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Ten Best Censored Stories of 1988

The failure of America's national media to fully investigate and report the political background of George Bush during the 1988 election campaign topped the list of 25 overlooked news stories in the 13th annual media research effort titled Project Censored. Richard H. Meeker, national president of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, charged that if the average American voter had read the alternative press' coverage of the campaign, George Bush would not have been elected president.

Project Censored, founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, professor of communications at Sonoma State University in California, explores and publicizes the extent of censorship in American society by locating stories about significant issues that the public should be aware of but is not, for one reason or another. The essential issue raised by the project is the failure of the mass media to provide Americans with all the information they need to make informed decisions.

Each year Project Censored selects the top ten "censored" stories from a group of 25 submitted to them by researchers in a seminar on censorship at Sonoma State. This year the 25 stories were selected from more than 400 nominations. There were no distinctly Canadian stories in the top ten, but we're publishing them anyway. We figured you'd want to know.

George Bush's "Dirty Big Secrets"
America's alternative press reported more than ten stories exposing questionable activities by George Bush, dating from his reported role as a CIA "asset" in 1963 to his campaign's connection with a network of anti-Semites and with Nazi and fascist affiliations in 1988.

How The EPA Pollutes The News
Reports of improvement in environmental pollution levels in 1988 were a deliberate attempt by the Environmental Protection Agency to mislead and pacify the public, according to a former EPA officer.

Risk of Nuclear Disaster with Space Shuttle
Despite serious concerns of experts in the field of radioactivity, NASA still plans to launch the Project Galileo shuttle flight which will carry nearly 50 pounds of radioactive plutonium.

The Dangers of Food Irradiation
While scientific research warns of potential dangers from consuming irradiated foods, The U.S. Department of Energy plans to set up 1,000 food irradiation facilities around the country within the next ten years.

Acid Raid - One of North America's Biggest Killers
The U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), an advisory body to Congress, rated acid rain much more dangerous in 1988 than it was in 1984 when the OTA estimated the annual American death toll due to acid rain at 50,000 to 200,000.

America's Secret Police Network
The Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit is a super-secret, national, private intelligence agency, not answerable to any public authority, which links the intelligence squads of almost every major police force in the United States and Canada.

Children are Dying to Pay the Third World Debt
"The State of the World's Children", A UNICEF report issued in 1988, revealed that more than half a million children died in 16 developing nations last year because their debt-burdened governments cut back on social spending in order to repay debts to bankers in industrialized nations.

The Spectre of a Constitutional Convention
Special interest groups, led by Conservative National Taxpayers Union, are just two state votes away from holding a federal convention to amend the Constitution.

U.S. Violates International Rule of Law
The U.S. may have to pay billions of dollars in reparations to Nicaragua as a result of the Reagan administration's support of the contra war effort.

The Abuse of America's Incarcerated Children
More than 1.2 million children in America's juvenile detention facilities are sexually abused by their peers, while nearly 150,000 more are being abused by their state-employed counselors and staff members
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This article originally appeared in Sources, 24th edition, Summer 1989.