Media

Imagine you know a thief is going to pilfer your television in the middle of the night? Most likely, you would take action to stop it - lock your doors, hide your TV, or in one last ditch effort for revenge, at least hide your remote. Imagine you knew that in the broadest of daylight, corporations and government were going to pinch not your television, but the only TV channels that give you, the citizen, a voice and a hand in local programming? Well grab your bat, because there's someone at your door.

Editor's Note: Independent news outlets regularly break important stories that corporate media giants either ignore or are too compromised to report on. When Project Censored arranged its annual list this year of the 25 most important stories censored by the corporate media, the Bush administration's crackdown on civil liberties topped the list, with a Toward Freedom article on martial law by Frank Morales chosen as #2.

As corporate media in the US continues to distort the news, misinform the public and ignore important stories, a growing independent media movement has provided an alternative space for investigation, analysis and discussion of the news. Listen to this online recording of a panel of journalists and activists at the US Social Forum discussing the successes and challenges of the current independent media movement in the US. Speakers on this panel include Scott Harris, Nate Jones, Jen Angel, Elizabeth DiNovella and Michael Albert.