TOP 10 CENSORED STORIES OF 1992
Naeem Mohaiemen
NEWS FROM: PROJECT CENSORED
Sonoma State University
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Contact: Mark Lowenthal
Project Censored: 707/664-2500
(EDITOR'S NOTE: A NATIONAL PANEL OF MEDIA EXPERTS ANNUALLY SELECTS
THE TOP TEN UNDER-REPORTED NEWS STORIES OF THE YEAR.)
NEWS MEDIA SELL-OUT TOPS CENSORED NEWS LIST
ROHNERT PARK -- The top censored story of 1992 revealed how
the nation's major news media traded their traditional adversarial
watchdog role for profits and deregulation during the Reagan/Bush era
according to a national panel of media experts.
Carl Jensen, professor of communication studies at Sonoma State
University, California, and founder/director of Project Censored, said the
media sell-out story, written by nationally acclaimed media critic Ben
Bagdikian, also explained why a number of other critical issues were
overlooked, under-reported, or censored in 1992.
Project Censored, a national media research effort now in its
17th year, locates stories about significant issues that are not
widely publicized by the national news media. Following are the top
ten under-reported stories of 1992:
1. THE GREAT MEDIA SELL-OUT. In the past decade, the Reagan/Bush
administrations gave print and electronic media owners in America
"permission" to create giant, monopolistic media empires. In return, the
media looked the other way while the administrations committed high crimes
and misdemeanors and then lied about it.
2. CORPORATE CRIME DWARFS STREET CRIME. While the press
continues to alarm the public with stories of street crime and
violence, corporate crime and violence grows at an accelerated pace safely
away from the media's spotlight.
3. CENSORED ELECTION YEAR ISSUES. While the candidates and the
media focused on alleged infidelities and family values, there were far more
important issues that were under-reported during the election year including:
Bush and Iran-contra; Bush's Team 100; Homelessness; Dan Quayle's Council on
Competitiveness; The Death Rate of Iraqi Children After the Gulf War; and
What Happened in Mena, Arkansas, while Bill Clinton was Governor.
4. WORLD'S LEADING MERCHANT OF DEATH. With the end of the cold
war, the hope was that U.S. arms production and sales would be reduced and
replaced with non-military production, but this has not happened. Instead,
the U.S. has now become the world's unchallenged weapons producer and
supplier.
5. IRAQGATE AND THE WATERGATE LAW. While some of the disturbing
facts behind the Iraqgate scandal have started to appear in the press, the
mainstream media all but ignored that story, as well as the quiet demise of
the Watergate Law, for more than a year.
6. "WE ARE WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS" WAS A LIE. When President
George Bush told the American people "We are winning the war on drugs" in
1992, he was lying; in fact, Americans are in greater danger from drugs today
than ever before in our history.
7. TRASHING FEDERAL REGULATIONS FOR PROFIT. While polls show
the general public firmly opposes deregulation when the purity of air,
water, food, drugs, and other necessities are involved, President Bush
proposed a total 210-day moratorium on new federal regulations during 1992
and big business reciprocated with campaign contributions.
8. GOVERNMENT SECRECY MAKES A MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY. America's
information control policy is out of control; in 1991, some 6,500 U.S.
government employees classified 7,107,017 documents, an average of more than
19,000 documents per day.
9. ADVERTISING PRESSURE CORRUPTS A FREE PRESS. The Center for
the Study of Commercialism invited 200 media outlets to a press conference to
reveal how advertisers suppress the news; not a single radio or television
station or network sent a reporter and only two newspapers bothered to
attend.
10. POST COLD WAR BLACK BUDGET IS PROSPERING. The end of the
cold war did not end the secretive cold war mentality of the Pentagon; today,
close to $100 million is being spent to fuel the national security machinery
of the Pentagon.
15 OTHER "CENSORED" STORIES
Another 15 under-reported issues round out the list of the top 25
"censored" stories of 1992: Solar Power Eclipsed by Oil, Gas, and Nuclear
Interests; What Happened to the EPA?; The Specter of Sterility; News Media
Lose the War with the Pentagon; Plutonium is Forever; America's Killing
Ground: Dumping on Native American Lands; Norplant: Birth Control or Social
Control?; The Censored News about Electric Automobiles; Poison in the
Pacific; Black Gold Conquistadors Invade Ecuador; How To Sell Pollution for
Profit; Clear-cutting the World's Rainforests; Censorship Through Bribery;
The No-Pest Shell Game; University of Arizona Desecrates Sacred Native
American Site.
