RLn VOTER GUIDE pg. 3 Progressive politics gain ground in 2016 election cycle pg. 6 p
Dustin Trani leaves DOMA, sets sights on new horizons pg. 12 A roundup of art happenings around the Harbor Area pg. 16
Project Censored Turns 40 By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
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By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor and Christian Guzman, Community Reporter
[See Weed, page 2]
[See Censored, page 10]
October 27 - November 9, 2016
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t the Oct. 18 Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council stakeholder meeting, President Mona Sutton read aloud a statement released by Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson, just two weeks earlier. The statement called on the city’s neighborhood councils and citywide committees to discuss the legalization of cannabis. He expressed the hope that this could be a space where community impact statements, white papers suggestions and recommendations could be provided to the Rules, Elections, Intergovernmental Relations, and Neighborhoods Committee — a committee for which he is the chairman.
Voters in three cities in Los Angeles County are deciding whether they are going to take advantage of the opportunities if Proposition 64 passes on Nov. 8. Los Angeles is not among those cities. But that doesn’t mean Angelenos aren’t working on it.
The Local Publication You Actually Read
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Harbor Area Communities Weigh the Costs, Benefits of Prop. 64
wenty years ago, Project Censored founder Carl Jensen looked back on the project’s first 20 years. “The primary purpose of Project Censored is to explore and publicize the extent of news censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for a variety of reasons,” Jensen wrote in the preface to 20 Years of Censored News. “The essential issue raised by the Project is the failure of the mass media to provide people with all the information they need to make informed decisions concerning their own lives. Only an informed electorate can achieve a just and fair society. The war on terror is richly The public has a right to know represented in annual about issues No. 1 censored stories... that affect it and the press has a [whether] during the administration of George responsibility to keep the public W. Bush [or that of] Barack w e l l - i n f o r m e d Obama’s time in office. about those The fact that the stories issues.” For 40 years, change so little, despite a Project Censored dramatic “change elechas been guided tion” reflects both on our by a conception troubled politics as well of free speech and censorship as our failing media. based on a civic responsibility, rather than an individual one, and from the perspective of the audience, rather than the speaker. A free press exists for the sake of the community and the country it abides in. A free press exists not just to tell the community what it may want to hear, but sometimes what is most painful and difficult — yet necessary — to face. This includes shameful legacies like racism and threats to human survival like nuclear weapons or global warming. The unofficial, informal modes of censorship that stifle a free press result in a society whose vitality and capacity to respond to challenges, as well as opportunities, is increasingly undermined.
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