marsha Warfiled. They make the case for a broader public understanding of what whistleblowing is, and why those who call out corruption need better protection and support given the retaliation they face for exercising what Daniel Ellsberg, of the Pentagon Papers fame, has called civil courage. In the second half-hour, Eleanor Goldfield and her guest look at the recent election in Colombia, which saw leftist candidate Gustavo Petro winning the presidency and the first Afro-Colombian, Francia Marquez, an environmental activist, win the vice-presidency. They discuss what this may means for the region and US influence and imperialism there.
Notes: Michael McCray and Marcel Reid are the co-founders of the International Association of Whistleblowers and co-organizers of the Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival. McCray is also General Counsel for the Federally Employed Women Legal Education Fund. Reid is a former member of the Pacifica Radio National Board. Marsha Warfield is a nationally-known, comedian and actress, and will be hosting some events at the Whistleblower Summit. Gimena Sanchez is a staff member at the Washington Office on Latin America.
Image by German Rojas from Pixabay
This week's program begins with an update from Kevin Gosztola on the Julian Assange legal case in the UK, including the recent ruling by the Home Secretary authorizing Assange's extradition to the U.S. Gosztola explains why Assange didn't receive an impartial hearing from the UK authorities and what this portends for press freedoms worldwide. In the second half-hour, Nolan Higdon looks at the recent Supreme Court opinion reversing Roe vs. Wade, and asks why national-level Democratic Party politicians never took preemptive action to protect abortion rights (the topic of a recent article he and Mickey co-authored at Salon). He and Mickey also discuss the state of the media, including the lessons from the rapid failure of CNN+, the cable network's futile attempt to compete with new media by adding a streaming service that did little to garner a broader audience.
Notes: Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of ShadowProof. He has covered the Julian Assange legal proceedings in the UK from the beginning, as well as other press-freedom and whistleblower cases. Nolan Higdon is a university lecturer in media studies and history in northern California. He's also the author of The Anatomy of Fake News, and is a frequent guest on the Project Censored Show.
This week on the Project Censored radio show, we sit down with Fiore Longo of Survival International to discuss the colonialist and racist realities of so-called conservation, not least of all in the case of our own country’s beloved national parks. Highlighting the current forced eviction of the Maasai from their ancestral lands, Fiore speaks to the need of shifting our paradigms on both eco-tourism and conservation, pointing out that removing tribal and indigenous peoples from an ecosystem not only harms the biodiversity of that place but perpetuates violence against these people. The so-called Global North’s perspective of tribal and indigenous peoples must change, not only for the sake of human rights but in a very real sense for the sake of biodiversity and climate justice. There’s no such thing as cuddly colonialism, there’s no such thing as green capitalism.
Later in the show we’re joined by Jimmy Dunson, co-founder of Mutual Aid Disaster Relief to discuss the importance of community preparedness for extreme weather driven by climate chaos, as well as relational infrastructure. We also discuss his upcoming book Building Power while the lights are out - about mutual aid, disasters and dual power published by Rebel Hearts Publishing.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
This week's program focuses on whistleblowers -- their contributions to society, the retaliation they often endure, and the legal protections they need. Mickey's guests for the hour include Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit organization that supports whistleblowers, and three historic whistleblowers who dared speak truth to power. We learn about the dangers and abuses these three men exposed over the past half century, and what reforms are needed to defend individuals who take the risks of becoming whistleblowers, and the journalists who help bring their stories to the public.
Notes:
Tom Devine is Legal Director at the nonprofit Government Accountability Project. Frank Serpico is a retired NYPD detective who became a household name after exposing widespread corruption within the department. His story was the subject of the 1973 Hollywood movie “Serpico." Rick Parks is a nuclear engineer who worked at the damaged Three Mile Island power plant in 1980, and has spoken out about management's and regulators' failures to prioritize safety above utility profits. He is featured on the new Netflix docu-series “Meltdown: Three Mile Island" Robert MacLean was fired from the Transportation Security Administration after criticizing dangerous shortcomings in airline security procedures after 9/11.