PROJECT CENSORED JUDGES
The panel of judges who selected the top ten under-reported
news stories were Dr. Donna Allen, founding editor of Media Report to
Women; Richard Barnet, Senior Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies;
Noam Chomsky, professor, Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology; Hugh Downs, host, ABC's "20/20;" Susan
Faludi, journalist/author; George Gerbner, professor of communication
and Dean Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania; Nicholas Johnson,
professor, College of Law, University of Iowa;
Rhoda H. Karpatkin, president, Consumers Union; Charles L.
Klotzer, editor and publisher, St. Louis Journalism Review; Judith
Krug, director, Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library
Association; William Lutz, professor, English, Rutgers University, and
editor of The Quarterly Review of Doublespeak; Jack L. Nelson,
professor, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University; Herbert
I. Schiller, Scholar in Residence, The American University; and Sheila
Rabb Weidenfeld, president, D.C. Productions.
The SSU PROJECT CENSORED researchers, who reviewed and
evaluated more than 700 "censored" nominations from throughout the
country, were Diane Albracht, Beverly Alexander, Peter Anderson, Judy
Bailey, Jeannie Blake, Serge Chasson, Amy S. Cohen, Amy Doyle, G. John
Faiola, Eric Fedel, Kimberly Kaido, Blake Kehler, Kenneth Lang,
Therese Lipsey, Jennifer Makowsky, Stephanie Niebel, Nicole Novak,
Valerie Quigley, Kimberly S. Anderson, Damon S. Van Hoesen, and Mark
Lowenthal, assistant director of Project Censored.
"CENSORED: The News That Didn't Make the News and Why," the
1993 Project Censored yearbook (ISBN 1-882680-00-6), published by
Shelburne Press, Chapel Hill, NC, will be available in bookstores
across the country in April or call 919/942-0220 for more information.
The book features the top 25 "censored" stories of 1992, a chronology
of censorship from 605 B.C. to 1993, and a "censored" resource guide
to alternative publications and groups. It includes an introduction by
Hugh Downs, host of ABC's "20/20," and cartoons by Tom Tomorrow, whose
series "This Modern World" is syndicated to over 60 newspapers.
"America's CENSORED Newsletter" (ISSN1061-4230), the first and only
publication to monitor news media censorship and self-censorship on a regular
basis in America, is published by Censored Publications. Based on Project
Censored, the Newsletter reports monthly on the issues the mainstream media
ignore, overlook, or censor. For an annual subscription, send $30 to
CENSORED Newsletter, PO Box 310, Cotati, CA 94931.
To receive a free pamphlet listing the top 25 stories, please send a
self-addressed, stamped envelope to PROJECT CENSORED, Sonoma State
University, Rohnert Park, CA 94928.
--SSU--
(EDITOR'S NOTE: SIDEBAR STORY #1 FOLLOWS)
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS AND MEDIA
CITED FOR EXPOSING "CENSORED" STORIES
Following are the investigative journalists and media cited by Project
Censored for exposing the top ten issues overlooked or under-reported by the
national news media in 1992:
1. THE GREAT MEDIA SELL-OUT. MOTHER JONES, May/June 1992,
"Journalism of Joy," by Ben Bagdikian.
2. CORPORATE CRIME. MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, December 1991,
"Corporate Crime & Violence in Review," by Russell Mokhiber.
3. CENSORED ELECTION YEAR ISSUES. COMMON CAUSE MAGAZINE,
April/May/June 1992, "George Bush's Ruling Class;" WASHINGTON POST, 1/9/92,
"A Profound Silence on Homelessness," by Mary McGrory; THE PROGRESSIVE, May
1992, "Deregulatory Creep," by Arthur E. Rowse; THIS WORLD, San Francisco
Examiner, 10/11/92, "46,900 Unspectacular Deaths," by Mike Royko;
UNCLASSIFIED, February/March 1992, "The Mena, Arkansas, Story."
4. WORLD'S LEADING MERCHANT OF DEATH. WORLD PRESS REVIEW,
September 1992, "The World's Top Arms Merchant," by Frederick Clairmonte; THE
HUMAN QUEST, July/August 1992, "War 'Dividends' -- Military Spending Out of
Balance With Needy," by Tristram Coffin.
