Project Censored 2011
December 28, 2010 7:47 AM   Subscribe

I'm still not sure why it's the list for 2011 when we're still not out of 2010 yet, but here's the latest from Project Censored of 25 under-reported stories.
posted by anothermug (19 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sounds to me like we've got a list of lefty fantasies that don't have legs. Almost nothing on that list came as an surprise to me. Even the stuff I didn't actually know was stuff that if you had asked me beforehand, I would have assumed to be the case.

Yes, Gitmo is still open, and nothing has really changed there. I mean, it's important, but it isn't news.

Nanotech particles? Last I checked the science was still pretty equivocal on that. Heard about it either way.

The collapse of universal jurisdiction in Spain? Only international law fabulists ever really believed that this was either legitimate or likely to survive, so it going away is basically what everyone thought was going to happen. Trying foreign officers of state is an act of war. That anyone, anywhere. thought this was an actual possibility is almost bigger news than it not happening.

"Human Rights Abuses Continue in Palestine"? This makes the list of the "top censored stories"? What's next, "US population likes Social Security"? "Sun rises in east"? Oh, wait, no, it's "Internet privacy and personal access at risk." Color me gobsmacked. Did not see that one coming.

And the "top" story? "Global plans to replace the dollar"? I've been reading about that for months. It really looks as if their criteria for what constitutes "censorship" is that it doesn't make the front page of USA Today.

Conclusion: a collection of non-news that pisses off lefties, when presented as a multi-page list = SEO-linkbait.
posted by valkyryn at 8:10 AM on December 28, 2010 [7 favorites]


tl;dr: We're marking our unsold inventory of hobby horses as "censored"! Everything must go!
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:30 AM on December 28, 2010 [2 favorites]


PC has looked increasingly like a branding/marketing exercise to me in recent years, too wedded to a narrow agenda to be really useful or interesting. With this, they've jumped the shark - currency conspiracies? No mention of Wikileaks, stuxnet, dodgy title registration/MERS, or any other matters related to the financial crisis? C'mon.
posted by anigbrowl at 8:32 AM on December 28, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is one of the few things that was so much better during the Bush administration.
posted by AugieAugustus at 8:33 AM on December 28, 2010


HOW DARE THEY NOT LIST WIKILEAKS?
posted by Artw at 8:39 AM on December 28, 2010


Conclusion: a collection of non-news that pisses off lefties...
Seems to me the "secret" plan to replace the dollar would tend to piss-off right-wingers far more than "lefties".
posted by Thorzdad at 8:41 AM on December 28, 2010


Seems to me the "secret" plan to replace the dollar would tend to piss-off right-wingers far more than "lefties".

Wouldn't they just gloat about all the gold they bought after listening to ads during Glenn Beck's show?
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 8:50 AM on December 28, 2010 [1 favorite]


HOW DARE THEY NOT LIST WIKILEAKS?

In what way is Wikileaks under-reported?

And the secret plan to replace the dollar? Hasn't Iran been selling oil in Euros rather than dollars for over a year now? Isn't this well known among the sort of people who care about this sort of thing? If it's under-reported it's only because the vast majority of people either don't know what it actually means (that would be me), don't care, or both.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 8:57 AM on December 28, 2010


You know, there's no real reason this thread needs to be about Wikileaks.
posted by Bookhouse at 9:32 AM on December 28, 2010 [1 favorite]


In what way is Wikileaks under-reported?

And why aren't we talking about the fluoride in the water that saps us of our precious sarcasm detection?
posted by yerfatma at 9:52 AM on December 28, 2010


There are some interesting issues in there, but the shrieking, accusational tone really drowns out the message. How unfortunate.
posted by underflow at 10:08 AM on December 28, 2010


Misnamed list -- not one of these stories are censored -- call it Project Apathy or Project Willful Ignorance or Project News that Cannot Compete with Pseudo-Celebrity Gossip or even Project Stories that Need to Be Repackaged like a Steamy Soap Opera, but really, none of these stories are hidden from the public...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 11:23 AM on December 28, 2010


21. Western Lifestyle Continues Environmental Footprint

Mercy me I had no idea
posted by ook at 12:13 PM on December 28, 2010


Oh, I see -- this is somebody's sociology homework we're looking at. That makes a little more sense.
posted by ook at 12:19 PM on December 28, 2010


Is 9/11 truther bs the nexus of right and left wing loonies? Didn't that start out as Glenn Beck territory?
posted by dave78981 at 3:55 PM on December 28, 2010


There is a very sound reason for universal jurisdiction for crime against humanity. Spain serves as an excellent venue for prosecuting crimes against humanity that occur in South America because they speak the same language, their citizens are often victims, clarifying the jurisdictional issues, yet they're largely above the fray being European. Spain may clearly apply universal jurisdiction for the Bush six because Spanish citizens were tortured by the Bush administration, and Obama has said he won't prosecute them.

We're not talking about some theoretical international criminal court that might follow it's mandate, or might try expanding it's powers into compelling extradition. We're talking about one nation prosecuting crimes against humanity victimizing it's own citizens where we all know the guilty will not be extradited. In particular, once the Bush six were found guilty their penalty would effectively be : no European vacations.

I'd therefore agree that all the U.S. interference with the Spanish judicial system is a major news story, one that'll hopefully get more coverage thanks to wikileaks, and ideally eventually limit these guy's international travel privileges.
posted by jeffburdges at 7:43 AM on December 29, 2010


So why did this thread instantly turn into a cynicism contest?
posted by anarch at 9:11 AM on December 29, 2010


There is a very sound reason for universal jurisdiction for crime against humanity.

No, there isn't. Crimes on that level aren't "crimes" the way murder, rape, or arson are "crimes." They're committed by states. The way to settle those accounts--and the way those accounts have been settled throughout history--is by winning a war. The Nuremberg trials? Basically just the victorious party executing the losers. They dressed it up with international law language, but it was basically a glorified version of this, and important people at the time knew it.

Which, one is tempted to argue, is exactly what should have happened. You do bad stuff on a sufficient scale, a victorious army is just gonna take you out.

But the attempt to submit foreign dignitaries to the power of a particular legal system really was considered to be an act of war. It impugns the sovereignty of the state/state actor to be tried, something historically viewed as an existential threat. The myth of popular sovereignty has diluted this somewhat, but it's still a very active doctrine, and the theory of universal jurisdiction requires that one reject any notion of state or national sovereignty. If Spain is pissed about the way the United States is treating its citizens, it, being a national government, has things it can do about it. Diplomacy matters. This sort of stunt amounts to using Spanish sovereignty to deny American sovereignty.

Again, international law fanboys love that sort of thing, but it's a massively controversial notion which is of limited appeal even within the legal community.

Fortunately, the State Department seems to have handled it like grown-ups and used proper diplomatic channels to get the Spanish government to reign in Garzón.
posted by valkyryn at 7:07 AM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


You know not to take the list serious when: the 9/11 inside job story is listed as the 14th most significant
posted by volt4ire at 8:16 AM on December 30, 2010


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