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As winner of two first place Project Censored Awards in the last four years, we are very proud to offer the latest collection of the top 25 "Censored" stories. This is the 2008 edition (unfortunately, we didn't win this year, but we'll take two out of four.)

In essence, these are stories that the mainstream media doesn't pay much or any attention to. Fortunately, the Internet and alternative publications have been offering a vehicle for getting these articles out.

Yet, because they are generally ignored by corporate media, they remain "censored" as far as mass access to what they reveal and cover.

"Project Censored" is an ingenious project of Sonoma State University in California that has been using the program as journalistic training for college students in terms of identifying the top "censored stories."

From the site, masternewmedia.org:

Information access is ostensibly a right that each of us has, and yet every year the mass media sweep important world news under the carpet in favor of sordid gossipy headlines and shady propaganda. Each year, however, Project Censored attempts to redress the balance.

So while mainstream news media focus their attention on the latest exploits of Paris Hilton and friends, Project Censored is busy noting and reporting on the important stories that never made it to prime time. And there are a lot of them.

The resultant yearbook Censored - The News That Didn't Make The News is far from trivial in its contents. For while the circus of celebrity scandals and heavily edited propagandist reports from the Middle East dominate our screens, the erosion of civil liberties, growing hunger and homelessness, and even genocide struggle for our attention.

From projectcensored.org:

"Between 700 and 1000 stories are submitted to Project Censored each year from journalists, scholars, librarians, and concerned citizens around the world. With the help of more than 200 Sonoma State University faculty, students, and community members, Project Censored reviews the story submissions for coverage, content, reliability of sources and national significance. The university community selects 25 stories to submit to the Project Censored panel of judges who then rank them in order of importance. Current or previous national judges include: Noam Chomsky, Susan Faludi, George Gerbner, Sut Jhally , Frances Moore Lappe, Norman Solomon, Michael Parenti, Herbert I. Schiller, Barbara Seaman, Erna Smith, Mike Wallace and Howard Zinn. All 25 stories are featured in the yearbook, Censored: The News That Didn't Make the News."

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