This is not to say that I agree with all of the things the fine Project Censored folks choose to highlight each year. The list tends to skew way to the left--and while I am pretty left-leaning myself, there are stories of wrongdoing from folks on this side of the spectrum, too. Also, some of the stories selected use tenuous sources, at best. (For more criticisms, we asked former Weekly automatic weapons editor Emil Franzi, our main token conservative, to share some of his problems with Project Censored as part of this week's cover package.)
But overall, it's a wonderful--and alarming--effort by Sonoma State University. And it's an important reminder that everywhere in the media, censorship exists. Whether this censorship is the result of innocent overlooking, a "chilling effect" that occurs when writers are afraid to upset newspaper management, or something even more sinister, it happens, and the public needs to know that.
Thanks to our friends at the San Francisco Bay Guardian for producing the Project Censored recap. And thanks to you for taking the time to read it; it's good to be smart consumers of what the media have to say.