A National Whistleblower Summit will take place in July; more information can be found here.
Music-break information:
1) "After the Ordeal" by Genesis 2) "Snatch it Back" by Government Mule
the Project Censored Show: Hosts: Mickey Huff, Eleanor Goldfield Producer: Anthony Fest
Image by Daniel Bone from Pixabay
This week on the Project Censored Radio Show, Eleanor Goldfield dives into Pride: talking about some of the misconceptions of pride, the corporatization of pride, the radical roots of pride - from this past century and indeed beyond - and the myriad intersections of pride that are glossed over and whitewashed. Later in the show, we will be joined by Jen Deerinwater who is a bisexual, two-spirit multiply-disabled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, an award-winning journalist and organizer. She joins us to discuss the corporatization of pride and the power of pride outside those confines.
Produced by Eleanor Goldfield, Co-Host and Associate Producer.
Mickey's guests for the hour are the creators of a forthcoming graphic book that explores the far-reaching consequences of replacing classroom teaching with remote instruction and increased technology during the coronavirus pandemic. Author Adam Bessie and illustrator Peter Glanting collaborated on Going Remote: A Teacher's Journey. The book is also a personal memoir in which Bessie recounts issues such as his cancer diagnosis. In addition, Mickey and the guests examine disturbing trends in the administration of higher education that resulted from decades of neoliberal policies.
Adam Bessie teaches literature, English composition, and critical thinking at a community college in Northern California. Peter Glanting is an illustrator and product designer based in Portland, Oregon. Their book is scheduled for release in early 2023, from The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.
Mickey's guest for the first half of the program is the theologian and philosopher John Cobb; their topic is the Living Earth Movement. Cobb explains the need for humanity to change its behavior so as to live in harmony with all other life on the planet. Addressing U.S. politics, Cobb stresses the need for cooperation with China, rather than confrontation. In the second half-hour, we hear a rebroadcast of a summer 2021 Project Censored Zoom event featuring poet and author Lisa Wells; she spoke about her new book Believers: Making A Life At The End Of The World, for which she interviewed people around the world who were working to make positive changes in their local environments, undeterred by the specter of catastrophic climate change.
Notes: John Cobb is an eminent theologian, philosopher and environmentalist. He taught at the Claremont Colleges in California, has authored over 50 books, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lisa Wells is a poet and author based in Portland, Oregon. Her conversation with Mickey Huff took place as a Zoom event in the summer of 2021, sponsored by KPFA-FM (Berkeley, CA) and Project Censored.
Music-break info: 1) "Let's Work Together" by Canned Heat 2) "Who's Going To Save Us From Ourselves" by Styx 3) "Something In The Air" by Thunderclap Newman
Web sites mentioned in this week's program: www.livingearthmovement.eco www.claremontecoforum.org
On May 2, 2022, a rare leak from the US Supreme Court revealed that the court was likely to reverse its historic 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which established a legal right to abortion. On this week's Project Censored Show, Eleanor Goldfield spends the hour addressing abortion and abortion rights, including her personal experience. In the first half of the show, she explains reproductive choice as part of health care, and as an essential element of bodily autonomy. In the second half-hour, Eleanor interviews Jessica Pinckney, who notes that even being in a "pro-choice" state (California) does not guarantee that women actually have access to abortion services. They also discuss how providers will adapt if Roe is indeed reversed.
Notes: Jessica Pinckney is Executive Director of Access Reproductive Justice, a California organization that advocates for choice, and also provides support services for women seeking an abortion.
Image by Mark Thomas from Pixabay
Eleanor Goldfield recently spoke with former leader of the Feminist Initiative party in Sweden, Farida al-Abani. They discussed the supposedly “neutral” country’s militaristic tendencies– from the push to join NATO to being one of the world’s largest weapons exporters. Farida al-Abani also shares her personal experiences with NATO as a Libyan as well as her professional struggles for peace in the din of ever crescendoing war drums. In the second segment, Mickey talks with attorney and author Charlotte Dennett about her latest book, Follow the Pipelines, which explores the pervasive role that oil and gas have played in politics and war, in both the 20th and 21st centuries right up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Notes: Born in Libya, Farida al-Abani was brought to Sweden at an early age, grew up there, and became a leader in the Feminist Initiative party. Charlotte Dennett is an attorney and author, and the daughter of a US intelligence official who died while on assignment in the Middle East just after WWII. Her previous books include The People vs. Bush and Thy Will be Done. The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil with Gerard Colby.
