As the United States grapples with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s living legacy of systemic inequalities, and partisan threats to the foundations of democracy, the integrity of news—the focus of Project Censored’s work and this book—has never been more important.
State of the Free Press 2024 continues Project Censored’s tradition of publicizing the most important stories ignored or obscured by the news establishment, exposing the lies and spin of corporate Junk Food News (frivolous stories that distract the public from actual news) and News Abuse (important stories covered in ways that undermine public understanding) while promoting the best independent journalism, research, and activism.
This 2024 edition includes independent investigative reporting on issues and topics that reflect recurring patterns of indirect censorship in corporate news coverage, where the outlets failed to provide the coverage and context that these stories deserved based on their social significance and relevance to current political and cultural debates. Most importantly, this edition helps endow readers with the critical media literacy skills required to hold power to account for distorting or censoring news coverage.
State of the Free Press 2024 is a joint production of The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.
Since 2010, MICKEY HUFF has been director of Project Censored (founded in 1976), and has been president of its parent nonprofit, Media Freedom Foundation, since 2016. He has co-edited each annual volume of the book Censored dating back to 2009, and has contributed numerous chapters to those works. His most recent books include United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (and what we can do about it) co-authored with Nolan Higdon (from City Lights Publishers, 2019) and Censored 2020: Through the Looking Glass (co-edited with long-time associate director of the Project, Andy Lee Roth). In spring of 2019, Huff won the Beverly Kees Educator Award as part of the 2019 James Madison Freedom of Information Awards from the Society for Professional Journalists, Northern California. Currently, Huff is professor of social science and history at Diablo Valley College, where he co-chairs the History Department. He is also a lecturer in the Communications Department at California State University, East Bay, and has taught Sociology of Media at Sonoma State University. He is also executive producer and cohost of The Project Censored Show, the weekly syndicated public affairs program that originates from KPFA in Berkeley, CA, and airs on roughly 50 stations across the US.
Andy Lee Roth is the associate director of Project Censored, where he coordinates the Project’s Validated Independent News program. His research, on topics ranging from ritual to communities organizing for parklands, has been published in journals including the International Journal of Press/Politics; Social Studies of Science; Media, Culture & Society; City & Community; and Sociological Theory. Roth earned a PhD in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a BA in sociology and anthropology at Haverford College. A native of California, he now lives in Washington State.
PROJECT CENSORED, founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen at Sonoma State University, has as its principal objective the advocacy for and protection of First Amendment rights, including freedom of information. In 2008, Project Censored received the PEN/Oakland Literary Censorship Award. Most recently, Project Censored received the 2014 Pillar Award in Journalism and New Media, given annually to persons of conscience, conviction, and achievement who stand up for what’s right and what’s true in the face of corporate and political intimidation. For more information, visit www.projectcensored.org.
