Coastal Post Online
MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS MONTHLY - FREE PRESS
(415)868-1600 -
(415)868-0502(fax) - P.O.
Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924
October, 2004
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The 2004 Election and Censored News
By Peter Phillips, and Kate Sims
Election 2004
is a serious test of democracy in the US.
Perhaps no other time since the 1930s have we been so dangerously close to
institutionalized totalitarianism. No-fly lists, prison torture, domestic
spying, mega-homeland security agencies, suspension of habeas corpus, global
unilateralism, and military adventurism interlocked with corporate profit
taking are all spurred on by a media-induced citizen paranoia.
Corporate media is in the entertainment business and fails to cover
important news stories voters need to make election decisions. We need
information about our country's leaders. These are the people making decisions
that impact all of our lives. We need to know who our leaders are and what they
are doing. What are their backgrounds, their motivations? What policies and
laws are they enacting? What actions are they undertaking, with or against our
consent? We don't need to like them, but we do need to know about them. A participatory
democracy needs people to be aware of issues. We need active engaged voters.
Unfortunately close to 50% of us will not vote in the upcoming election.
Project Censored at Sonoma State University in California has just released their annual list of the most important
news stories not covered by the corporate media in the United States. (www.projectcensored.org) Might
citizens be more interested in voting if they know that wealth inequality was
rapidly increasing in the US, and that
the top 5% of the people have gotten richer and the rest of us poorer in the
past five years? Which presidential candidate would be most helpful in
reversing this trend? Most of us won't know if the corporate media doesn't tell
us the story.
Might the 50 million voters who will cast their ballot on an electronic
voting machine be concerned that the major investors in the voting machine
companies are some of the top defense contractors in the US and that the firm that developed the security
software for electronic voting is made up of former CIA and NSA directors?
Would many Americans be concerned that a conservative right-wing
organization has replaced the American Bar Association as the main vetting
group for federal judge appointments? Or would there be concern for our
returning military vets if it was widely known that many are permanently
contaminated with high levels of radioactive depleted uranium (DU) and
non-depleted uranium (NDU). (NDU is actually more radioactive than DU)? Might
this concern increase among young people of they knew the extent of government
plans to reinstate the military draft in the US?
How much would we trust the corporate TV news if we knew that many major
corporate broadcast groups filed legal briefs defending Fox TV's position in a
case against whistleblowers that it is not against the law to lie to the
American public on TV?
There is strong evidence for the veracity of each of the news stories these
questions address. If the American people knew the truth they would undoubtedly
want to vote for representatives who would seek to make positive changes. Yet
these stories remain uncovered by the corporate media and the American public
remains uninformed.
The only way to not live in a completely totalitarian society is to participate
in the one you have. The foundation of democratic society is an informed and
aware electorate. A free society is like a good set of teeth. Ignore it and it
will go away. If you want shiny, healthy teeth, take care of them. If you want
a shiny, healthy democracy - pay attention!
Peter Phillips is a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored. Kate Sims is research
coordinator for Project Censored. Censored 2005 is now available in bookstores
nationwide. http://www.projectcensored.org/