PBS edited out a part of Finding Your Roots , a documentary series that traces celebrities’ ancestry, after Ben Affleck discovered that his ancestors owned slaves and then pressured the network to cut that part out of the episode, which they did, so it wouldn’t hurt his image. 115We only know about the censorship because hacked emails from Sony were posted on Wikileaks, including one between Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the CEO of Sony Entertainment discussing Affleck’s request. 116
In our digital world, news outlets can alter an article or a headline after something is published without most people even noticing, covering up falsehoods and mistakes, or even changing the overall message of the story. This often results in an inflammatory article going viral and whipping people into a frenzy, only to later have key points quietly changed in response to the backlash. Sometimes outlets have other reasons for dumping things down the memory hole.
For example, the popular New Zealand news website Stuff.co.nz quietly deleted an article about how a local resident had allegedly been “introduced to radical Islam at the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch,” immediately after a white supremacist walked into the same mosque and livestreamed his mass-murder of 50 Muslims inside. 117It appears the website was trying to prevent word from getting out that the attacker appeared to have targeted that particular mosque because it had allegedly been linked to Muslim extremists.
Have you heard of Project Censored? Most people have not, which is the ultimate irony because it’s an organization that highlights important under-reported or censored stories that mainstream media buries. Each year they publish a list of the top 25 censored or under-reported stories in America hoping to give them the attention they deserve. “Under-reported” meaning that they may have been mentioned in some mainstream outlets, but weren’t front page stories or didn’t dominate the news cycle for a week as they should have due to their importance.
In our fast paced world, if a story isn’t one that happens to get circulated in the news cycle non-stop for a week, it is almost immediately forgotten by most people who are swept up in the next wave of reporting about mass shootings, fires, floods, celebrity gossip, health scares, and political scandals.
Project Censored was founded in 1976 at Sonoma State University by a professor who wanted to expose censorship and propaganda in mainstream media. It has been praised by many media analysts around the world. Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers which showed that the Johnson administration lied to the American people and Congress about the reasons for getting involved in the Vietnam War, said Project Censored, “shines light in the dark places of our government that most need exposure.” 118
Even Walter Cronkite, who anchored the CBS Evening News for almost twenty years and who was considered to be “the most trusted man in America” said, “Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.” 119
The Los Angeles Times once admitted that Project Censored, “offers devastating evidence of the dumbing-down of mainstream news in America” and said their annual book of the top 25 most censored and under-reported stories was, “Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens.” 120
New York Times Best Seller List
When the New York Times learned the NSA was illegally spying on tens of millions of Americans they sat on the story for over a year and only published it after the reporter who got his story killed by the editors decided to write a book about the spying since the paper couldn’t stop him from publishing that. 121But that’s not the only censorship the New York Times has engaged in. They even censor books from their prestigious “best seller” list.
Ted Cruz’s book A Time for Truth was excluded from their list in 2015 when it qualified to be number three on the list. 122They claimed it was because most of the sales were from bulk orders, which they say was evidence that an author is ordering their own book to artificially inflate the numbers, but the publisher HarperCollins issued a statement saying they investigated the sales patterns and found no evidence of any such bulk orders. 123
Cruz’s campaign tweeted “The New York Times is lying — they should release their evidence or issue a formal apology.” 124A few days later, the book was then finally included on the best seller list. 125
Bill O’Reilly’s book Legends & Lies: The Patriots was included on The New York Times best sellers list when it came out in 2016, but was only ranked number six despite being number one on the Wall Street Journal’s best seller list, as well as number one on the Publisher’s Weekly list. At the time the Nielsen organization reported Bill O’Reilly’s book sold 24,348 copies that week, while the number one book on The New York Times best seller list, The Gene , sold only 9,781 copies. 126
The New York Times also omitted a bestselling book about the Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell who killed babies that were born alive during his attempted abortions and was found to have kept baby body parts in jars around his office. He was later convicted of three counts of murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter but the liberal media paid little attention to the trial because it cast abortion in such a horrific light. 127
The book’s co-author Ann McElhinney said it is “shocking that the cover-up of the Gosnell story is continuing… It’s clear that this is a blatant fake list in a fake news newspaper… It’s not only an insult to the people who have bought this book, but an insult to the readers of The New York Times who buy the newspaper and think they are getting the truth about book sales across America but instead get false facts disguised as a neutral list.” 128
In October 2018 when Stormy Daniels’ book came out detailing her alleged affair with Donald Trump, the New York Times included it on their top 10 best seller list but not Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro’s book Liars, Leakers, and Liberals , or David Limbaugh’s Jesus is Risen , both of which had actually sold more copies than Stormy’s. 129
In June 2019, CNN’s Jim Acosta released a book about President Trump titled The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth In America that didn’t even make it into the top 50 on Amazon’s best seller list and completely dropped off the top 100 list after just two days. But the New York Times placed Acosta’s book at number ten on their “best seller” list, proving once again it’s not an accurate ranking of the week’s best-selling books, but really just a favorites list of the editors.
Books are so powerful that today liberals even protest companies which decide to publish certain authors. Simon & Schuster came under tremendous fire when it was revealed they had signed a deal with right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous, causing the publisher to become one of the top trends on Twitter from triggered liberals calling for people to boycott not just Milo’s book (which they weren’t going to read anyway), but every book Simon and Schuster publishes! 130
Hollywood producer Judd Apatow tweeted support of the boycott, saying, “I am in! In these times we can not let hatemongers get rich off of their cruelty. Shame on Simon (and) Schuster.” 131Former Governor of Vermont Howard Dean tweeted, “This is an embarrassment for [Simon & Schuster] and their owner CBS which is already on record putting their company ahead of the USA.” 132The publisher eventually canceled their contract with Milo and he later had to self-publish it.
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