Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

May 11, 2013

Unspoken Code: 'You Can't Say That' How the media fuels dirty coal

The unspoken code of the newsrooms keeps dirty secrets

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

"You can't say that."
This is the unspoken code of the newsrooms. It is the power that silences the grassroots voices. It is the unspoken code that prevents the truth from appearing in Indian country, and mainstream news.
"You can't say that" is the unspoken code that kept dirty coal flourishing on Navajoland. It is responsible for delivering Native American water rights to the states and the US, by way of non-Indian attorneys who have infiltrated tribal governments.
"You can't say that," is the unspoken code that kept Peabody Coal gouging out the liver of Mother Earth on Black Mesa.
For news reporters and editors, it stems from fear, fear of losing advertisers, fear of angering local tribal politicians, the fear of criticism, and the fear of losing a paycheck.
It is the unspoken code of news rooms everywhere, from Window Rock to Phoenix to New York.
It is the unspoken code that turns reporters and editors into pimps for corporations, politicians, and wars. It is the unspoken code that silences reporters and censors news which could halt abuse and exploitation.
It is the unspoken code which prevents reporters from revealing the longterm dangers to mankind and planet earth from dirty coal power plants, toxic dumping, and nuclear storage. Indian country has been targeted with all of these. 
It is the same unspoken code that allows news reporters to never question where and how the Royal Family of England and the Pope gained their wealth, or who supplied the AK47s to the cartels in Mexico, or how the US can continue targeted assassinations with drones, or why the Canadian mining companies can continue killing Indigenous Peoples.
It is the same unspoken code that led to widespread media silence when elderly farmers in east Texas were jailed, as they tried to defend their little farms from the destruction of the southern route of the Keystone XL pipeline ripping through their property. It is the same pipeline that Obama promoted in Oklahoma.
At Censored News, with your help, we can say that. Today, we share with you the voices of Dine' and truth about dirty coal on Navajoland, the exploitation of Navajos for electricity, and the attempted theft of Navajo water rights by the state of Arizona, and non-Indian attorneys embedded in the Navajo Nation.
"You can say that" and we are happy to share the truth at Censored News.

Dine' Hada' Asidi: Democracy Hijacked
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/05/dine-hada-asidi-democracy-hijacked.html

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 31 years. She was a reporter for Navajo Times, and a stringer for AP and USA Today, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored, then terminated. As a result, she began Censored News, now in its 7th year with no advertising.

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