As the United States grapples with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s living legacy of systemic inequalities, and partisan threats to the foundations of democracy, the integrity of news—the focus of Project’s Censored’s work and this book—has never been more important.

State of the Free Press 2024 continues Project Censored’s tradition of publicizing the most important stories ignored or obscured by the news establishment, exposing the lies and spin of corporate Junk Food News (frivolous stories that distract the public from actual news) and News Abuse (important stories covered in ways that undermine public understanding) while promoting the best independent journalism, research, and activism.

This 2024 edition includes independent investigative reporting on issues and topics that reflect recurring patterns of indirect censorship in corporate news coverage, where the outlets failed to provide the coverage and context that these stories deserved based on their social significance and relevance to current political and cultural debates. Most importantly, this edition helps endow readers with the critical media literacy skills required to hold power to account for distorting or censoring news coverage.

State of the Free Press 2024 is a joint production of The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.

ANDY LEE ROTH is associate director of Project Censored and coordinator of the Project's Campus Affiliates program. His work has appeared in YES! Magazine, In These Times, and scholarly journals. MICKEY HUFF is the director of Project Censored and president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. Since 2009, he has coedited the Project Censored yearbook. He is also coauthor of United States of Distraction (City Lights, 2019) and the forthcoming Let’s Agree to Disagree (Routledge, 2022). Huff is professor of social science, history, and journalism at Diablo Valley College where he chairs the journalism department.