Music-break information: 1) "The Resistance" by 2 Cellos 2) "The Military and the Monetary" by Gil-Scott Heron 3) "Pipeline" by the Alan Parsons Project
Mickey is joined for the hour by former co-host Peter Phillips and University of California, Santa Barbara sociologist William I. Robinson. They discuss Robinson's new book "Global Civil War: Capitalism Post Pandemic” out from PM Press. Robinson says that the many types of digital technologies created, enhanced or expanded in recent years have changed the nature of world capitalism, and that -- with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic -- the capitalist class has hastened to deploy these new tools to control populations, with the aim of suppressing the peoples' uprisings that have been growing in extent and scale for more than a decade. Phillips and Robinson offer ideas about what sort of popular movement will be needed to confront this new variant of predatory capitalism.
Notes: William I. Robinson teaches Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara campus. His previous books include Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity and The Global Police State. Peter Phillips is Professor of Political Sociology at Sonoma State University. He's also a former director of Project Censored, and the cofounder of the Project Censored Show. His most recent book is Giants: the Global Power Elite.
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
Mickey's first guest is Alan MacLeod, senior writer for MintPress News, speaks about PayPal's sudden cutoff of service to MintPress, Consortium News, and other journalism sites that publish antiwar opinions and analysis; Mickey and Alan also discuss the recent trend of individuals from the US/NATO security establishment being given influential posts at Facebook, Tik Tok, and other social media platforms as well as the Biden Administration’s new Disinformation Governance Board, a virtual Orwellian Ministry of Truth. In the second half of the show, Steve Macek and Shealeigh Voitl of Project Censored discuss their recent Ms. Magazine article on corporate media's failures in coverage of women's' issues, especially gender violence and inequity. They also comment on the recently-leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court, which would reverse the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, thereby giving states wide latitude to criminalize abortion.
Notes: Alan MacLeod is a media critic, a senior staff writer at MintPress News, and has also contributed to many other publications. Steve Macek is chair of Communications and Media Studies at North Central College in Illinois, and is co-coordinator of Project Censored's Campus Affiliates Program. Shealeigh Voitl is a Journalism graduate of North Central College, and a research associate at Project Censored. The Macek/Voitl article can be found here.
Image by Michi S from Pixabay
This week's show is excerpted from a recent online panel discussion for the Sonoma County Library and Lumacon! in Northern California about efforts to ban certain books, keeping them from children or youth by removing them from libraries and schools. The panelists explore the possible motives for book bans, and explain why it's vital for young people to have access to books that represent diversity and marginalized communities that are most frequently targeted for banning. The featured panel members were Maia Kobabe, author of "Gender Queer: A Memoir," and Noah Grigni, illustrator of "It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity.” The panel also included two local student activists. Both the aforementioned books have been targets for banning. The discussion took place on April 9, and was sponsored by the Sonoma County Public Library. Project Censored’s Mickey Huff was the panel moderator.
Audio used by permission of event organizers and parents of the minors.
In the first half-hour of this week's program, Mickey's talks to author and professor Valena Beety and veteran investigative journalist Geoff Davidian about the widespread problem of wrongful criminal convictions and the obstacles that both legal investigators and journalists encounter when they try to uncover information. Then in the second half of the program, Eleanor Goldfield speaks with long-time single-payer advocate Dr. Margaret Flowers about prospects for universal health care in the U.S. today.
Notes: Valena Beety teaches law at Arizona State University, and previously worked at Innocence Projects in two states (Mississippi and West Virginia). Geoff Davidian is a reporter with over 40 years' experience, including at the Milwaukee Journal, Arizona Republic, and Houston Chronicle. Margaret Flowers is a retired pediatrician and a long-time advocate for universal single-payer health coverage. She's a member of the steering committee for HealthOverProfit.org, a group that campaigns for "a national improved Medicare for All healthcare system."