5. IRAQGATE & THE WATERGATE LAW. COVERT/ACTION INFORMATION
BULLETIN, Fall 1992, "Bush Administration Uses CIA to Stonewall Iraqgate
Investigation," by Jack Calhoun; WAR AND PEACE DIGEST (NY),
August 1992, "BNL-Iraqgate Scandal;" THE PAPER of Sonoma County (CA),
10/22/92, "Is Bush a Felon?," by Stephen P. Pizzo; THE NEW YORK TIMES,
10/20/92, "The Patsy Prosecutor," by William Safire.
6. WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS. IN THESE TIMES, 5/20/92, "Drug
Deaths Rise As the War Continues," by Mike Males; EXTRA!, September 1992,
"Don't Forget the Hype: Media, Drugs and Public Opinion," by Micah Fink.
7. TRASHING FEDERAL REGULATIONS FOR PROFIT. THE NATION,
3/23/92, "Bush's Regulatory Chill: Immoral, Illegal, and Deadly," by
Christine Triano and Nancy Watzman; THE PROGRESSIVE, May 1992, "Deregulatory
Creep," by Arthur E. Rowse.
8. GOVERNMENT SECRECY. ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Summer
1992, "The Perils of Government Secrecy," by Steven Aftergood.
9. HOW ADVERTISING PRESSURE CAN CORRUPT A FREE PRESS. THE
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF COMMERCIALISM, 1992, "Dictating Content: How
Advertising Pressure Can Corrupt a Free Press," by Ronald K. L. Collins.
10. PENTAGON'S POST COLD WAR BLACK BUDGET. MOTHER JONES,
March/April 1992, "The Pentagon's Secret Stash," by Tim Weiner.
-- SSU --
(EDITOR'S NOTE: SIDEBAR STORY #2 FOLLOWS)
DAN QUAYLE IS JUNK FOOD NEWS OF 1992
ROHNERT PARK -- Vice President-reject Dan Quayle set a new
record in the annual Junk Food News competition by being cited in two
of the top three over-covered unimportant news stories of 1992
according to Dr. Carl Jensen, professor of Communication Studies at
Sonoma State University.
The annual list of news stories that receive more media coverage than
they deserve is based on a national survey by Jensen of members of the
Organization of News Ombudsmen.
The top ten Junk Food News stories of 1992 were:
1. Dan Quayle Misspells Potato -- the Vice President's final tutoring
assignment
2. Madonna's Best Selling "Sex" -- from pop queen to porn queen
3. Murphy Brown/Dan Quayle -- Dan's "family values" get low ratings
4. Johnny Carson: The Final Days -- Wherrrrrrrrrre's Johnny?
5. Royal Scandal: Fergie & Diana -- the naughty wives of Windsor
6. Woody Allen vs Mia Farrow -- we liked him better when he was funny
7. Geniffer Flowers -- no shrinking violet
8. The Barbara/Hillary Cookie Bake-off -- let the chips fall where
they may
9. The Elvis Stamp Election -- the youngest candidate won this
election too
10. U.S. Olympic Dream Team -- first single sport Olympics in history
Other nominations cited by the news ombudsmen included Bush Tosses
Cookies in Japan, the Jay Leno/Arsenio Hall Late Night War, Clinton's Vietnam
Record, Jerry Brown's 800 Number, Batman Returns/Superman Dies, Polls-Polls-
Polls, and Sinead O'Connor Rips the Pope.
Ombudsmen comments on the Junk Food News stories included:
"Too many wire editors feel pressured to duplicate in the next day's
paper whatever was on last night's 'Entertainment Tonight' or any number of
other pseudo-news programs." -- William Flynn, Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA.
"The media helped Madonna sell her book ... but even the media
couldn't rescue Batman." -- Gina Lubrano, San Diego Union-Tribune.
"Many of the junk food stories this year centered on the presidential
campaign ... but if the candidates talk about it, and they do, how can you
ignore it?" -- Frank Ritter, The Tennessean, Nashville, TN.
"Truly significant news is often oppressively dull or mentally
taxing; the media welcome stories like these to leaven the loaf." --
Kerry W. Sipe, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, VA.
Noting the extensive coverage given British Royalty in the
United States media, Takeshi Maezawa, columnist for The Daily Yomiuri
in Tokyo, points out that the press in Japan mutually agreed not to
cover the Japanese Prince's search for a bride.
Jensen, who also is director of Project Censored which cites
the most important news stories overlooked by the press each year,
notes that the coverage given Dan Quayle's spelling and fight with
Murphy Brown filled media time and space that could have been devoted
to more relevant political issues during an election year.
For more information about Junk Food News stories, contact
Project Censored at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California
94928, 707/664- 2500.
-- SSU --
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