This week, we swing into the new year (2025), with Mickey engaging media scholar Nolan Higdon. They discuss the incoming administration, Trump 2.0, the failures of the punditocracy, and what might mean for press freedom in his second term; social media and an end to so-called fact-checking; and why we will continue to need a truly independent press to keep us informed moving forward. Later in the program, media scholar Steve Macek joins the conversation, and it’s Deja Vu all over again as they revisit previously censored news stories around significant current events (including in Gaza) and how the ongoing lack of establishment media coverage around key issues contributes to low information voters and allows myriad injustices to persist at home and around the globe.

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  also writes on Substack. Steve Macek teaches communications and media studies at North Central College in Illinois. He’s also the co-coordinator of Project Censored’s Campus Affiliates Program.

The post Pressing Issues for 2025: Trump 2.0, Media Failures, and the Fight for Press Freedom appeared first on KPFA.

Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week’s program. Her first guest is Shrouq Aila, a Palestinian journalist/producer and resident of the Gaza Strip. She describes daily life under Israeli invasion and genocide, Israel’s targeting of reporters for assassination, and the challenges of living the story she covers. Then former State Department official Matthew Hoh shares his observations from a recent visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank and explains his belief that Israel’s primary goal for the next several years is to displace the West Bank’s remaining Palestinian population and annex the entire territory.

GUESTS:

Shrouq Aila is a Palestinian journalist/producer and resident of the Gaza Strip.
She lost her husband in an Israeli attack. Her work can be found at www.instagram.com/shrouqaila.

Matthew Hoh is a Marine Corps combat veteran, and a former State Department official.

The post Reporting Under Fire: Gaza, Genocide, and the Truth Behind the Headlines appeared first on KPFA.

We begin 2025 on an optimistic note, with a timeless speech by the legendary political activist and consumer-rights advocate Ralph Nader. Nader outlines some of the most critical problems facing Americans, including exorbitant military spending, out-of-control corporations, and thousands of annual deaths in the workplace, or from lack of health-care coverage. But then he names some individuals who’ve made a difference in recent U.S. history, explains what students can accomplish on campus, and how voters can hold legislators accountable. Nader spoke on March 5, 2018 at Sonoma State University in northern California, as part of the campus’s annual Social Justice Week Lecture Series.

The post Ralph Nader on Social Justice and World Affairs appeared first on KPFA.

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 (encore) appeared first on KPFA.

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.

The post Special Holiday Fund Drive Programming appeared first on KPFA.

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)

The post Kashmir occupation / BRICS summit implications appeared first on KPFA.

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.