Uruguan poet and political analyst Eduardo Galeano once wrote, "Every time the US 'saves' a country, it converts it into either an insane asylum or a cemetery."
And this week on the Project Censored show, we look at the reality behind Uncle Sam’s particular brand of saviorism - talking US economic warfare - also known as US sanctions - which as of 2021 affect a third of humanity with more than 8,000 measures impacting 39 countries. First, we sit down with Code Pink’s Latin America coordinator Leonardo Flores to discuss the sanctions against his home country of Venezuela and how recent US thirst for Venezuelan oil could translate into the much needed lifting of some of the most oppressive sanctions. Next, we sit down with Jacquie Luqman, organizer with the Black Alliance for Peace and radio host to discuss the economic warfare against Afghanistan - which analysts suggest could prove to be deadlier in one year than 20 years of active war on the ground - and also what our role is in combating these acts of violence, as children of the empire.
This episode features the song Pyre by Eleanor Goldfield
Censorship by proxy continues in the US with the latest wave of Big Tech censorship and deplatforming spurred by increased Russiaphobia that lead to the cancellation RT America. This week, Mickey talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Chris Hedges about the matter noting how Roku and DirecTV pulled the channel from subscriber services. In addition, Youtube deleted the entire catalog of RT America, which housed his book review program "On Contact," as well as all other programs there, from Lee Camp’s Redacted Tonight to Abby Martin’s Breaking the Set, in effort to suppress dissenting views not found in US corporate media. Mickey and Chris discuss issues with RT, but also the problematic media landscape in the US that drives critical journalists out of our so-called "free press.” Later in the program, journalist Kevin Gosztola returns to review the recent developments in the Julian Assange extradition case and offers additional analysis about Big Tech censorship and how “community standards” are used as an excuse to ban content at places like YouTube with no means of appeal or accountability.
Notes:
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist with a long career as a foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His books include War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Death of the Liberal Class, and America: The Farewell Tour. Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor at Shadowproof. He has covered the Julian Assange legal proceedings in the UK from the beginning, as well as other press-freedom and whistleblower cases. His interview with Mickey was recorded on March 25.
This week on the Project Censored show, we share audio from Code Pink’s recent panel on Media Censorship of Voices for Peace with Abby Martin, Lee Camp and Chris Hedges. Code Pink’s Jodie Evans talks to them about how they came to speak truth to power, their personal experiences with censorship and what this latest silencing of dissident views means for what’s left of free speech and free press, as well as the importance of these so-called dangerous viewpoints in contextualizing US empire, and combating violent propagandization in the face of nuclear war.
In the first segment of this week's show, Eleanor speaks with a member of Defend the Atlanta Forest. They discuss the group's purpose and motivation. In the second half of the show, Eleanor and Mickey discuss how corporate media have under-reported and mis-reported stories involving the global climate crisis, which further contributes to the deleterious effects this has to all life on the planet.
Notes:
"Coyote" is a member of Defend the Atlanta Forest. The organization aims to protect a 500-acre parcel of the city's historic South River Forest from development plans that would turn part of the woods into a police training center, and another part into a movie studio. Coyote explains how the conflict over the forest involves multiple inter-related issues.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Looking ahead to the upcoming annual conference of the Alliance for Community Media West, Mickey speaks with two long-time activists in the community-media movement- Sue Buske and Tracy Rosenberg; they discuss the future of public-access cable channels, associated public/local media, and the role community media centers can play centering marginalized voices in local news deserts, especially in hyper-artisan times. The ACM West's 2022 conference is taking place in San Jose, CA from March 30 through April 1.
In the second half of the show, we learn about the iconic, pathbreaking civil-rights activist, lawyer, clergy, and feminist, Pauli Murray (1910-1985), from Simki Kuznick, author of a newly-published Murray biography. That which Murray fought for foreshadowed and impacted many of the civil rights campaigns that continue to this day.
