Happy 2010 everyone!

I thought I’d close out 2009 and start 2010 with a tribute to Project Censored, an organization dedicated to highlighting underreported stories every day. Each December Project Censored compiles a list of the most censored stories of the past year. And although I don’t pull our PPOV stories from this site, I thought it would be fitting to start the year with a review of their list for 2009:

Top 25 Censored Stories for 2010.

Overwhelmingly, the Project Censored stories are about the finance industry. It seems 2009 is the year when major news outlets finally caught up with a lot of people in questioning the underpinnings our of our financial structure. And it took a depression to get their attention. Project censored stories reveal that coverage is still woefully inadequate.

For me, the most underreported story of 2009 is the continued degradation of our environment — and by extension our health. Degradation through pollution, agribusiness, logging, development, exploitation, waste, and disrespect. Mismanagement of the earth’s resources have serious political and cultural consequences, which the media continually ignores.

Fellow Planeteers — what, in your opinion, is the most underreported news of 2009?

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jan4insight
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Imo, the most underreported story of 2009 was the corporate sponsorship, initiation, and coordination of the so-called “grassroots” Tea Party movement. Yes, we soon picked up the useful moniker “astroturf” to debunk their pretense of being a people’s movement, but in fact the ties to rightwingers and insurance co. boards are long and deep. This was a deliberate, orchestrated effort to derail health care reform. Now they are branching out into deep-sixing climate change legislation, and I’ve even heard some quarters calling them a “legitimate” movement (you can kill me now 😛 )

For my sources on the funding & sponsorship ties, I refer you to the estimable Rachel Maddow. This, along with C Street, has been prominent on her show for most of this year. If I knew how to nominate Rachel & staff for the Pulitzer Prize over this, I would do it!

Pepe Lepew
Member

Hey, I already said that!

We have a rule here at PlanetPOV. You owe me a Coke now.

jan4insight
Guest

OOOpps – my first day here, and already I’m breakin’ da rules!

Got a Coke in my fridge with your name on it!

Or, Pepe, you could just figure that great minds think alike 😉

javaz
Member

More GOP hypocrisy from none other than Orrin Hatch – $50 million inclusion into the HCR for abstinence only education.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/26/AR2009122600762_2.html?wprss=rss_politics

javaz
Member

Imagine a Democrat saying the shoe-bomber did us a favor during the BushCO years.
Think the Republicans and corporate media would have ignored that?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/03/kean-unsuccessful-bomber-probably-did-us-a-favor/

javaz
Member

According to Brit Hume, Tiger Woods needs to switch from Buddhism to Christianity to be forgiven.
Oh, the hypocrisy and sure am glad that Fox is fair and balanced.

http://rawstory.com/2009//01/brit-hume-tiger-woods-must-become-christian/

Pepe Lepew
Member

I saw that story.

What an asshole! Shows he knows absolutely nothing about Buddhism.

I remember reading an interview once with Peter Jennings in which he just tore into Brit Hume for his lack of objectivity. Hume worked for Jennings for a few years and they apparently clashed all the time because Jennings got fed up with his right-wing biases. Jennings was a good egg, even for a Canadian.

javaz
Member

It’s disturbing when a national station that’s supposed to be news starts preaching Christianity.
Seems like this crosses some sort of line, but then that’s Fox.

Pepe Lepew
Member

They did that big time during the Terry Schiavo controversy. That’s when I stopped watching them.

boomer1949
Member

Pepe,

Yes, Jennings was a good egg — eh?

Pepe Lepew
Member

Chain smoker who died too young of lung cancer. 🙁

boomer1949
Member

I used to like Brit Hume — years — and I mean years — ago. Don’t you think he should sweep his own doorstep before he sweeps that of anyone else? And no, I’m not condoning Mr. Woods’ behavior. Quite frankly, it’s nobody’s business and this is where the MSM is a complete and utter failure. The MSM just wants to be TABLOIDISH for the $$$ and ratings. I think I wrote yesterday that Walter Cronkite has been spinning in his grave since the memorial service was held in NYC.

