Eugene weekly., November 21, 2013, Page 15, Image 15

From her own website, she said she became an “expert”
in economics “through her continuous research and
scrutiny.”
Without people in power pushing the topic, McChesney
said that a mainstream journalist would be seen as going
out on a limb.
“The reporters raise an issue the elites are not raising
themselves, then you’re ideological, have an axe to grind,
sort of a hack,” he said. “It makes journalism worthless on
pretty important issues.”
9. ICELANDERS VOTE TO
INCLUDE COMMONS IN THEIR
CONSTITUTION
In 2012, Icelandic citizens voted in referendum to
change the country’s 1944 constitution. When asked, “In
the new constitution, do you want natural resources that
are not privately owned to be declared national property?”
its citizens voted 81 percent in favor.
Project Censored says this is important for us to know,
but in the end, U.S. journalism is notably American-centric.
Even the Nieman Watchdog, a foundation for journalism at
Harvard University, issued a report in 2011 citing the lack
of reporting on a war the U.S. funneled over $4 trillion
into over the past decade, not to mention the cost in human
lives.
If we don’t pay attention to our own wars, why exactly
does Project Censored think we’d pay attention to Iceland?
“The constitutional reforms are a direct response to the
nation’s 2008 fi nancial crash,” Project Censored wrote,
“when Iceland’s unregulated banks borrowed more than
the country’s gross domestic product from international
wholesale money markets.”
Solutions-based journalism rears its head again, and the
idea is that the U.S. has much to learn from Iceland, but
even Gladstone was dubious.
“Iceland is being undercovered, goddamnit! Where is
our Iceland news?” she joked with us. “Certainly I agree
with some of this list, Manning was covered badly, I was
sad the tax haven story didn’t get more coverage. But when
has anyone cared about Iceland?”
10. A ‘CULTURE OF CRUELTY’
ALONG MEXICO-US BORDER
The plight of Mexican border crossings usually
involves three types of stories in U.S. press: deaths in
the stretch of desert beyond the border, the horrors of
drug cartels and heroic journeys of border crossings by
sympathetic workers. But a report released a year ago by
the organization No More Deaths snags the 10th spot for
overlooked stories in Project Censored.
The report asserts that people arrested by Border Patrol
while crossing were denied water and told to let their
sick die. No More Deaths conducted more than 12,000
interviews to form the basis of its study in three Mexican
cities: Nacos, Nogales and Agua Prieta. The report cites
grossly ineffective oversight from the Department of
Homeland Security.
This has received some coverage, from Salon
showcasing video of Border Patrol agents destroying
jugs of water meant for crossers to a recent New York
Times piece citing a lack of oversight for Border Patrol’s
excessive force.
The ACLU lobbied the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights to call international
attention to the plight of these border crossers at the hands
of U.S. law enforcement.
If ever an issue fl ew under the radar, this is it.
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez can be contacted at joe@sfbg.com and Project
Censored’s website is projectcensored.org.
A MONUMENT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE DIED
ATTEMPTING TO CROSS THE USMEXICAN BORDER.
EACH COFFIN REPRESENTS A YEAR AND THE
NUMBER OF DEAD.
© TOMAS CASTELAZO, WWW.TOMASCASTELAZO.COM
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