Notes:
Tracy Rosenberg is Executive Director of Media Alliance, a San-Francisco-based advocacy organization involved in a wide array of campaigns, including net neutrality, personal privacy, and many other issues.
Sue Buske is Vice-Chair of ACM West, and heads a consulting firm (the Buske Group) assisting local governments and nonprofit organizations on cable-TV matters. The California Assembly bills discussed on the show are AB2635 and AB2748.
Simki Kuznick is the author of "Pauli Murray's Revolutionary Life" (from Rootstock Publishing). While living in California, she helped found the group Interracial Pride. Now based in the Washington, DC area, she is a writer and editor, holds an MFA in Creative Writing.
This week, Eleanor Goldfield hosts both segments of the show. Her first guest is Lee Camp, comedian and political writer, whose TV program (Redacted Tonight) ended with the recent shutdown of the Russia-funded RT America network. They discuss working on RT, and compare the journalistic latitude it allowed, versus that of corporate-owned US media. In the second segment, Chris Garaffa speaks about the shutdown of Sputnik radio in the U.S. and EU, a network where they were a regular contributor. Garaffa and Eleanor discuss how large US-based technology and media corporations have worked with the US government and its allies to prevent Americans from hearing Russian points of view, or any Russian-funded program, even if unrelated to Russia itself, or hosted by non-Russians. Garaffa also offers advice to Americans on how to circumvent government censorship.
Notes: Lee Camp's political comedy program, "Redacted Tonight," had an eight-year run on RT America. He and Eleanor Goldfield collaborate on a podcast called "Common Censored." Camp is also the author of the book "Bullet Points and Punch Lines." Chris Garaffa cohosts the "Reboot" podcast and is the creator of Tech For the People.
Music-break information: 1) "Long Red" by Mountain 2) "Lucifer" by the Alan Parsons Project 3) "Blasting Cap" by Preston Reed 4) "Touch and Go" by Emerson, Lake and Powell
To open this week's show, Mickey speaks with pathbreaking reporter Danielle McLean about the perilous state of US journalism, as conglomerate-owned newspapers shed reporters or devalue substantive local coverage in favor of entertainment. Then co-host Eleanor Goldfield speaks with Nolan Higdon and Mickey about their new textbook, "Let's Agree to Disagree," a work intended to show a route beyond the political divisiveness promoted by corporate media that focuses on communication, conflict management, and critical media literacy education.
Notes: Danielle McLean is the first open trans person to sit on the board of directors of the Society of Professional Journalists. She has a background in local newspaper reporting, and currently writes for SmartCitiesDive.com, a trade publication that follows environmental and social-equity issues at the municipal level. She had the top censored story on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2021 and wrote the foreword for Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2022. Nolan Higdon is a lecturer in education at the University of California Santa Cruz campus. He's also the author of "The Anatomy of Fake News," and is a frequent guest on the Project Censored Show.
Mickey and his guests examine the Russian invasion of Ukraine. First, author and activist Harvey Wasserman warns of the dangers of catastrophic radioactive contamination if one of Ukraine's decrepit nuclear power plants is damaged in combat, or abandoned by its crews (not to mention Russia’s nuclear arsenal). Then historian Peter Kuznick returns to the program to look at the US/NATO conduct that partly set the stage for Russian leader Vladimir Putin's actions while heavily criticizing both Putin and the current illegal attacks on Ukraine. He also examines how the war might yet be ended soon by diplomacy. Given the timely and fast changing nature of this matter, listeners should know these conversations were recorded February 24 and 25, 2022.
Notes: Harvey Wasserman has been a clean-energy and anti-nuclear activist for decades. His recent article on the nuclear hazards in Ukraine, Chernobyl 2.0, was published at The Progressive. Peter Kuznick is Professor of History at American University in Washington DC, and also directs the Nuclear Studies Program at that institution. He and Oliver Stone wrote The Untold History of the United States.
