Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar > 20 June 1990
Media lords’ control biggest censored story
by DAN MURPHY Tribune Staff Writer
It was the media itself, and its control by “media lords,” that was the most “censored” story of last year.
But since most people get their news in a 24-minute dose each night, plenty of news never reaches the public.
The monopolization of information flow by media conglomerates in the United States and throughout the world was the most under-reported story of 1989, according to a Sonoma State University research panel.
The group, consisting of SSU students and respected professionals in education and journalism, was part of Dr. Carl Jensen’s Project Censored, which has been compiling a “Top Ten” list of what it deems to be stories that were missed by the news media since 1976.
Other stories that went unreported, or under-reported, by the press detailed how Africa is being turned into a toxic waste dump by international garbage merchants, and that a holocaust is now occurring in Mozambique with the support of U.S. officials.
“These are stories you didn’t read about in the Boston Globe or the New York Times or watch them on the three major networks,” Jensen said.
“The fact is, these are the forms of media which reach the most people in the U.S. It’s sad to say, but the majority of the people in the U.S. get their news from a 24-minute broadcast on the evening news.”
The project received over 500 nominations worldwide for stories considered to be censored in one form or another.
The class spent the spring semester trimming the list based on criteria such as timeliness and their international scope of importance.
The students picked the top 25 censored stories and the judges, which included PBS commentator Bill Moyers and M.I.T. lecturer Noam Chomsky, narrowed it to 10.
“We had a very diverse list of stories this year,” Jensen said. “During the mid-70s and early ’80s, we had a lot of nuclear related stories submitted to us, because of the Three Mile Island incident, and not much else.”
Why should the average citizen on the street, struggling to make it day to day, have cause to pause at a list of censored stories?
“Because his problems are directly related to the issues we arc covering with the project,” replied Jensen. “The HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) scandal and the Savings and Loan scandal arc prime examples. The guy on the street is paying for that. If the press had gotten wind of the S&L scandal before it happened, think of the difference it would have made.”
Throughout the 14-year history of the project, editors and publishers in the media have blasted it for what they perceive as unwarranted criticism of the press.
“But that’s not what we are really trying to do,” said Jensen. “We arc trying to help them by pointing out some stories that deserve another look.” It is the duty of the Fourth Estate, according to Jensen, to provide the public with as much news as possible, not just the variety that produce large profits.
“It is the responsibility of the press to give the people the news first and then let them decide how important it is,” he said. “The news doesn’t have to be written the way the New York Times writes it.” If the project is successful, said Jensen, more people will read about issues like media monopolies and Mozambique and less about Donald Trump and Marla Maples.
The top ten list of censored stories:
1) Global Media Lords Threaten Freedom of Information. Five major media corporations dominate the fight for hundreds of millions of minds worldwide; they concede that before the end of the century they may control most of the world’s media.
2) Turning Africa into the World’s Garbage Can. International sludge dealers arc trying to dump U.S. and European waste into at least 15 African countries.
3) The Holocaust in Mozambique. More than a million people have been killed by the Mozambique National Resistance, reportedly funded by South African sources and conservative right wing groups in the U.S. and Europe
4) America’s Deceitful War on Drugs. America’s “war on drugs” is being undercut by foreign policy interests. A top narcotics prosecutor quit his job in frustration last year after state department officials interfered in his investigations of top people in the cocaine business.
5) Guatemalan Blood on U.S. Hands. The Bush Administration strengthened ties with the oppressive Guatemalan military last year at the same time that human rights violations by the military rose sharply.
6) Radioactive Waste in the Neighborhood Landfill. Radioactive waste may be joining banana peels and other regular garbage at local landfills if the Environmental Protection Agency and the nuclear industry implement a plan to deregulate radioactive waste.
7) Oliver North & Co. Banned from Costa Rica. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias banned Oliver North and John Poindexter from entering his country after it was learned that the contra re-supply network doubled as a drug smuggling operation.
8) Wall Street Journal Censors Story of CBS Bias. The Wall Street Journal censored a story written by one of its top reporters which exposed how CBS News broadcast biased news coverage of the Afghanistan war to the American people.
9) PCB’s and Toxic Waste in Your Gasoline. The U.S. General Accounting Office, the EPA and the FBI arc investigating sophisticated “waste laundering” schemes in which gasoline is mixed with hazardous toxic wastes and solvents, including PCB’s and then sold to consumers.
10) The Chicken Industry and the National Salmonella Epidemic. Relaxed government inspection standards and a drive for profits has led to a national epidemic of 2.5 million cases of salmonella poisoning a year, 500,000 hospitalizations and 9,000 deaths.