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Media Censorship
Top Censored Media Stories of 2012

Note: To find the top media censorship stories of any year from 2003 to present, click here.

media censorship

Project Censored specializes in covering the top stories which were subjected to media censorship either by being ignored or downplayed by the mainstream media each year. Project Censored is a research team composed of more than 200 university faculty, students, and community experts who annually review between 700 and 1,000 news story submissions for coverage, content, reliability of sources, and national significance.

The top 25 stories selected are submitted to a distinguished panel of judges who then rank them in order of importance. The results are published each year in an excellent book available for purchase at their website, amazon.com, and most major book stores.

A summary of the top 25 media censorship stories of 2012 provided below proves quite revealing and most informative. Each summary has a link for those who want to read the entire article. For whatever reason the mainstream media won't adequately report on these key stories.

Yet thanks to the Internet and wonderful, committed groups like Project Censored and WantToKnow.info, the news is getting out. By revealing these examples of media censorship, we can stop the excessive secrecy and work together for a brighter future. And don't miss the sections on "News Stories of Hope and Creative Change" and "What you can do." Please help to spread the word, and take care.

Note: Thanks to the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Yael Chanoff for use of their summaries. To find all of these stories and their sources on the Project Censored website, click here. The stories below actually cover a 12-month period spanning 2011 and 2012.


Top 25 Stories of 2012 Subjected to Media Censorship

1. Signs of an Emerging Police State

President George W. Bush is remembered largely for his role in curbing civil liberties in the name of his "war on terror." But it's President Obama who signed the 2012 NDAA, including its clause allowing for indefinite detention without trial for terrorism suspects. Obama promised he would "interpret them to avoid the constitutional conflict" – leaving us adrift if and when the next administration chooses to interpret them otherwise. Another law of concern is the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order that Obama issued in March 2012. That order authorizes the President, "in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including services and critical technology, for national defense requirements."

Sources: Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman, "Read the FBI Memo: Agents Can 'Suspend the Law,'" Wired, March 28, 2012, James Bamford, "The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center," Wired, March 15, 2012, Chris Hedges, "Why I'm Suing Barack Obama," Truthdig, January 16, 2012, .

2. Oceans in Peril

The collapse of our oceans could compromise life itself. In a haunting article in Mother Jones reporter Julia Whitty paints a tenuous seascape – overfished, acidified, warming – and describes how the destruction of the ocean's complex ecosystems jeopardizes the entire planet, not just the 70 percent that is water. Whitty compares ocean acidification, caused by global warming, to acidification that was one of the causes of the "Great Dying," a mass extinction 252 million years ago. Life on earth took 30 million years to recover. In a more hopeful story, a study of 14 protected and 18 non-protected ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea showed dangerous levels of biomass depletion. But it also showed that the marine reserves were well-enforced, with five to 10 times larger fish populations than in unprotected areas. This encourages establishment and maintenance of more reserves.

Sources: Julia Whitty, "The End of a Myth," OnEarth, February 27, 2012, Richard Gray, "Warming Oceans Cause Largest Movement of Marine Species in Two Million Years," Telegraph (UK), June 26, 2011, David A. Gabel, "Overfishing the Mediterranean," Environmental News Network, March 8, 2012.

3. US Deaths From Fukushima Not Reported

A plume of toxic fallout floated to the US after Japan's tragic Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. The US Environmental Protection Agency found radiation levels in air, water, and milk that were hundreds of times higher than normal across the United States. One month later, the EPA announced that radiation levels had declined, and they would cease testing. But after making a Freedom of Information Act request, journalist Lucas Hixson published emails revealing that on March 24, 2011, the task of collecting nuclear data had been handed off from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear industry lobbying group. And in one study that got little attention, scientists Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman found that in the period following the Fukushima meltdowns, 14,000 more deaths than average were reported in the US, mostly among infants.

Source: Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman, "14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout," International Journal of Health Services, December 19, 2011, Alex Roslin, "What Are Officials Hiding about Fukushima?" Straight.com (Vancouver), October 20, 2011, Danny Schechter, "Beyond Fukushima: A World in Denial about Nuclear Risks," Common Dreams, March 21, 2011.

