Host Esty Dinur has been speaking with Project Censored editors since 1997. Our guests today, Mickey Huff and Shealeigh Voitl, talk about how the media landscape has changed and how Project Censored has adapted to the digital world, news deserts, conglomeration and more. They say critical media literacy is essential to democracy and a pillar of the work they do at Project Censored, including in their new book, State of the Free Press 2025. 
The cover of the State of the Free Press 2025 is a revisioning of the famed painting of “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” It depicts a belief in American exceptionalism and how independent media focus on what the corporate media fails to address. Specifically, Huff and Voitl discuss the way that the mainstream press distorts coverage of the genocide in Gaza through what Project Censored calls “news abuse,” which is reporting on important issues but distorting or misframing that issue. Huff says that when this happens, “today’s fake news becomes tomorrow’s fake history.” 
They also talk about LA wildfires and climate change reporting, Secretary Blinken’s press conference yesterday, and the proposed TikTok ban, and stories of hope and resistance in Project Censored’s top 25 list. 

Mickey Huff is the director of Project Censored and president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. Since fall of 2024, he is also the Distinguished Director of the Park Center for Independent Media and Professor of Journalism at the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. To date, Huff has co-edited sixteen annual Project Censored books and has co-authored several other books on critical media literacy, media studies, and news censorship. He is the founding executive producer and co-host of the syndicated weekly public affairs program, The Project Censored Show, on Pacifica Radio and sits on the editorial board of The Censored Press.
Shealeigh Voitl is Project Censored’s digital and print editor. In addition to her editorial contributions to the yearbook series and work with the Campus Affiliates Program, Shealeigh helped develop the State of the Free Press 2024 teaching guide and the Project’s “Critical Media Literacy in Action” social media series. Her writing has also been featured in Truthout, The Progressive, and Ms. Magazine. She lives in Chicago.
Featured image via Project Censored.
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