Columbia U Protests + the Kent State Massacre, Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2024, Forever Chemicals, & Remembering Daniel Ellsberg w/ Mickey Huff

On this edition of Parallax Views, Project Censored's Mickey Huff joins us to discuss Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2024, the media watchdog group's annual round-up of the most censored news stories in the United States. However, rather than just a straight rundown of this year's annual Project Censored offering, Mickey and I use this conversation to take the opportunity to discuss the recent controversy over the Columbia University pro-Palestinian Gaza protests, John Fetterman's comparing those protests to the Charlottesville "Unit the Right" rally, and Senator Tom Cotton calling for vigilante violence against protesters. With calls for the National Guard to be brought to Columbia University to put an end to the protests, Mickey and I reflect on the Kent State Massacre of 1970, the anniversary of which will be on May 4th.

Additionally we'll discuss:

- Mainstream media coverage of the Gaza war as well as the leaked New York Times memo telling journalists to avoid words and phrases like "genocide", "ethnic cleansing", and "occupied territories" when covering Israel/Palestine-related issues.

- The importance of the right to protest to a functioning democracy

- The lack of trust in corporate media and the worrying state of journalism today

- Remembering Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg

- Project Censored's coverage of PFAS or toxic "forever chemicals" and why this environmental story needs more coverage

- And much, much more

 

EDIT - NOTE: I used the term "outside agitators" at some point in the conversation when I was thinking more about isolated bad apples and agent provocateurs. Misuse of words on my part.