November 13, 2011
with Anthony Wile
TheDailyBell.com
Photo: Mickey Huff
The Daily Bell is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Mickey Huff (left).
Introduction: Mickey Huff is Associate Professor of History at Diablo Valley College and a Director of Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation. He has been interviewed by many radio stations and news sources throughout the country, including NPR, Air America, Pacifica, Republic Broadcasting, Progressive Radio Network, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, New Standard News and others, and has been published on numerous media and news websites from Global Research, Buzzflash and Counterpunch to Z Mag, Truthout and even a few corporate media outlets(which he routinely critiques). He is co-author with Peter Phillips on a number of academic articles to be published throughout 2010-11 and co-edited two books with Phillips over the past three years. His latest work with Project Censored, the book Censored 2012: Sourcebook for the Media Revolution, is out now on Seven Stories Press. When he has time he blogs at http://dailycensored.com. Mickey is also a musician and composer of over 20 years and lives with his family just outside Berkeley, CA.
A brief synopsis:
Daily Bell: What’s your definition of censored? Is it mostly government censorship you’re after? Do you believe that private entities can “censor” or that the word strictly implies government activities?
Mickey Huff: Our definition of censorship is the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets. Basically, decisions as to what subjects are included in the corporate media (or any other media for that matter), or not included, is media censorship at work. We focus on news censorship; of course, there are other forms of censorship in life that are not our focal point which are also important. But, we state, “… censorship refers to the intentional non-inclusion of a news story — or piece of a news story — based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth.” Simply put, censorship takes many insidious guises outside of outright redaction or cutting room floor antics. Censorship uses framing, slighting of content, attacking, labeling, false balancing and more (as political scientist and former PC judge Dr. Michael Parenti has pointed out in many books).
Certainly, private entities can be and are involved in censorship, evident in that definition. When one compares those news stories that reported by various media outlets and those omitted, there is often glaring inconsistency. If we look at the patterns of these inclusions and omissions it often becomes quite clear that it depends on who owns or significantly financially sponsors these outlets, and what entities influence that decision.
…
Daily Bell: How would you characterize yourself — as a Libertarian, a Progressive, … or do you?
Mickey Huff: I find that to be a false paradigm … really, I could go off on this for some time. At the risk of oversimplifying given the constraints here, Left, Right is an illusion hiding the real problem of the top and the bottom. I’m not trying to be dismissive here. Again, books have been written about this, I teach courses on it, there isn’t space here to elaborate in the time I was given. Basically, I disagree with the premise of the question in terms of conventional establishment labels. If I were to come out and say I lean toward libertarian socialism, that likely wouldn’t help most people as again it doesn’t fit neatly into the prefabricated constructs that act to winnow American ideologies. At PC, we favor a truly free press, free speech, and support an active and informed citizenry. I’m not sure what character that may be.
Daily Bell: We believe that there is an overarching power elite — a group of banking families and their enablers and associates, including religious, corporate and military leaders, who are trying to move toward one-world government. We think they’re based out of the West but have cooperation around the world with other political leaders and top businesspeople in most countries. Do you agree? Disagree?
Mickey Huff: Absolutely there’s no question that there exists such an influence — an incredibly strong influence, in fact — and media censorship, as I discussed earlier, is a perfect example of this group’s reach. We refer to it as the Global Dominance Group and have written about this extensively. Peter Phillips has studied under William Domhoff and has specifically written about the Power Elite, as exposed by C. Wright Mills in the 1950s, and we are currently updating our list of top corporate board of directorship overlaps, and their connections to Congress, further illustrating the small cabal of people who dominate decision-making posts in our society. We have written of this at length over the past decade in our books. Again, Peter has written of this at length, and we touch on it in our Truth Emergency publications as well, which are in our books and other academic journals and publications.
Continues … Read all of this excellent, extensive interview at the source.