Project Censored’s new yearbook, “State of the Free Press 2025” is fresh off the presses.

In the first segment, Andy Lee Roth and Shealeigh Voitl talk with Mickey about the extensive process that culminates in the selection of the annual “Top 25” censored stories. They also speak about the need to extend media analysis beyond fact-checking to “frame-checking.”

In the second half, Mickey and co-host Eleanor Goldfield speak about Eleanor’s new article on media literacy for activists, including various ideas on how activists can successfully interact with the different categories of media. Mickey and Eleanor also alert listeners to the dangers of House Bill 9495, a measure that would empower the U.S. Treasury Secretary to unilaterally remove an organization’s non-profit status.

GUESTS:

Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored and the coordinator of the Project’s Campus Affiliates Program.

Shealeigh Voitl is digital and print editor at Project Censored.

The post Unplugging the News: The Fight for Local Journalism and the State of the Free Press appeared first on KPFA.

Today’s episode of Project Censored is preempted by special programming for KPFA’s 2024 Holiday Fund Drive.

To support our mission, please donate here or call (800) 439-5732.

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On today’s special holiday fund drive episode:

Mickey talks with political sociologist Peter Phillips about his new book Titans of Capital: How Concentrated Wealth Threatens Humanity. The sequel to 2018’s Giants, Titans identifies the money managers who control the world’s largest sums of capital, in their jobs at Black Rock and other huge investment firms, and how their power worsens the problems facing the human race.

Legendary consumer-rights campaigner and political activist Ralph Nader returns to discuss his two forthcoming books: Lets Start the Revolution explains how grassroots people-power can defeat corporate power, while Out of Darkness is a collection of Nader’s writings from 2012 to 2022.

The post Ralph Nader and Peter Phillips on financial power vs. people power appeared first on KPFA.

What does the genocide in Gaza have to do with the working class here at home? Well, quite a lot. Imperialism is a home game and the same corporations and international interests that make bank off of blood oppress the U.S. workforce for that same bottom line.

This week in a special one-hour interview episode, three guest experts join the Project Censored Radio show to discuss the U.S. supply chain and war: labor educator Gifford Hartman, researcher and CGPU-UAW union member Abdullah Farooq, and 40-year rail and marine transportation veteran Fritz Edler.

Together they outline not only the current actions and efforts of workers to connect the dots between oppression here at home and abroad but also the silenced and buried history of workplace organizing against war, including direct action and strikes. Our guests also dive into the importance of public ownership of transportation such as rail, the nefarious ways in which automation fuels both the war machine and destitution here in the U.S., and what a just transition away from war could mean not only for workers here but indeed around the whole world.

The post Connecting the Dots: The War on Workers Is The War Abroad appeared first on KPFA.

In the first half of today’s show, Eleanor’s topic is India’s occupation of Kashmir and its violent suppression of human rights there. She says, for this topic, the guest’s chair stayed empty, because Kashmiri journalists and activists — even those outside Kashmir — are forced to stay silent for fear of retribution against their families. Eleanor also points out the multiple parallels and connections between the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Indian  occupation of Kashmir.

In the second half-hour, Ben Norton returns to the program to discuss the recent BRICS summit in Russia; he also compares the fast-growing BRICS group of economies with the US economy and its rising inequality.

Ben Norton is editor-in-chief at the Geopolitical Economy Report (www.geopoliticaleconomy.com)

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Legendary consumer-rights campaigner and political activist Ralph Nader returns to the Project Censored Show to discuss his two forthcoming books. Let’s Start the Revolution explains how grassroots people-power can defeat corporate power, while Out of Darkness is a collection of Nader’s writings from 2012 to 2022.

Later in the program, Mickey talks with political sociologist Peter Phillips about his new book Titans of Capital: How Concentrated Wealth Threatens Humanity. The sequel to his 2018 book Giants, Titans identifies the money managers who control the world’s largest sums of capital, in their jobs at Black Rock and other huge investment firms, and how their power worsens the problems facing the human race.

Note: These interviews were recorded prior to the November 5 election.

The post Ralph Nader and Peter Phillips on Corporate Power versus People Power appeared first on KPFA.

Mickey’s first guest this week is Project Censored’s Associate Director, Andy Lee Roth. Roth is a 2024-25 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow where he is developing an “algorithmic literacy” toolkit for journalists. He explains why today’s journalists need a basic understanding of the algorithms used by internet and social media tech giants to better serve the public. Issues around horse-race poll coverage, shadow banning, and algorithmic gatekeeping are discussed.

In the second half of the show, Maya Schenwar of Truthout and Lara Witt of Prism introduce the organization they co-founded, the Movement Media Alliance. They explain why social-justice-oriented media outlets should work together, both to enhance their impact and to better the working conditions for journalists in independent media.

GUESTS:

Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored, co-editor of its state-of-the-free-press yearbooks, co-author of The Media and Me, and coordinator of its Campus Affiliates Program. His work on algorithmic literacy for journalists is supported by a fellowship from the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.

Maya Schenwar is Editor-At-Large for Truthout, and writes extensively on prison and policing issues.