4. FBI Informants Carried Out Terrorist Plots Under FBI Direction

We know that FBI agents go into communities such as mosques, both undercover and in the guise of building relationships, quietly gathering information about individuals. This is part of an approach to finding what the FBI now considers the most likely kind of terrorists, "lone wolves." Its strategy: "seeking to identify those disgruntled few who might participate in a plot given the means and the opportunity. And then, in case after case, the government provides the plot, the means, and the opportunity," writes Mother Jones journalist Trevor Aaronson. 508 cases classified as terrorism-related have come before the US Department of Justice since the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001. In 243 of these cases, an informant was involved; in 49 cases, an informant actually led the plot. And "with three exceptions, all of the high-profile domestic terror plots of the last decade were actually FBI stings."

Sources: Trevor Aronson, "The Informants," Mother Jones, September/October 2011, FBI Organizes Almost All Terror Plots in the US," RT.com, August 23, 2011

5. Federal Reserve Secretly Loaned Over $1 Trillion to Major Banks

The Federal Reserve, the US's quasi-private central bank, was audited for the first time in its history this year. The audit report states, "From late 2007 through mid-2010, Reserve Banks provided more than a trillion dollars ... in emergency loans to the financial sector." These loans had significantly less interest and fewer conditions than the high-profile TARP bailouts, and were rife with conflicts of interest. The audit was restricted to Federal Reserve lending during the financial crisis. On July 25, 2012, a bill to audit the Fed again, with fewer limitations, authored by Rep. Ron Paul, passed the House of Representatives. HR459 was expected to die in the Senate, but the movement behind Paul and his calls to hold the Fed accountable, or abolish it altogether, seem to be growing.

Source: Matthew Cardinale, "First Federal Reserve Audit Reveals Trillions in Secret Bailout," Inter Press Service, Common Dreams, August 28, 2011.

6. Small Network of Corporations Run the Global Economy

A landmark study by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich hardly registered a blip on the media radar screen. The Swiss researchers found that, of 43,060 transnational companies, 147 control 40 percent of total global wealth. The researchers also built a model visually demonstrating how the connections between companies – what it calls the "super entity" – works. Some have criticized the study, saying control of assets doesn't equate to ownership. True, but as we clearly saw in the 2008 financial collapse, corporations are capable of mismanaging assets in their control to the detriment of their actual owners. And a largely unregulated super entity like this is vulnerable to global collapse.

Sources: Rob Waugh, "Does One 'Super Corporation' Run the Global Economy? Study Claims it Could be Terrifyingly Unstable," Daily Mail, October 20, 2011, Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston, "The Network of Global Corporate Control," Public Library of Science, October 26, 2011.

7. The International Year of the Cooperative

The corporate media barely mentioned the UN declaring 2012 to be the International Year of the Cooperative, based on the coop business model's stunning growth. The UN found that, in 2012, one billion people worldwide are coop member-owners, or one in five adults over the age of 15. The largest is Spain's Mondragon Corporation, with over 80,000 member-owners. The UN predicts that by 2025, worker-owned coops will be the world's fastest growing business model. Worker-owned cooperatives provide for equitable distribution of wealth and, just maybe, a brighter future for our planet.

Sources: Jessica Reeder, "The Year of the Cooperative," Yes! Magazine, Feb. 1, 2012, Monique Hairston, "American Dream 2.0: Can Worker-Owned Coops End Poverty?" Rebuild the Dream, March 9, 2012.

8. NATO War Crimes in Libya

In January 2012, the BBC "revealed" how British Special Forces agents joined and "blended in" with rebels in Libya to help topple dictator Muammar Gadaffi, a story that alternative media sources had reported a year earlier. NATO admits to bombing a pipe factory in the Libyan city of Brega that was key to the water supply system that brought tap water to 70 percent of Libyans, saying that Gadaffi was storing weapons in the factory. Background knowledge and historical context confirming Al-Qaeda and Western involvement in the destabilization of the Gadaffi regime are essential for making sense of corporate news narratives depicting the Libyan operation as a popular "uprising."

Sources: Michael Collins, "NATO War Crimes: The Wanton Destruction of Sirte," Global Research, October 15, 2011, Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, "NATO War Crime: Libya Water Supply," Pravda, July 23, 2011, Franklin Lamb, "Where Have Libya's Children Gone?" Counterpunch, August 8, 2011.

9. Prison Slavery in the US

On its website, the UNICOR manufacturing corporation proudly proclaims that its products are "made in America." That's true, but they're made in places in the US where labor laws don't apply, with workers often paid just 23 cents an hour to be exposed to toxic materials with no legal recourse. These places are US prisons. The majority of products manufactured by inmates are contracted to the Department of Defense. Inmates make complex parts for missile systems, battleship anti-aircraft guns, and landmine sweepers, as well as night-vision goggles, body army, and camouflage uniforms. Of course, this is happening in the context of record high imprisonment in the US, where grossly disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latinos are imprisoned, and can't vote even after they're freed. This system of slavery, like that which existed in this country before the Civil War, is also racist, as more than 60 percent of US prisoners are people of color.

