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TV's 10 Best Censored Stories

     There's less to TV than meets the eye.
     Each year, "Project Censored" reports its findings of "The Ten Best
Censored Stories" of the prior year.
     In fact, Director Carl Jensen and his Project Censored researchers
get most of their nominations from magazines of small circulation.
     What, then, do they mean by "censored"? A story that a majority of
us ought to have been informed about, but weren't. It received superficial
coverage on TV. It was national (or international) rather than local. It was
well documented.
     Nominations are submitted to a panel of jurors -- journalists, TV
personalities and professors (including myself) -- that picks the "ten best"
examples. Here's this year's pick, in order.
     Fraudulent safety testing. Most of us assume the government
protects us from harmful food, drug and cosmetic products. It turns out
the labs doing the tests have been falsifying results. American
corporations are "stonewalling." And TV hasn't helped much.
     Super-secret court. Since 1978 a super-secret U.S. Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court has been approving government spying on
U.S. citizens. It meets in a lead-enclosed vault in the Justice Department,
approved 962 of 962 requests last year, and is not listed as a government
agency. Like to know more?
     Equal opportunity. With little fanfare, 20 years' progress in equal
opportunity for minorities and women has been dismantled by the Reagan
administration. Efforts to get major media to cover the story have failed.
     Agent White. Agent White isn't a new TV crime series. It's one of
the 37 most toxic pesticides. Heavily used in Cherokee County, N.C.,
those residents are now dying of cancer at a rate double the state average.
Where else is it used? You won't find out from TV.
     Central America. You can't say TV hasn't provided coverage of El
Salvador. But jurors thought TV focused on administration rhetoric rather
than reality, and gave us a confused view of Central America rather than
"the real story." Wouldn't you kind of like to know what's going on before
your son goes off to war?
     Reagan censorship. The pattern of administration efforts to weaken
the Freedom of Information Act, classify more documents, prevent
"leaks," and reduce what Americans know about their government has not
been widely reported.
     U.S. in the United Nations. A 111-1 U.N. vote on nuclear weapons
testing left the U.S. alone in opposing the ban. Our TV doesn't often let
us "see ourselves as others see us." No wonder we're bewildered to
discover we're not universally loved around the world.
     U.S. Nazi corporations. Recent revelations show some of America's
best known corporations purposely collaborated with Hitler for profit
during World War II. Like to know who they were? You won't find out
by staying tuned.
     Agribusiness. Unnecessary fertilizer adds $2 billion a year to our
food bill. The General Accounting Office predicts a food crisis. The
administration takes land out of production This story had more impact on
your TV dinner than your TV news.
     Indians. Indians, who cared for the lands, were driven from them.
Now we, who have created far more toxic wastes than know what to do
with, are looking for places to dump them. Want to guess where it's
going?
     Project Censored doesn't claim these stories were totally silenced. It
doesn't represent they're the only examples. It does argue "that much
citizen alienation from public life and apathy may be due to a lack of
reliable and usable information on public issues."
     Will the "new media" cure censorship? Not unless they're common
carriers, giving us legal rights of entry and access.
                                                 [ICPC August 2, 1983]
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