Contents

FOREWORD: Sifting and Winnowing in the “Post-Truth” Era by Deepa Kumar

INTRODUCTION: by Andy Lee Roth and Mickey Huff

CHAPTER 1: The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2016–17

Compiled and edited by Andy Lee Roth

Introduction

Note on Research and Evaluation of Censored News Stories

1. Widespread Lead Contamination Threatens Children’s Health, and Could Triple Household Water Bills

2. Over Six Trillion Dollars in Unaccountable Army Spending

3. Pentagon Paid UK PR Firm for Fake Al-Qaeda Videos

4. Voter Suppression in the 2016 Presidential Election

5. Big Data and Dark Money behind the 2016 Election

6. Antibiotic Resistant “Superbugs” Threaten Health and Foundations of Modern Medicine

7. The Toll of US Navy Training on Wildlife in the North Pacific

8. Maternal Mortality a Growing Threat in the US

9. DNC Claims Right to Select Presidential Candidate

10. 2016: A Record Year for Global Internet Shutdowns

11. Law Enforcement Surveillance of Phone Records

12. US Quietly Established New “Anti-Propaganda” Center

13. Right-Wing Money Promotes Model Legislation to Restrict Free Speech on University Campuses

14. Judges across US Using Racially Biased Software to Assess Defendants’ Risk of Committing Future Crimes

15. Shell Understood Climate Change as Early as 1991—and Ignored It

16. “Resilient” Indian Communities Struggle to Cope with Impacts of Climate Change

17. Young Plaintiffs Invoke Constitutional Grounds for Climate Protection

18. Rise in Number of Transgender People Murdered

19. Inmates and Activists Protest Chemical Weapons in US Prisons and Jails

20. Seattle Activist Group Leads First Successful Campaign to Defund Police

21. Fossil Fuel Industry “Colonizing” US Universities

22. Lawsuit against Illinois Department of Corrections Exposes Militarization of Law Enforcement inside Prisons

23. Facebook Buys Sensitive User Data to Offer Marketers Targeted Advertising

24. Eight Use of Force Policies to Prevent Killings by Police

25. Juvenile Court Fees Punish Children for Their Families’ Poverty

CHAPTER 2: Post-Truth Dystopia: Fake News, Alternative Facts, and the Ongoing War on Reality—Junk Food News and News Abuse for 2016–17

by Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff, with student writers and researchers Aimee Casey, Gabriella Custodio, Elsa Denis, Thomas Field, Alisha Huajardo, Justin Lascano, Aubrey Sanchez, Edwin Sevilla, Hannah Soule, Kelly Van Boekhout, Kristen van Zyll de Jong, Michael Vega, Clark Venter, and Mark Yolangco

CHAPTER 3: Media Democracy in Action

introduction by Andy Lee Roth, with contributions by Rachael Jolley (Index on Censorship), Chase Palmieri (Tribeworthy), Mahsood Ebrahim and Julianne Rodriguez (Citrus College), Kevin Gosztola and Rania Khalek (Unauthorized Disclosure), and Gennie Gebhart (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

CHAPTER 4: The New American Authoritarianism: How the Corporate Media Normalized Racism in 2016

by Nolan Higdon and Nicholas L. Baham III

CHAPTER 5: Trump Universe

words by Adam Bessie and pictures by Peter Glanting

CHAPTER 6: Defamation as Censorship in the Social-Media Era: Who Counts as a Media Defendant?

by Elizabeth Blakey

CHAPTER 7: Still Manufacturing Consent: The Propaganda Model at Thirty

by Edward S. Herman

CHAPTER 8: Breaking Through Power: Mass Media Blacks Out the Super Bowl of Citizen Action

by Ralph Nader

Acknowledgments

Annual Report from the Media Freedom Foundation President
by Mickey Huff

How to Support Project Censored

About the Editors