Sources: Sara Flounders, "The Pentagon and Slave Labor in U.S. Prisons," Workers World, June 6, 2011, James Ridgeway and Jean Casella, "Cruel and Usual: US Solitary Confinement," Al Jazeera, Mar. 19, 2011.

10. HR 347 Would Make Many Forms of Nonviolent Protest Illegal

In March 2012, President Obama signed into law HR 347, the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act. The law specifies as criminal offenses the acts of entering or remaining in areas defined as "restricted." Although pundits have debated to what extent the new law restricts First Amendment rights or criminalizes Occupy protests, it does make it easier for the Secret Service to overuse or misuse existing laws to arrest lawful protesters by lowering the requirement of intent in the prosecution of criminal activity.

Sources: Danny Weil, "Many Forms of Occupy Protests Subjected to New Bill Making Protests Illegal," TheDaily Censored (blog), March 5, 2012, Oskar Mosquito, "NDAA: Limiting Protesters' Rights," Media Roots, March 5, 2012, Brian Doherty, "Bill Passes House," Reason (blog), March 1, 2012.

More of the Top 25 Media Censorship Stories of 2012

11. Members of Congress Grow Wealthier Despite Recession

The net worth of the members of Congress continues to rise regardless of the economic recession. An analysis of financial disclosure forms, using the minimum valuation of assets, showed that members of the House and Senate in 2010 had a collective net worth of $2.04 billion, a $390 million increase from the $1.65 billion held in 2008. Disclosure forms do not include non-income-producing assets.

12. US Joins Forces with al-Qaeda in Syria

The US, Britain, France, and some conservative Arab allies have funded and armed the Syrian rebellion from its start in 2011. In fact, the US has been funding groups against Bashar al-Assad since the mid-1990s. However, the anti-Assad ranks include members of al-Qaeda, Hamas, and other groups that the United States lists as terrorist organizations.

13. Education "Reform" a Trojan Horse for Privatization

Public education is the target of a well-coordinated, well-funded campaign to privatize as many schools as possible, particularly in cities. This campaign claims it wants great teachers in every classroom, but its rhetoric demoralizes teachers, reduces the status of the education profession, and champions standardized tests that perpetuate social inequality. The driving logic for such reform is profits.

14. Who Are the Top 1 Percent and How Do They Earn a Living?

The richest 1 percent of the country now owns more than 40 percent of the wealth and takes home nearly a quarter of national income. Evidence based on tax returns indicates that this superelite 1 percent consists of nonfinancial executives, financial professionals, and members of the legal, real estate, and medical professions. While the 99 percent deal with the direct consequences of that crisis, the 1 percent increasingly have left behind deteriorating neighborhoods in favor of wealthy enclaves, further isolating themselves.

15. Dangers of Everyday Technology

Recent research raises compelling concerns about two commonplace technologies, cellular phones and microwave ovens. Heavy, long-term exposure to cell phone radiation increases risks for certain types of cancer, including leukemia, and in males impairs sperm production. Prenatal exposure to cell phone radiation has been shown to produce blood-brain barrier leakage, and brain, liver, and eye damage. The microwave radiation that heats food also creates free radicals that can become carcinogenic. Most studies indicating minimal or no health risks are, in fact, industry-sponsored.

16. Sexual Violence Against Women Soldiers on the Rise and Under Wraps

The 2005 death of US Army Private LaVena Johnson was officially ruled suicide by the Dept. of Defense. Johnson's autopsy revealed wounds inconsistent with suicide, including chemical burns that many believe were intended to destroy DNA evidence of rape. The Pentagon has tried to intimidate reporters working on stories about her. At least twenty other female soldiers have died under suspicious circumstances. According to the Department of Defense, in 2010, there were 3,158 total reports of sexual assault in the military. The DOD estimates that this number represents only 13.5 percent of the actual assaults.

17. Students Crushed By One Trillion Dollars in Student Loans

In April 2012, US student loan debt topped one trillion dollars, more than credit card debt. Although corporate media dutifully reported this milestone, they underplayed its significance and ignored one promising solution. Student loan debt is the only form of consumer loan debt that has increased substantially since 2008. The threat of massive student loan defaults requiring another taxpayer bailout is a systemic risk as serious as the bank failures that brought the US economy to the brink of collapse in 2008.

