Nexus - 0704 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

PROJECT CENSORED According to the Project Censored voting team, these are last year's top 25 news stories which should have been reported by the media in a big way, but weren't. onoma State University's Project Censored has released its latest list of the top 25 most under-covered news stories in the United States—as it has been doing for the past 24 years. Media students and staff screened several thousand stories from late 1998 through 1999, and selected 500 to be evaluated by faculty and communi- ty experts. The top 200 stories were then researched for national mainstream coverage by the Media Censorship class, and a final collective vote of all students, staff and faculty was taken in early November 1999. Lastly, the top 25 stories were ranked by Project Censored's national judges. 1. Multinational Corporations Profit from International Brutality In the name of commerce, huge multinational corporations collaborate with repressive governments and, in the process, support significant human rights violations. Corporations often argue that their presence and investment will improve human rights. This practice is referred to as "constructive engagement". Major international energy corporations such as Mobil, Exxon, Enron and Unocal have engaged in major business ventures in countries known as major human rights violators. Major US governmental grants, as well as corporate capital investment, have funded the suppression of media, political opposition and personal rights in Turkmenistan, India and Burma. The myth of "constructive engagement" has failed to improve human rights, and yet has been endorsed both by international corporations and the US Government. Since the release of this information, BP-Amoco and Statoil have taken positive steps towards addressing human rights issues. Programs are being developed in the US and abroad to deal with the conduct of energy companies globally. Source: Arvind Ganesan (ganessa@hrw.org), "Corporation Crackdowns: Business Backs Brutality", Dollars and Sense, May/June 1999. 2. Pharmaceutical Companies Put Profits Before Need Multinational pharmaceutical companies focus their research and development on high- profile, profit-making drugs like Viagra instead of developing cures for life-threatening diseases in poorer countries. Viagra earned more than one billion dollars in its first year, for instance. Though representatives of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America claim that some funds are directed towards eliminating tropical diseases, nei- ther they nor individual firms are willing to provide statistics. Research into Third World tropical diseases is not being extensively considered or pro- duced. A recent and effective medicine for African sleeping sickness was pulled from production, while older remedies are no longer available because they are not needed in the US. AIDS continues to receive the most attention in the Third World, mainly because the disease also remains a threat to the First World. Since the release of this story, Doctors Without Borders won the Nobel Prize and announced an international campaign to increase access to key drugs. Source: Ken Silverstein (ksilverstein@erols.com), "Millions for Viagra, Pennies for the Poor", The Nation, 19 July 1999. compiled by Project Censored © 2000 Sonoma State University 1801 East Cotati Avenue Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609, USA Telephone: +1 (707) 664 2500 E-mail: censored@sonoma.edu Website: www.projectcensored.org 3. Financially Bloated American Cancer Society Fails to Prevent Cancer The American Cancer Society (ACS) is growing increasingly wealthy, thanks to donations from the public and funding from surgeons, drug companies and corporations that profit from cancer cures. More than half the funds raised by the ACS go to overheads, salaries and fringe benefits for its executives and other employees, while most direct JUNE — JULY 2000 NEXUS - 17 THE MOST UNDER-COVERED NEWS IN AMERICA