Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

September 27, 2013

Censored News 8th Birthday: Changing the Face of News

Top Story: Lakota blockade tarsands trucks in 2012
Censored News contributors changed the face of news

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Censored News is celebrating its 8th birthday with 2.5 million views and sends a thank you to each contributor of Censored News.
Topping the list of the top ten most viewed articles at Censored News are the Lakota protest actions.
The number one most viewed article was coverage of Lakotas at Pine Ridge blockading the tarsands trucks, and their arrests in 2012. There were 22,000 views.
Next was the coverage of Lakotas and Dakotas facing off with white supremacists in Leith, North Dakota, on Sunday. The series on the Wikileaks cables and US spying on Indigenous Peoples, with six months of research by Censored News, follows.
The top ten include the video of the Lakota elder who discovered the initials of KKK carved into him in a Rapid City hospital. Next, is the Censored News original article showing Mexico's corruption in the dirty coal industry and destruction of Indian sacred lands with mining. The article came after Anonymous hacked e-mails in Mexico and placed those online.
The banning of books written by Chicano and Native American authors by the Tucson Unified Schools, when it eliminated its Mexican American Studies program, follows. Wikileaks exposure of wiretaps of Mohawks in 2010 was next.
The exposure of Arizona Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain attempting to steal Navajo water rights by Dine' Ed Becenti was next. After a leaked memo on Censored News, the Secretary of Interior resigned. Articles on Native Americans efforts to protect San Francisco Peaks from Arizona Snowbowl's destruction in Arizona, and protests of Peabody Coal, also topped the list of reader favorites.
Censored News was created in 2006, after I was censored and terminated by Indian Country Today, after serving as a longtime ICT staff reporter. Censored News was created to reveal the news that is censored by ICT and most of the mainstream media in Indian country.
Censored News has been published without advertising or grants, primarily with my own funds, which were totally depleted two years ago.
Hopefully, a newspaper or online media will follow, covering these issues on a national and global scale. The key will be to provide writers and photographers with salaries, and the costly expenses for travel and equipment. This new media is vital for truth and media integrity in Indian country, which has been degraded by widespread plagiarism, censorship, manipulation and deception.
Thanks to each of you, writers, photographers, sources, leakers, supporters, videomakers, readers and friends of Censored News. You know who you are. You have helped changed the face of news.
Special thanks to our longtime contributors, including Kahentinetha at Mohawk Nation News; Debra White Plume and Owe Aku International; Ofelia Rivas and O'odham Voice against the Wall; and Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Supai, Pueblo, Mohawk, Pomo, Cree and Anishinaabe contributors.
Special thanks to the Native youth media in Flagstaff, Arizona, including Indigenous Action Media, Outta Your Backpack Media, and Save the Peaks Youths. A special thank you to our hard working translators Christine Prat, French, and Alice Holemans, Dutch.
Special thanks to the Zapatistas, Mohawk Warrior Society, Dine', Hopi and Lakota medicine people, and traditional Indigenous grassroots people for their guidance.
We continue.
Censored News Top 10 Reader Favorites
(1) Lakotas arrested blocking tarsands trucks on Pine Ridge, by Brenda Norrell with contributing Lakotas at the scene, special thanks to Debra and Alex White Plume, Ironshell family, and other Lakota contributors, Censored News, March 5, 2012
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/03/lakota-arrests-underway-halting-xl.html
(2) American Indians Protect Treaty Territory; Lakotas and Dakotas faceoff with white supremacists in Leith, North Dakota, by Brenda Norrell, special thanks to Last Real Indians, and Unedited Media livestream, by Censored News, Sept. 21, 2013 updated:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/09/american-indians-protect-treaty.html
(3) Wikileaks revealed US espionage of Indigenous Peoples, series by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Dec. 29, 2011
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2011/12/wikileaks-revealed-us-espionage-of.html
(4) KKK carved on Lakota elder in Rapid City hospital, special thanks to Candace Ducheneux and Cheyenne River contributors, April 25, 2012
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/04/kkk-carved-on-blind-lakota-elder-in.html
(5) Hacked e-mails reveal Mexico manipulating climate change, destroying Indian sacred lands, by Brenda Norrell, Censored News Feb 14, 2012
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/02/hacked-e-mails-reveal-mexico.html
(6) Banning of books signals revolution in Tucson, by Brenda Norrell, special thanks to Mexican American Studies students, Three Sonorans news, Roberto Rodriguez, Acoma Pueblo poet and professor Simon Ortiz, and more, Censored News, Jan. 14, 2012
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/banning-of-books-signals-revolution-in.html
(7) Wikileaks: Canada's unauthorized wiretaps of Mohawks, by Brenda Norrell, Censored News 2010
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/08/wikileaks-canadas-unauthorized-wiretaps.html
(8) Arizona senators coming to steal Navajo water rights, by Ed Becenti, Dine', Censored News, April 3, 2012
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/04/arizona-senators-coming-to-steal-navajo.html
(9) Native youth drummers attacked by Snowbowl supporters at city event in Flagstaff, by Protect the Peaks, special thanks to Klee Benally and Native youth media in Flagstaff, Arizona, Censored News, Feb. 10, 2013
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/02/native-youth-drummers-attacked-by.html
(10) Navajos, Appalachians protest Peabody Coal in St Louis, protesters arrested Snowbowl protesters arrested  by By Derek Minnow Bloom, Black Mesa Indigenous Support, Zach Chasnoff, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, Jan. 25, 2013, Censored News
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/01/navajos-and-appalachians-protest.html

Articles censored by Indian Country Today 2004 -- 2006:
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/

Censored News Top 10 for 2012: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/12/censored-news-most-censored-in-2012.html

The top countries reading Censored News are the US, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Russia, Netherlands, Ukraine, Australia, and Poland. Recently, China has been one of the top ten.

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 31 years. During the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation, she was a reporter for Navajo Times and stringer for AP, USA Today and other media. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored and terminated in 2006. She created Censored News, now with 2.5 million pageviews, and without advertising or grants. 

brendanorrell@gmail.com

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