18. Palestinian Women Prisoners Shackled during Childbirth

Female Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are treated inhumanely and often denied medical care, and legal representation, and are forced to live in squalid conditions. The conditions and violations faced by women in Israeli jails need to be addressed from a gender perspective, according to CEDAW, the United Nation's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

19. New York Police Plant Drugs on Innocent People to Meet Arrest Quotas

A host of stories document how the New York Police Department operates outside the very laws it is charged with enforcing. In October 2011, a former NYPD narcotics detective testified that he regularly saw police plant drugs on innocent people as a way to meet arrest quotas. The NYPD's controversial "stop and frisk" program has invested seventy-five million dollars to arrest suspects for possessing minimal amounts of marijuana. Each arrest costs approximately $1,000 to $2,000.

20. Stealing From Public Education to Feed the Prison-Industrial Complex

A systemic recasting of education priorities gives official structure and permanence to a preexisting underclass comprised largely of poor people of color. The rise of corporate-backed charter schools and privatized prisons cannot be understood apart from the record closures of public schools across the country.

21. Conservatives Attack US Post Office to Break the Union and Privatize Postal Services

The US Postal Service has been under constant assault for years from conservative Republicans who aim to eviscerate the strongest union in the country. Under a 2006 postal act, USPS must fully fund retiree health benefits for future retirees–including the retirement packages of employees not even born yet. No other organization, public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent of its future health benefits. Thus, the post office's oft-reported nine-billion-dollar deficit is largely a result of government-imposed overpayments.

22. Wachovia Bank Laundered Money for Latin American Drug Cartels

Between 2004 and 2007, Wachovia Bank handled funds totaling $378.4 billion for Mexican currency-exchange houses acting on behalf of drug cartels. The transactions amount to the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, in US history. This case is not exceptional; Wachovia is just one of several US and European banks that drug cartels have used to launder money.

23. US Covers up Afghan Massacre

Although the March 2012 massacre of sixteen unarmed Afghan civilians, nine of whom were children, received a great deal of news coverage, independent news sources have focused on whether one US solider acting alone–as US officials have insisted–or multiple US soldiers–as Afghan witnesses and Afghan President Hamid Karzai contend–bear direct responsibility for the killings.

24. Alabama Farmers Look to Replace Migrants with Prisoners

Alabama's expansive anti-immigrant law, HB56, has been so economically devastating that farmers in the state sought legislation to force hard labor on prison inmates eligible for work release programs, to "help farms fill the gap and find sufficient labor." The state's Department of Corrections opposed the legislation, noting that its approximately 2,000 prisoners eligible for work release already have jobs, and that "the prison system isn't the solution to worker shortages caused by the law."

25. Evidence Points to Guantanamo Dryboarding

In June 2006, three Guantanamo prisoners were found dead in their cells, hanging from what appeared to be makeshift nooses. Although the Department of Defense declared the deaths suicides, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) inquiry found evidence inconsistent with suicide–including the fact that the prisoners' hands were bound behind their backs. The NCIS evidence suggests that the prisoners died from lethal interrogations that included dryboarding, a technique using controlled suffocation.


Note: Project Censored also recognizes the importance of defining and protecting the "Commons" as essential to a meaningful future. The Media Freedom Foundation, which includes the board that oversees Project Censored, has created another site for this purpose: Fair Share of the Common Heritage. See their inspiring and informative website at http://www.fairsharecommonheritage.org.


News Stories of Hope and Creative Change

For more than 30 years, Project Censored has searched out the most important undercovered stories of the year showing what's wrong with our world. But in 2008, Project Censored began offering a new feature: a list of the top underreported stories of hope and creative change. These stories suggest that a better world is both possible and practical, and that every day, all over the world, people are solving problems. The message is simple: Stop fighting or lamenting existing reality – be an innovator and help create something better. Below are key examples from the year 2012 in chapter four of this year's compilation.

Note: This entire inspiring chapter with lots more great information and links is available here.