Many of the speakers wouldn’t know real journalism if it came up and bit them in the behind.

javaz
Member

Republicans are hypocrites, pretending to be Christian when they are anything but.
It’s disgusting.

bito
Member

While watching some of the football games yesterday, I was switching to CNN (man, they can run some long commercials during those games). On three of their political stories they said “and the President’s own party is critical of the President.” Three times they had Repubs. criticizing the President.
Not one time did they have a Dem. on saying anything. Not a quote by one, not a sentence, not one saying “Aw, shucks” about anything!
Under-reported? Poorly reported? Imaginary reporting?
What is this? Today what is the story going to be “yesterday, we reprted how the Dems. are divided!”?

javaz
Member

It’s that “liberal” media!

(hiya b’ito!)

bito
Member

Morning j’avaz, Liberal media? Piss-Poor Reporting?

javaz
Member

Here’s another link for 3 more under-reported stories in 2009 –
The garbage being found in the ocean, Americans staying at home unlike the mobility of the past, and the growing conflict between northern and southern Sudan.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/1231/Not-Tiger-Woods-Important-stories-from-2009-you-may-have-missed

bito
Member

On NPR’s “Science Friday” the have had long segments on the garbge swirls and “dead zones” in the oceans. There is a spot in the Gulf that is a growing “dead zone” that is mostly being fed by agricultural runoff endangering the fishing grounds.

Tiger99
Guest

I would have to say for me the under reported story of 2009 would be the Fathima Rifqa Bary saga, the 17 year old Ohio girl who converted from Islam to Christianity…
The are many aspects and topics regarding how we feel as Americans involved such as Parents Rights,Freedom Of Religion, Freedom From Religion, Child Safety/Rights, Separation of Religion from State(Police Investigations/State Agencies), Providing Religious Sanctuary and Illegal Immigration…

nottoolate
Member

This is an awfully long reply. Please excuse me, and redirect me if I should have put it somewhere else on the Planet. Pablo Neruda wrote a terrific poem called “I’m Explaining a Few Things.” He was a Chilean consul in Madrid when it was engulfed in the Spanish Civil War. He became intensely politicized for the first time, and remained a staunch Communist (gasp!) for the rest of his life.

In this poem, after describing the richness and beauty of his home, he says, in part:
______________

And one morning all that was burning,
one morning the bonfires
leapt out of the earth
devouring human beings —
and from then on fire,
gunpowder from then on,
and from then on blood.
Bandits with planes and Moors,
bandits with finger-rings and duchesses,
bandits with black friars spattering blessings
came through the sky to kill children
and the blood of children ran through the streets
without fuss, like children’s blood…

Treacherous
generals:
see my dead house,
look at broken Spain:
from every house burning metal flows
instead of flowers…

And you’ll ask: why doesn’t his poetry
speak of dreams and leaves
and the great volcanoes of his native land?

Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
The blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood
In the streets!
_______________

The dismissal of the botched case against the Blackwater murderers of 2007 brought this poem to mind. I put myself in the place of the innocent civilians in the Middle East upon whom our bombs fall and think “what a world of hurt.”

So my vote for “news” that should be focused on this year goes to #14 on the Project Censored list, Congress Invested in Defense Contracts, especially BW/Xe. As Neruda said, “Jackals that the jackals would despise.”

Peace. Peace? Peace!

Emerald1943
Member

Bravo! Most appropriate, nottoolate! I was very upset at this news today. I have not had time to research the reasons that the charges were dropped against these men, but I intend to. Something is wrong here. The CEO of Blackwater, Eric Prince, is a known bible-thumper aligned with the religious right-wing “powers that be” in Washington. I am wondering if he was able to influence this case in some way.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

Nellie, thanks for directing folks to project censored. It’s probably the link I passed around most, with this quote to back me up.
“Project censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.”
Walter Cronkite
Go Walter and Go Nellie
Un(der) Reported News is my favorite.

boomer1949
Member

I’m sure Walter has been spinning in his grave for weeks.