Lara Witt is Editor-In-Chief at Prism Reports.

The post Algorithmic Literacy for Journalists / A New Movement Media Alliance appeared first on KPFA.

With the 2024 US elections drawing near, host Mickey Huff moderates an expert panel discussion with three media scholars and educators about how critical-media-literacy education can enhance civic engagement. They outline the many challenges posed by social media, hyper-partisanship, and fake news, but also explore what educators can do to engage today’s students and equip them with critical tools necessary to deconstruct media messaging and bridge communication barriers, both inside and outside the classroom. This program is also a special broadcast that is part of the Big Rhetorical Podcast Carnival.

GUESTS:

Allison Butler is a Senior Lecturer in Communications at the University of Massachusetts and the Director of the Media Literacy Certificate Program in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst, MA, where she teaches courses on critical media literacy. Butler co-directs the grassroots organization, Mass Media Literacy, where she develops and conducts teacher training for the inclusion of critical media literacy in K-12 schools. She is co-author of The Media and Me and Surveillance Education.

Nolan Higdon is a co-founding member of the Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas; a University Lecturer at the Merrill College and the Education Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz; a Project Censored National Judge; and an author of several books on media issues, including The Anatomy of Fake News, as well as co-author of The Media and Me and Surveillance Education.

Sydney Sullivan is a Lecturer at San Diego State University, and a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on education and digital rhetoric with an emphasis on well-being. Sydney’s most recent chapter in Transformative Practice in Critical Media Literacy is out now, titled “Rethinking Curriculums: How Critical Digital Literacy and Mandatory Composition Courses Collide.”

The post Crisis, Culture, and Civility: Critical Media Literacy Education and Election 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

The National Association for Media Literacy Education has named the week of October 21 as “Media Literacy Week.” In light of this — and the upcoming November election — Mickey speaks with media scholar Nolan Higdon about identifying fake news and attempts at opinion manipulation, from all possible quarters.

Then, photojournalist Orin Langelle joins Eleanor to discuss his new book, Portraits of Struggle, a collection of images of people engaged in the defense of their lands and lives across the globe. He also explains the stories behind the images and what he’s learned about corporate/government domination and popular resistance.

Nolan Higdon is a lecturer in Education at the University of California Santa Cruz campus, a prolific author on media issues, and a frequent guest on the Project Censored Show. His books include The Anatomy of Fake News. He writes at NolanHigdon.substack.com Orin Langelle has been a photojournalist for 50 years; his work has been featured in many publications, both corporate and nonprofit.

Orin Langelle is an award-winning photojournalist whose work spans 50 years on six continents. He has been published in the corporate media and the nonprofit world. He prefers the nonprofit sector that allows him more freedom in exposing reality. Orin’s also an activist and photographer, senior strategist, and cofounder of Global Justice Ecology Project. His book Portraits of Struggle was published by Global Justice Ecology Project for their 20th anniversary.

The post Media Literacy Week: Guide to Fake News and Voices from the Frontlines appeared first on KPFA.

Julian Assange has been a free man since June, but the issue of his long confinement in a UK prison is still in the news. Recently he testified before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the Council then passed a resolution declaring that Assange could be designated a political prisoner. Independent journalist Kevin Gosztola joins Mickey to examine the implications of the PACE decision. They also discuss other press-freedom issues, notably the unprecedented death toll among journalists in the Gaza Strip, at the hands of Israeli forces.

Then Steve Macek looks at foreign campaign spending in U.S. elections, taking note both of its widespread presence as well as the relative lack of interest by corporate media in reporting on the subject. He observes that only occasional stories about individual politicians’ potential campaign funding transgressions (such as those of NYC Mayor Eric Adams) make the news, but the system itself is seldom covered.

Kevin Gosztola is the editor of the Dissenter newsletter, www.thedissenter.org. His book on the Julian Assange case, Guilty of Journalism, was published in 2023.

The post Assange testifies at PACE / Pervasiveness of foreign money in U.S. political campaigns appeared first on KPFA.

In the first half of today’s episode, international human rights lawyer Karnig Kerkonian discusses Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of the Artsakh-Armenians from the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Karnig outlines the genocidal intent of President Ilham Aliyev, how the U.S. knew and yet didn’t take steps to stop it, and how the international community should respond — not least of all as this year’s climate summit (COP29) is being held, ironically, in what Karnig calls the petrol-dictatorship of Azerbaijan.

Then, journalist and researcher Chip Gibbons joins the show to discuss Israel’s targeted and mass killing of journalists on the ground in Gaza. Chip highlights the vehement hypocrisy with which the U.S. pretends to uphold freedom of the press while not only ignoring the murder of journalists but also pushing for a media blackout and censorship of reports from Gaza.

GUESTS:

Karnig Kerkonian is the founder of the Chicago-based law firm Kerkonian Dajani.

Chip Gibbons is Policy Director at Defending Rights and Dissent, an NGO created by the merger of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Defending Dissent Foundation. He is working on a book about the FBI, tentatively titled The Imperial Bureau.

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