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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 7 Num. 72

("Quid coniuratio est?")

PROJECT CENSORED TOP 25

Project Censored Top 25 Censored Stories for 1995

(From The 1996 Project Censored Yearbook by Carl Jensen & Project Censored. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1996)

#25 -- E. Coli -- Now A National Epidemic -- Kills 500 Americans Annually. E. coli 0157H7 has now become so widespread it is being called an epidemic, affecting as many as 20,000 people per year.

#24 -- U.S. Trails Most Developed Nations in Maternal Health Ranking. U.S. is ranked 18th, behind Taiwan and Singapore.

#23 -- Dioxin: Still Deadly After All These Years (and All That Hype). EPA's "reassessment" of dioxin indicates health impacts are worse than thought. Dioxin is created as a by-product of manufacturing; Dow and Monsanto are among its producers.

#22 -- There May Be A Cure -- Up There in the Rain Forest. Tropical forests, holding potential miracle cures, are vanishing. Major pharmaceutical companies favor synthetic chemistry as source of medicines.

#21 -- The New 3R's: Reading, Writing, and Reloading. Video teaches kids to shoot and is shown in schools. [CN -- But what's wrong with that?]

#20 -- ABC Spikes New Tobacco Expose When Sued for Libel. ABC backs off on documentary showing how tobacco gets marketed. [CN -- But who needs a "War on Tobacco"?]

#19 -- Solving the Nuclear Waste Problem With Taxpayers' Dollars. Nuclear power industry spends bucks on "campaign contributions" so that taxpayers will spend even more bucks to get rid of nuclear waste.

#18 -- Scientific Support for Needle Exchange Programs Suppressed. A study released in October 1993 finds it likely that needle exchange programs would save lives. Clinton administration "takes no action on the issue."

#17 -- Small Arms Wreak Major Worldwide Havoc. In the post-Cold War era, the profit motive leads to the dumping of weapons which helps fuel ethnic and regional rivalries.

#16 -- Fiberglass -- The Carcinogen that's Deadly and Everywhere. As asbestos gets phased out, fiberglass production increases.

#15 -- The Rebirth of Slavery in the Dark Heart of Sudan. Number of slaves in Sudan is now "easily in the thousands."

#14 -- The Gulf War Syndrome Cover-Up. U.S. soldiers were exposed to chemical and biolgical warfare agents during the Gulf War, yet Pentagon keeps denying it.

#13 -- Congress Wants to Take the Money and Run. Federal Election Commission (FEC) keeps track of "campaign contributions" and looks out for secret "slush funds", etc. Now, Republican House has quietly moved to cripple the FEC.

#12 -- 180,000 Patients Die Annually from Treatment in Hospitals. More people are killed or seriously injured in U.S. hospitals annually than from airline and automobile accidents combined.

#11 -- Giant Oil Companies Owe U.S. More Than $1.5 Billion. Texaco, Shell, Mobil, ARCO, Chevron, Exxon, and Unocal owe U.S. more than $1.5 billion in uncollected royalties, interest and penalties, according to a report by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

#10 -- The Broken Promises of NAFTA. Firms have cut jobs and moved plants to Mexico. Use of pesticides in Mexico has not been reduced, but has increased.

#9 -- U.S. Chemical Industry Fights for Toxic Ozone-Killing Pesticide. Methyl bromide, a pesticide 50 times more destructive to ozone layer than CFCs, is being pushed by the chemical industry.

#8 -- Medical Fraud Costs the Nation $100 Billion Annually -- Or More. "Medscam" techniques used to rip-off insurers, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid.

#7 -- Russia Injects Earth With Nuke Waste. The USSR and Russia have pumped billions of gallons of atomic waste directly into the earth for more than 3 decades and the practice continues.

#6 -- Radical Plan From Newt Gingrich's Think Tank to Gut FDA. Republicans move to overhaul FDA; Newt calls FDA head Kessler "a bully and a thug." [CN -- And is Gingrich supposed to be wrong???]

#5 -- U.S. Pushes Nuclear Pact But Spends Billions to Add Bang to Nukes. As U.S. works to eliminate nuclear weapons it nevertheless wants to spend billions to resume production of tritium.

#4 -- The Privatization of the Internet. U.S. government has been gradually transferring "backbone" of Internet to companies such as IBM and MCI.

#3 -- Child Labor in the U.S. Is Worse Today Than During the 1930s. Estimated 5 million youth in the work force not adequately protected in the workplace.

#2 -- The Budget Does Not Have to be Balanced on the Backs of the Poor. 153 federal programs that benefit wealthy corporations cost U.S. taxpayers $167.2 billion per year.

#1 -- Telecommunications Deregulation: Closing Up America's "Marketplace of Ideas". Telecommunications Deregulation Bill helps create huge new concentrations of media power -- media monopolies.

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