And the day they had the memorial service for him in NYC? It troubled me to see the so-called professional journalists take the stage to speak about him. I thought it was a self-serving moment for most of them. I don’t know, it bothered me then and bothers me now.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

I too thought they must secretly being feeling the shame that they could never come close to the excellence in journalism that Walter had.
I was hoping someone would rise to the occasion and want to be as revered as Mr Cronkite, but that was just my wishful thinking.

Emerald1943
Member

Oh, I think they all want to be “revered”, but like the republicans, there is no one to step up to the plate.

boomer1949
Member

Another story suffering MSM neglect was about the part-time Census worker in Clay County, KY. I always thought the whole thing sounded fishy, and then the authorities concluded he had committed suicide. What’s with that? I never believed it for a minute, yet no news organization has pursued it further.

escribacat
Member

I agree, Boomer. Really strange story.

Emerald1943
Member

There were so many stories this past year that slipped between the MSM cracks that I don’t know where to start.

However, there is one that was completely unreported last February. The ACLU managed to get records released through a Freedom of Information Act law suit that were horrendous. These reports stated the three men had been beaten to death in the US-run prison at Bagram, Afghanistan. These men had been shackled to the ceiling and floor for days. The cause of death was cited as “blunt force trauma to the lower extremities”. I don’t think this needs any elaboration.

Being the “news junkie” that I am, I waited for the outrage…it never happened. It was never picked up by the media in this country.

That being said, the one story I do hope to see in 2010 is about the indictments and trials of G.W.Bush and Dick Cheney for war crimes and war profiteering. Few things would make me happier!

whisperingn woods
Guest
whisperingn woods

Another under reported story was the sharp dressed man with the Nigerian terrorist. The msm is quiet over it. What gives?

KQµårk 死神
Member

I don’t recognize your moniker. If you are new here welcome to the Planet where we hate censorship.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

You new here?? Welcome to the Planet 2010!!
I saw a brief report on the guy in the suit, they did take him in for questioning but it was stated he had nothing to do with anything and they released him…no name was given.

javaz
Member

That was another man from India that was on the plane that landed in Detroit.
I believe that wwoods is refering to the well-dressed Indian man at the Amsterdam Airport who told the gate attendant that the terrorist was from Sudan and did not have a passport.
That man is missing and the Dutch authorities are looking for him.

boomer1949
Member

Hello and welcome to PlanetPOV!

You’re new here; we like newbies. Not that it matters or anything, but how did you hear about the Planet and the Planeteers?

whisperingn woods
Guest
whisperingn woods

I am tired of censorship at HP. What is up with that? Almost no negative Palin comments will pass the censorship there.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

W woods, I can get past them when I call out people who’ve had a rushed limbaughtomy. They don’t let me post much else but snappy one liners…it’s so boring over there.

Pepe Lepew
Member

I think the most underreported story of the year was all the evidence that the Teabagger protests were orchestrated by two or three conservative lobbying groups … and Fox News.

KQµårk 死神
Member

I think the biggest under reported story of 2009 was how Republicans absolutely refuse to do their jobs and represent their constituents. Republicans offered nothing absolutely nothing to solve the huge problems we face today as a nation. All Republicans have been concerned about is trying to find a strategy to regain power in Washington. Any other employees would be fired for dereliction of duty.

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

I’m with you on that one KQuark, I’m surprised, if these were my Reps I’d have written plenty of times asking them what the effing hell are they getting paid for.
Bash everything Obama, but offer nothing in return? It’s been one of the more frustrating years, how long can they keep this up?

Emerald1943
Member

In a recent interview, Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken Congressman from Florida, stated that the House had passed over 100 bills and sent them to the Senate…where they remain with no action whatsoever. The Senate is definitely NOT doing its job!!

Hopeington
Member
Hopeington

I saw Grayson talking about that, it’s something the Dems should be out there yelling about!
It’s so easily understood