Community and Collaboration

Happiness Not Linked to Material Wealth: In a worldwide survey, people in poorer countries reported greater happiness than people in many of the world's wealthier nations. Research suggests this is due to the strong link between national and personal satisfaction among poor people, and among those with strong cultural and regional ties. [Article here]

Co-ops Support Community: Co-ops create equitable and stable economies, build strong communities that promote education, and merge economic growth with social goals. Co-ops exist to serve people's needs, not to maximize profits for shareholders. [Article here]

Couchsurfing: Offer Your Couch, Make New Friends: The gift economy is alive and global among an improbable network of "Couchsurfers." Since its launch in 2003, Couchsurfing.org has become an international phenomenon. It claims 1,930,000 registered Couchsurfers from around the world and 2,086,778 successful surf and host experiences. Couches are offered in 230 countries and 73,339 cities. [Article here]

Economy and Fair Exchange

State Banking Takes Off–With Profits for Public vs. Private Gain: Fourteen states have introduced bills to form state-owned banks or are studying their feasibility. All of these bills were inspired by the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the nation's only state-owned bank. While other states are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, the state of North Dakota continues to report surpluses. [Articles here and here]

The New Economy Movement: The emergence of the term "new economy" in public discourse in recent decades may be a sign that support for status quo capitalism is wavering. A growing movement of people accepts the idea that the entire economic system must be radically restructured for critical social and environmental goals to be met. [Article here]

Media and Education

WikiLeaks: Pentagon Papers 2.0? WikiLeaks has released hundreds of thousands of classified intelligence reports, military logs, diplomatic cables, and other material related to U.S. foreign policy, including to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The documents have brought the misdeeds of war into the sunlight of public attention, fueling today's anti-war movement. [Article here]

Transformative Films Educate and Awaken as Well as Entertain: Transformative movies are deeply impacting 21st century audiences. What differentiates these films from others is their explicit intention to either affirm a positive vision of the world or to actually change people–to challenge personal or cultural conditioning or beliefs. [Article here]

Social Media Isn't Changing the World; It's Creating a New One: Social Media is a great tool for spreading information and connecting people. It is estimated that Google, Facebook, and Twitter connect two billion people worldwide! Through social media, a radically new order based on open access, decentralized creativity, collaborative intelligence, and easy sharing is emerging. [Article here]

Mind and Consciousness

Coherence and Chaos–Why We Need Both: On every level of living systems, there exists evidence of the value of both chaos and coherence; healthy function is dependent on their coexistence. Each is important in different situations. When we exclusively reify one over the other, we pay a price. [Article here]

The Health Benefits of Gratitude: The world's leading expert on gratitude finds that people who regularly cultivate gratitude report a host of physical, psychological, and social benefits. Gratitude celebrates the present, blocks negative emotions, and affirms goodness by recognizing external, greater-than-self factors. People who are grateful have a higher sense of self worth. [Article here and here]

Studies Indicate Humans are Wired for Empathy: Scientists recently discovered mirror neurons in all primates. Mirror neurons enable us to experience another's plight as if we were experiencing it ourselves. Several studies suggest we are not soft-wired for aggression, violence, and self-interest but for collaboration and companionship. As humans, our main drive is to belong. [Video here and article here]

Nature and Technology

Wind and Solar Are Competitive with Coal and Nuclear: Accounting for the full economic, environmental, and health costs of coal and nuclear energy makes wind, solar, and other non-fossil fuel power economically competitive. [Articles here and here]

Research Shows That Eco-Farming, Not Big Ag, Is the Key to Feeding the World: Recent scientific evidence demonstrates that farms designed to emulate natural ecosystems not only protect and restore natural resources, but are more productive than industrial farms–and much more resilient to climate change. [Articles here and here]

Politics and People Power

Making Peace Possible: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Positive Change: Monumental change is always a result of smaller acts. Whether it be rejecting fiction-based television news, refusing to cooperate with an unjust system, whistle-blowing, or defying military unethical orders, ordinary people are dropping their fears and finding creative ways to challenge leaders who abuse the power given them. [Article here]

A Realistic Vision for World Peace: Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams says peace is only possible with justice and equality. We all need access to enough resources to live dignified lives, access to education and healthcare, freedom from want and fear, hard work and creativity, collaboration and collective struggle. What's your definition of peace? [TED Talks video here]


For More Inspiration: This entire inspiring chapter with lots more great information and links is available here. And for summaries of some of the most inspiring major media articles ever published, click here.


Important: Top 20 Articles Ever Published Revealing Media Censorship

For concise summaries of the top 20 most revealing articles ever published in the major media with links to the full articles on their media websites, see www.WantToKnow.info/newsarticles. For some of the top stories ever which the press failed to cover, click here. And for an empowering website which specializes in providing fact-filled news articles and concise summaries of major cover-ups which impact our lives and world, see www.WantToKnow.info. All information is provided to inspire us to work together for a brighter future for us all.

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