This week, the Project Censored Show’s new co-host Eleanor Goldfield speaks first with Benjamin Norton to learn how President Biden is "out-Trumping Trump" on immigration. Norton also offers an update on political conditions in Latin America. In the second half of the show, Eleanor talks with Eugene Puryear who explains racism's deep roots in US history, and how it cannot be defeated by superficial actions. He also looks at the significance of Black History Month, which is this month.
Benjamin Norton is an independent journalist who focuses on Latin America; he's also the founder of Multipolarista. Eugene Puryear has been a peace-and-justice organizer since his high-school days; he's the author of "Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America," and he writes at Breakthrough News.
Mickey spends the hour with American University historian Peter Kuznick, co-author with Oliver Stone of The Untold History of the United States. They discuss the current U.S. and NATO confrontation with Russia over Ukraine; summarize the recent history of Ukraine and U.S. relations, while placing current affairs in Cold War context; and emphasize the urgency of settling the crisis peacefully.
Program note: Due to ongoing and possibly rapidly changing developments, this conversation took place February 10, 2022.
Notes:
Peter Kuznick is Professor of History at American University in Washington DC, and also directs the Nuclear Studies Program at that institution. He and Oliver Stone wrote the groundbreaking book The Untold History of the United States, now in an updated edition, and also produced a Showtime documentary series based on the book.
After several visits as a guest, Eleanor Goldfield joins the program as co-host with Mickey Huff. In the first segment of this week's show, Kevin Gosztola delivers a brief update about Julian Assange's case. Then Jayeesha Dutta speaks with Eleanor about a possible future for the Gulf of Mexico that doesn't include hazardous offshore oil drilling. In the final segment, Alan MacLeod looks at a purported fake-news watchdog, Graphika, which actually is staffed by numerous retired military, CIA and NATO personnel, and dismisses many domestic alternative media organizations as tools of foreign "enemies."
Notes: Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of ShadowProof as well as other press-freedom and whistleblower cases. Jayeesha Dutta is co-founder of AnotherGulf.com; she also works with the Climate Justice Alliance. Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of ShadowProof. He has covered the Julian Assange legal proceedings in the UK from the beginning. Alan MacLeod is a media scholar and a senior staff writer at Mint Press News.
Music-break information: 1) "Pipeline" by the Alan Parsons Project 2) "Water Song" by Hot Tuna 3) "Long Red" by Mountain 4) "Marwa Blues" by George Harrison
Journalist and filmmaker Eleanor Goldfield returns to the program to address several topics in media and world events, including the ongoing scandal of Julian Assange's imprisonment, the folly of the US and NATO threatening Russia, and the shallowness of commercial media. Then media scholar Nolan Higdon revisits the program to explain how tech giants are infiltrating the classroom by sponsoring carefully-tailored "media-literacy" course materials. The discussion delves into the differences between critical, critical, and corporate media literacy. Both guests weigh in on the latest flap between Joe Rogan, Neil Young, and Spotify with a focus on the problem of big tech deplatforming, censorship, and free speech issues.
Eleanor Goldfield is a creative radical, journalist, artist, and organizer. She is co-host of the Common Censored podcast with Lee Camp. She also produced a documentary, Hard Road of Hope, about West Virginia communities confronting pollution from fracking. The Craig Murray article she mentions (about Julian Assange) can be found here.
Nolan Higdon is a lecturer in education at the University of California Santa Cruz campus, he teaches media studies and history. He's also the author of the book "The Anatomy of Fake News;” co-author of "Podcaster’s Dilemma” with Nicholas Baham III; and co-author with Mickey Huff of "Let’s Agree to Disagree,” a critical thinking textbook out from Routledge in early 2022. His recent article (co-written with media scholar Allison Butler) is titled "Time to Put Your Marketing Cap On." It appears in the Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies journal.
