First up on the show, I sit down with Beryl Lipton from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to talk about the Drone-as-First-Responder Programs, which yes, are as horrifying as they sound. Beryl outlines the ever expanding grey area where constitutional rights and accountability fall away in service of more efficient surveillance technology, and that includes AI. Beryl and I also discuss the pitfalls of that AI, not least of all that its created both in the image and in service of a racist, patriarchal so-called justice system.

Next up, I sit down with Ian Head from the Center for Constitutional Rights to talk about the slow death of the Freedom of Information Act. Ian outlines the various ways in which law enforcement agencies in particular avoid accountability, and various strategies to keep fighting for our right to know.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Project Censored – Drones as First Responders / The Death of Freedom of Information appeared first on KPFA.

This week, we circle back to a show that first aired in April of this year titled Muckrakers & Media Freedom: Celebrating the Izzy Award

First up, we have documentary filmmaker Abby Martin of Empire Files who is sharing the Izzy Award this year for her documentary Earths Greatest Enemy about how the Pentagon is the worlds greatest polluter and why we must all act to reverse the global damage caused by US military.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Project Censored – Muckrakers & Media Freedom: Celebrating the Izzy Award appeared first on KPFA.

First up, I sit down with Zachary Levenson to talk about the war on sociology and what happens when the academic governing body deems all existing sociology textbooks illegal to teach in the state of Florida. Zach highlights the purposefully vague verbiage of new policies, the anti-intellectualism fueling them, and why educators must never self-censor or comply in advance.

Next up, cohost Mickey Huff sits down with Nolan Higdon to talk about his latest book MAGAcademy on how corporatism paved the way for the hostile takeover of Higher Ed. Nolan discusses the neoliberalization of academia, the purposeful devaluing of professors and treatment of students as customers that all predate the current attacks on higher ed. Nolan also warns of the dangers of compliance in advance and the smooth rhetoric of corporate takeovers wrapped in social justice ideologies.

Zachary Levenson is associate professor of sociology at Florida International University. He is the author of the award-winning book Delivery as Dispossession (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Nolan Higdon is a political analyst, author, host of The Disinfo Detox Podcast, lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Project Censored National Judge. Higdons areas of concentration include critical AI literacy, podcasting, digital culture, news media history & propaganda, and critical media literacy.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post The Violation and Capitulation of Higher Ed appeared first on KPFA.

Nadine N. Sayegh is a Palestinian multidisciplinary writer and researcher focusing on the Arab-speaking world. Her work spans gender, geopolitics, human security, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She holds an MA in Media and the Middle East from SOAS, London, and a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Toulouse (Jean-Jaurs), where her dissertation examined multiscalar gendered oppression in Palestine and Jordan. Her research and commentary have been featured in scholarly and journalistic venues, with select works translated internationally.

Nora Barrows Friedman is an associate editor at Electronic Intifada and the co-host of their weekly livestream.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Project Censored – Purple-Washing, Pogroms & Media Malpractice on Palestine [ENCORE] appeared first on KPFA.

Nadine N. Sayegh is a Palestinian multidisciplinary writer and researcher focusing on the Arab-speaking world. Her work spans gender, geopolitics, human security, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She holds an MA in Media and the Middle East from SOAS, London, and a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Toulouse (Jean-Jaurs), where her dissertation examined multiscalar gendered oppression in Palestine and Jordan. Her research and commentary have been featured in scholarly and journalistic venues, with select works translated internationally.

Nora Barrows Friedman is an associate editor at Electronic Intifada and the co-host of their weekly livestream.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Project Censored – Purple-Washing, Pogroms & Media Malpractice on Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

This week: combating and reframing big tech. First up, I sit down with Ed from DeFlock to talk about ALPRs – Automatic License Plate Readers, and their handy way of circumventing the 4th amendment meant to protect against unlawful search. Ed also talks about the massive network of data sharing across law enforcement and private corporations, the use of the data for more than stated purposes – from assisting ICE to stalking ex-girlfriends. Ed reminds us that a functioning democracy does not surveil their population, and lists ways that communities across the country are fighting back.

Next up, I sit down with Heidi Lim from AI Resist List to talk about reframing AI, and the possible futures that both buck the current iteration of AI and avoid the binary of anti-tech vs. pro-tech. Heidi points out that the purpose is not just to give people hope but to give them ideas, to become literate in not only what AI is but how to combat it creatively – because if AI is where creativity goes to die, perhaps combating it is where creativity can be reborn.

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Ed is a member of DeFlock and has been organizing and researching police use of surveillance technologies for nearly a decade.

Heidi Lim is a climate communicator focused on increasing climate literacy and rooted in environmental justice. Her work puts a climate lens on topics like technology, justice, and culture, which is ultimately how she came more recently to working on AI ethics.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Project Censored: Combating and Reframing Big Tech: Deflock & AI Resist appeared first on KPFA.

