THE 10 BIGGEST UNDERREPORTED STORIES FOR 2006

Miss Molly:

Happily, the perfect news peg, as we say in the biz, for Media Accountability Day already exists—it’s Project Censored’s annual release of the 10 biggest stories ignored or under-covered by mainstream media. Project Censored is based at Sonoma State University, with both faculty and students involved in its preparation.

Of course, the stories are not actually “censored” by any authority, but they do not receive enough attention to enter the public’s consciousness, usually because corporate media tend to underreport stories about corporate misdeeds and government abuses.

1. Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government. "Gene Roberts, a great news editor, says we tend to miss the stories that seep and creep, the ones whose effects are cumulative, not abrupt. This administration has drastically changed the rules on Freedom of Information Act requests; has changed laws that restrict public access to federal records, mostly by expanding the national security classification; operates in secret under the Patriot Act; and consistently refuses to provide information to Congress and the Government Accountability Office. The cumulative total effect is horrifying."

2. Iraq Coverage. "...the two battles for Fallujah and the civilian death toll."

3. Distorted Election Coverage. "...the discrepancy between exit polls and the vote tally, and the still-contentious question of whether the vote in Ohio needed closer examination."

4. Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In. "...another seep ’n’ creep story..."

5. United States Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia.

6. The Real Oil for Food Scam. "The part that got little attention here was the extent to which we, the United States, were part of the scam."

7. Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood. "...stories about military policies that could improve the situation of those journalists who risk their lives."

8. Iraqi Farmers Threatened by Bremer’s Mandates. "It’s part of the untold story of the disastrous effort to make Iraq into a neo-con’s free-market dream."

9. Iran’s New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency. "The effects of Iran’s switching from dollars to Euros in oil trading."

10. Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy. "...a practice so environmentally irresponsible it makes your hair hurt to think about it."

Tags: media, underreported stories