Yesterday Molly Ivins proposed that our country adopt a “Media Accountability Day” and then reported on “Project Censored’s annual release of the 10 biggest stories ignored or under-covered by mainstream media.” Coming in at numbers one and two are:
No. 1: Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government.
This administration has drastically changed the rules on Freedom of Information Act requests; has changed laws that restrict public access to federal records, mostly by expanding the national security classification; operates in secret under the Patriot Act; and consistently refuses to provide information to Congress and the Government Accountability Office. The cumulative total effect is horrifying.
No. 2: Iraq Coverage – faulted for failure to report the results of the two battles for Fallujah and the civilian death toll. The civilian death toll story is hard to get — accurate numbers nowhere — but the humanitarian disaster in Fallujah comes with impeccable sources.
Last week I received an email from my uncle who is visiting Sweden. He commented on how the news reports in Sweden were so different from the U.S. News reports. He said that one big difference is that they actually report on the number of civilian casualties in Iraq, and he sent me this graph:
Translation:
Bomb attacks with casualties in Iraq.
Iraq Index calculates that between 13,800 and 24,300 civilians have been killed since the Iraqi government was formed in March 2003. The total number of casualties due to the widespread criminal activity lies between 33,100 and 67,200.
Our media is not officially “censored” but it seems that most of the mainstream outlets have agreed to follow the Bush Administration’s guidelines about not reporting civilian casualties and not showing photos of the dead-military or civilian.
To see a list of the other eight stories ignored by the media, read Molly Ivins’ column.
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