Notes:
Music-break information: 1) "The Resistance" by 2 Cellos 2) "Rockin' in the Free World" by Neil Young 3) "Money" by Pink Floyd
Last year, Chinese producers released The Battle at Lake Changjin, a big-budget war movie celebrating a 1950 Chinese victory against US forces in the Korean War. The New York Times criticized the movie as a militaristic intervention by Chinese authorities into popular entertainment for propaganda purposes. However, media scholar Robin Andersen, writing for FAIR, noted that the U.S. press critique ignored the fact that the Pentagon has been influencing Hollywood films producing U.S. propaganda for decades. She joins the Project Censored Show to explore the close ties between the Pentagon and Hollywood and their ongoing efforts to rewrite history and demonize counter narrative sources. Later in the show, Andersen addresses the danger of applying corporate media "both-sides-ism” and false equivalency as part of News Abuse analysis in the latest Project Censored book, State of the Free Press 2022. In the second half of the show, media scholars Nicholas Baham III and Nolan Higdon speak about their new book, The Podcaster's Dilemma: Decolonizing Podcasters in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism, and how corporate media might attempt to co-opt the new medium given its popularity and success at reaching more diverse audiences. Their groundbreaking study is both cautionary and optimistic regarding prospects for this relatively new but wildly popular medium.
Notes:
Robin Andersen is professor emerita at Fordham University; she also writes for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and once again compiled the News Abuse chapter in Project Censored's annual book, State of the Free Press 2022. Professors and authors Nicholas Baham III and Nolan Higdon have made multiple appearances as guests on the the Project Censored Show and were podcasters themselves. Their new book, Podcaster’s Dilemma, is both a scholarly analysis of the fast-growing podcasting sector, and an examination of podcasting's potential as a force of decolonization.
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
Mickey presents a discussion between political scientist Aaron Good and author David Talbot on the subject of the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy. This conversation is excerpted from a recent interview Aaron Good did for his new podcast series, "American Exception." Talbot explains why “Bobby was the original conspiracy theorist” about the 1963 assassination while discussing his book, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.
Notes:
David Talbot founded Salon.com, and is the author of several books, including the bestselling Brothers, the story of John and Robert Kennedy, and The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government. His work can be seen online at The David Talbot Show. Aaron Good holds a doctorate in political science from Temple University, and is the author ofAmerican Exception: Empire and the Deep State, to be released this spring by Skyhorse Publishing. Good is also the creator of the American Exception podcast.
How can the arts play a role in addressing the global climate crisis? A December 2021 exhibit at the Ceres Gallery in Manhattan, Earth on the Edge, curated by M. Annenberg, featured the works of 12 artists on the subjects of climate change and mass extinction. In the first half of this week's show, Mickey speaks with two artist/activists whose works were included in the Ceres exhibit, Marcia Annenberg and Angela Manno. They discuss their work, along with the influence of E.O. Wilson, and intersections of art and news censorship around the climate crisis. Then we share excerpts of some of the talks given at the exhibit's opening panel, from Elly Lessin, Drawdown, NY.
Notes:
Marcia Annenberg works in painting, sculpture and mixed media. Her work, “No News is Good News," was adapted for the cover of Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times. Angela Manno uses a wide range of materials in her artwork, and focuses her subject matter on nature and humanity's place in it. Learn more about the exhibit at the Ceres Gallery. Thanks to Den Petrizzo for panel audio. This episode is dedicated to the memory of the late E.O. Wilson, who just passed December 26, 2021.
Independent journalist Kevin Gosztola of Shadowproof.com returns to the program to deliver another update about the Julian Assange extradition case in the UK, and its disturbing implications for press freedom. Then we hear a rebroadcast of an interview from earlier this year with Project Censored’s Andy Lee Roth where he spoke about the New Gatekeepers in our media systems. Roth shows how algorithms are replacing human editors in deciding which news stories appear, and which are excluded, on the platforms of Big Tech companies such as Google and Facebook, constituting a more recent and insidiously pervasive form of media censorship.
Project Censored's new annual volume, "State of the Free Press 2022,” has just been released from The Censored Press. It includes the well-known 'Top 25' censored stories of the preceding year (which are found freely at their website), as well as many more chapters of media analysis. Andy Lee Roth and Steve Macek of Project Censored spend the hour with Mickey to discuss the new book, and also explain Project Censored's procedures for identifying and compiling under-reported stories while sharing some of this year’s selections.
