Project Censored compiles 25 stories every year that they feel have been overlooked for various reasons by corporate media.

Dr. Peter Phillips, Director of Project Censored, lectured Oct. 3 on the propensity of the mainstream media to overlook and under-report key stories, in a speech sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Students for a Democratic Society.

The speech, entitled “The New American Censorship,” focused on the corporate media’s tendency to avoid potentially controversial stories or content that may question the leadership capabilities of our government.

Phillips describes the media as biased and having an inclination to “avoid challenging the powerful.”

Project Censored is a research group based out of Sonoma State University that tracks independently published newspapers and journals. From their research, Project Censored compiles 25 stories every year that they feel have been overlooked for various reasons by corporate media.

Phillips stressed the involvement of students in his lecture. “We’re a student-run program,” he said. “The real purpose is to train students.”

The new Project Censored book, edited by Phillips and Associate Director Andrew Roth, is called “Censored 2008” and features 25 of the most “censored” stories of 2006 and 2007. The top story in the book involves the signing of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which eliminates Habeas Corpus in the United States. Habeas Corpus, a common law established in England in 1679, which protects individuals from unlawful detention by government bodies.

Phillips also provided an example involving the American Civil Liberties Union and their request for autopsy reports of Iraqis being detained by the United States. According to Phillips, 23 of 44 autopsy reports cited the cause of death as homicide.

“It’s quite obvious that these people were tortured to death while in U.S. custody,” he said. Those autopsy reports can be accessed via the ACLU website at http://www.aclu.org.

Near the end of his speech, Phillips made a very bold statement involving the 2004 presidential contest between George W. Bush and John Kerry. He began by explaining how, in a random poll selection of 1,500 people, the margin of error is roughly 3%. According to exit polls taken the night of the election, John Kerry was projected to be the winner by approximately 6 million votes.

“The election in 2004 was fraudulent,” said Phillips, making reference to George W. Bush winning the election by 3 million votes. “The odds of that being an error in the exit poll are impossible. And there isn’t a newspaper in the country that will cover that story.”

Although Phillips’ own political affiliation obviously lies toward the left wing, he closed his lecture by emphasizing the importance of bipartisanship and working together to produce significant change.

“Right or left, it doesn’t matter. It’s not about party,” he said. “Together we can protect human rights in the world.”

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