First up, I sit down Kels Menchaca, an organizer with the DFW Support Committee to talk about the Prairieland case. With combined sentences of 562 years, the defendants represent the latest intensification in the US governments violent assault on free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to have zines, freedom to think, and more. We discuss the egregious and absurd case – from the prosecution outright lying in court to the judge fining lawyers for defending their clients. Taken all together, it is a terrifying reminder that in these times, you could face decades in jail for not liking your government.

Next up, Leonardo Flores joins the show again to talk about the fallout from the double earthquake in Venezuela. Leo outlines some of the recent US media propaganda attempting to smear Venezuela when in fact it is the US paralyzing Venezuelas disaster response through unilateral economic warfare. Leo and I discuss the US and Israel vying for shock doctrine access, how grassroots coordination post-disaster builds revolutionary solidarity, and more.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Inside the Prairieland Case / US Debilitates Venezuela’s Earthquake Response appeared first on KPFA.

This week on the program, a special full show with Palestinian author, historian and academic Dr. Ramzy Baroud about his latest book Before the Flood: A Gaza Family Memoir Across Three Generations of Colonial Invasion, Occupation, and War in Palestine. Dr. Baroud takes us through long duree, a history that has not been amputated and distorted by colonial narrative. He explains the failings of corporate media, of political discourse, and the need for oppressed peoples to tell their own stories, without countering, without arguing the points of the oppressor. Because dignity cannot be divided. Freedom cannot be sectionalized.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian author, historian, and academic whose work centers on Palestinian history, liberation, and peoples history. He is the editor of The Palestine Chronicle, a position he has held since 1999, where he has helped shape an alternative narrative grounded in lived Palestinian experience.

He holds a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and has taught mass communication at Curtin University. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Zaim University in Istanbul.

Dr. Baroud is the author of eight books, including Searching Jenin, The Second Palestinian Intifada, My Father Was a Freedom Fighter, The Last Earth, and These Chains Will Be Broken. He is also the co-editor, with Ilan Papp, of Our Vision for Liberation, and the forthcoming volume Gaza Rising. His latest book, Before the Flood, reconstructs Gaza’s modern history through family memory and intergenerational testimony.

His work brings together history, journalism, and political analysis, contributing to global conversations on Palestine, decolonization, and resistance. He has lectured widely at universities and institutions around the world, engaging audiences on Palestine, media, and popular resistance.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Dignity Cannot Be Divided: In Conversation with Dr. Ramzy Baroud appeared first on KPFA.

First up, Mickey Huff sits down with public health researcher and journalist Lily Minh Wass to talk about the sycophancy machine. Lily outlines the subtle and disturbing quirks of AIs large language models, amplifying our human desire to be agreed with, which supersedes the desire to be factual. Lily highlights our cognitive offloading onto AI, breaks down how these systems operate, and more.

Next up, Mickey and I dig into some of the news that did make the news but was wrong. We highlight the need for critical media literacy, especially when were confronted with something that pings our confirmation bias. We also dive into some history, the US at 250, the framing of our nationalistic ideals, the society of the spectacle, Idiocracy, and finding our way to solidarity.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post The Sycophancy Machine / Why the Left Needs Critical Media Literacy appeared first on KPFA.

First up, I sit down with professor Abboud Hamayel to discuss the misuse of history, in particular archaeology as a tool of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Abboud also deconstructs the performative solidarity of pity, the entangled histories that make Palestine a lens through which to frame our own struggles, the jealousy of the settler, and stepping outside of colonial time.

Next up, Metas censorship of LGBTQ voices brings together digital activists, legal experts and LGBTQ communities to combat invisibilization. We discuss the problematic dependency on social media platforms, how this can spur the creation of alternative comms and organizing methods, digital legal frameworks in the EU vs the US, and more.

Abboud Hamayel is a Palestinian intellectual, lecturer, and political analyst. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University, near Ramallah.

Caspar Pistersis the head of communication for Amsterdams wonderful & notorious Club Church. With a background in journalism, currently Caspar does communications for the Dutch HIV organization.

Martha Dimitratou is the founder and Executive Director of Repro Uncensored, a global nonprofit documenting and challenging systemic online censorship, AI-driven harms, and the influence of Big Tech on access to information, freedom of expression, and democratic participation. Repro Uncensoreds research and investigations have been featured by hundreds of media outlets worldwide. Through Repro Uncensored, she also develops cultural initiatives and movement-building projects that bring together art, technology, digital rights, and social justice.

Lotje Beekis a policy advisor at the Dutch digital rights organization Bits of Freedom, focusing on Big Tech and online platforms. She mainly works on digital rights within European platform regulation. In that context, she advocates for the effective enforcement of the Digital Services Act. Successfully so: Bits of Freedom recently won a court case against Meta Platforms based on that law.

The News That Didn’t Make the News. Each week, co-hosts Mickey Huff and Eleanor Goldfield conduct in depth interviews with their guests and offer hard hitting commentary on the key political, social, and economic issues of the day with an emphasis on critical media literacy.

The post Project Censored – History Outside Colonial Time / Fighting LGBTQ Invisibilization appeared first on KPFA.