Most contemporary news junkies are aware of the organisational biases affecting their media sources for news. We also know that media organisations are savvy enough to exploit public sentiment and other flavours of the week to overinflate convenient themes and events in their stories. However, in cases of self-censorship, most news organisations condunct their activities under the radar. To a generation well-versed in most radio, television and newspaper tactics, the practice of self-censorship by contemporary media outlets may sound benign or even promising. In practice, the opposite is true: much of the news which the mass media chooses not to publicize is not frivolous. Such news items are ignored because many media organisations are institutions themselves--which is not so surprising if you've noticed the rising hegemony in the current trend of media conglomeration. Hence, stories that undermine authorities and interests supported by mass media syndicates are routinely smothered; it's like organized crime with data. Rather than delve into a long Chomsky-esque essay regarding the role of mass media in playing apologist and aide to private and governmental institutions, let me simply direct you to Project Censored's newest publication: Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003. Obvioiusly, some of these stories may exhibit a reversal of mass media's tunnelvision (#5: The Effort to Make Unions Extinct). However, you'd be hard pressed to find a list of as significant, yet unheralded, stories anywhere else--#6: Closing Access to Information Technology should send a shiver down your spine.