Project Censored: Are we turning a deaf ear?

In this week's issue of Cityview, the often-controversial Des Moines freebie newspaper takes a look at the top ten censored topics of the year in an article titled "Censored, The 10 Big Stories the nation's major news media refused to cover this year."

Consider the article's statements regarding the overplayed John Carr case and the subsequent dismissal of coverage regarding Bush's policies in the recent months.

Predictably, the mainstream media devoted acres of newsprint and hours of airtime to the self-proclaimed beauty queen killer, including stories on what he ate on the plane ride home, his desire for a sex change, his child-porn fixation, and - when DNA tests proved Karr wasn't the killer - why he confessed to a crime he didn't commit.

During that same time period, hardly a word was written or said in the same outlets about Judge Diggs Taylor's ruling and the question it raises about why Bush and his administration repeatedly lie to the American public.

The article cites Art Brodsky, a telecommunications expert at Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C. based advocacy group. According to Brodsky, one of the most alarming issues of censorship this year is that of network neutrality. Brodsky states:

"Network neutrality is a crappy term, other than its alliterative value," Brodsky says. "It's one of those Washington issues that gets intense coverage in the field where it happens but can be successfully muddied, and it's technical. So a lot of editors and reporters throw their hands up in the air, a lot like senators."

Here are a few of the overlooked topics that made the list:

HALLIBURTON CHARGED WITH SELLING NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY TO IRAN


U.S. OPERATIVES TORTURE DETAINEES TO DEATH IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ

PENTAGON EXEMPT FROM FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT


To view more of the list, click here.

Who is failing here? Are the networks failing their viewers in their drive for profit? Are journalists failing the public they serve by bowing to the demands of their higher-ups? Why do we know what class John Mark Carr rode in on the plane, but we hear nothing of Halliburton? Most of all, is there a light at the end of the downward-spiraling tunnel of censorship the media seems to be caught up in?