Notes:
Andy Lee Roth is associate director of Project Censored; he holds a PhD in Sociology from UCLA and has published widely on media issues. Steve Macek is chair of Communications and Media Studies at North Central College in Illinois. Roth and Macek are co-coordinators of Project Censored's Campus Affiliates Program.
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author Chris Hedges also teaches college-level courses through Rutgers University for the New Jersey state prison system. His latest book, “Our Class,” explains what happened when Hedges taught a dramatic-literature course to inmates, then helped them write a play of their own – “Caged” – based on their personal life events (published by Haymarket Books). As well, the inmates' stories illustrate the many cruelties of life in an American prison. Mickey Huff hosted Chris Hedges for this special KPFA/Project Censored Zoom event on November 18; this week's program presents excerpts from that talk.
Notes:
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist with a long career as a war correspondent around the world. He hosts the program "On Contact" for RT Television, and writes online. His previous books include War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Empire of Illusion, Death of the Liberal Class, and America: The Farewell Tour.
Photo by cactusbones
Should a political lobbyist and real estate investor also be the owner of a major regional newspaper that happens to have bought up the most of the competition? Northern California's Sonoma County provides a case study: lobbyist/investor Darius Anderson is also a principal owner of the county’s largest and primary daily newspaper for all of Northern California (and most of its other print media too).
Today's guests are longtime independent, investigative reporters Will Carruthers and Peter Byrne. They return to the program to discuss their recent reporting which further examines some of Anderson's ethically-questionable activities, and why the people of the area are likely to be kept uninformed about them. Then Peter Byrne stays for the second half of the program, and explains the now-widespread and dubious practice of "native advertising:” advertisements in the format of news stories, sometimes written by the newspaper's own reporters, thereby pulling down the traditional 'firewall' between the editorial and business sides of journalism.
Notes: Will Carruthers is a staff reporter for the North Bay Bohemian and Pacific Sun weekly newspapers, serving Northern California's Marin, Sonoma, and Napa counties. He has two recent articles on Darius Anderson's dealings involving a local rail agency; they can be read here.
Peter Byrne is an investigative journalist who has written on a wide array of topics, from science and medicine to public finance. Byrne's work can be found here.
Independent journalist Kevin Gosztola returns to the program to deliver an update about the Julian Assange extradition case in the UK, and its disturbing impacts for press freedom in the US and around the world. Then in the second half, journalist and filmmaker Eleanor Goldfield discusses the remarkable range of issues in which WikiLeaks has obtained and published secret documents leading to mass social movements for political change and much more.
Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of the news web site shadowproof.com. He has covered the Julian Assange legal proceedings in the UK from the beginning, as well as other major press-freedom and whistleblower cases.
Eleanor Goldfield is a creative radical, artist, journalist, and organizer; see more about the broad range of her work at artkillingapathy.com. Learn about her award-winning documentary film, Hard Road of Hope, that looks at West Virginia labor communities confronting corporate and political corruption while pushing back against the kings of the coal and gas industry at hardroadofhope.com.
For the first half of the program, sociologist Andy Lee Roth describes his latest work with research librarian Avram Anderson indicating that Google and other internet giants are filtering out material from LGBT publications, yet allowing anti-gay hate 'speech.’ Roth ties it in to earlier research they published that tracked a rise in censorship and hostility around LGBTQ issues since Trump took office. Then attorney Peter Obstler explains in detail the federal lawsuit against Youtube that he filed on behalf of several gay or lesbian video producers -- a case that might clarify whether internet platforms like Youtube have First Amendment obligations.
Dr. Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored and co-editor of its annual Censored books published by Seven Stories Press.
His recent article co-authored with Avram Anderson is "Queer Erasure" is in the Spring 2020 issue of the Index on Censorship. They also co-authored a chapter in Censored 2020, “Stonewalled: Establishment Media’s Silence on the Trump Administration’s Crusade against LGBTQ People.”
Peter Obstler is a partner in the San Francisco office of the Browne George Ross law firm.