How healthy is journalism in the United States today? Andy Lee Roth and Mickey Huff of Project Censored join us for a conversation on this topic, espousing their view of corporate media biases, censorship, and the importance of independent journalism, and the state of the free press.
Project Censored was founded in 1976 by Dr. Carl Jensen at Sonoma State University to research and publicize news media censorship in the news, and to develop students’ critical thinking skills and media literacy. That same year, The Project produced its first list of important but under-reported news stories, a tradition that endures to this day. Roth and Huff share the biggest stories from the most recent yearbook, endeavoring to expose the corporate media’s failures to cover systemic social problems, including the deadly consequences of enduring economic inequality, attacks on freedom of expression, and the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. They present documentation of double standards and skewed framing that they believe have served to mystify the public about COVID-19, obscure the events surrounding the Black Lives Matter uprisings of 2020, and quash urgent conversations about universal healthcare, stimulus payments, and the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic. Tune in for some critical media literacy skills and an illuminating discussion about the state of the free press.
Mickey Huff has been director of Project Censored since 2010; president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation since 2016; and co-host and executive producer of The Project Censored Show on Pacifica Radio, since 2010. In 2019, he co-authored United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It). Huff is a professor of social science and history at Diablo Valley College, where he co-chairs the History program and is chair of the Journalism Department. He also serves on the editorial board for the journal Secrecy and Society, the advisory board at the crowd contested media site Credder.com, as well as the board of the nonprofit Behind the Headlines.
Andy Lee Roth is associate director of Project Censored and coordinator of the Project’s Campus Affiliates Program. His research and writing have been published in a variety of outlets, including Index on Censorship, In These Times, YES! Magazine, Media, Culture & Society, and the International Journal of Press/Politics. Roth has taught courses in Sociology at Citrus College, Pomona College, Sonoma State University, the College of Marin, and Bard College, and he serves on the board of the Media Freedom Foundation.