Re: Normalized Censorship

The article, ¨The New Normal Is Normalized Censorship¨ by Paul Rosenberg, lacks many things but I would like to focus on the lack of evidence for the claims and the misleading title. There are five sections in this specific article but in the articles, there are statements, claims, and references made from other articles, papers, or people. There is inconsistent evidence and some paragraphs that don’t have clear sources. For example in the first section, article 1 ¨Prescription Drug Costs set to Become a Leading Cause of Death For Elderly Americans¨ talks about a relevant topic but doesn’t have constant support for the claims. Censorship is a large topic that has been a present issue primarily found in coverups and political issues.

The second article talks about threats toward journalists but doesn’t provide evidence about how journalists are threatened. Also, the author references the ¨Panama Papers in 2016¨ and the ¨FinSen Papers in 2020.” There is no further information providing evidence of these sources being credible or even believable. Without credibility from the author, it makes the message weaker and makes me (as the reader) wary about what I’m being told. There are multiple times where the writer adds ¨We noted¨ which isn’t an unbiased use of evidence because it limits the facts and only shows what that writer decided was important.

I fear that readers are being misled with possibly false information due to the lack of evidence. Readers should consider the legitimacy of the articles they read. If no one questions the things they read, then censorship will become necessary to stop the public from viewing the wrong things.

As a 14-year-old who will see the effects of misinformation, I encourage readers to take note and challenge questionable writing like this article.

Salvador Ramirez San Pedro HS

Dear Mr. Ramirez,

We appreciate the vigor through which you read Senior Editor Paul Rosenberg’s story. There appears to be a part of the story you failed to notice--the subhead to the headline: Prescription Drug Costs, Wildcat Strikes, Google’s Union-Busting and Racism in Forced Sterilization Project Censored’s Top 10 Stories Show Old Patterns Alive and Well. Rosenberg’s story was a summation of recently published book called Project Censored, which documents deserving stories that have received little exposure in the mainstream media. If you’d like a copy of the book is available for purchase at the our office at 1300 S. Pacific Ave.