As we come to the end of another season of "Unauthorized Disclosure," host Kevin Gosztola invited Shealeigh Voitl of Project Censored to discuss the 2025 edition of their annual book, "State of The Free Press." It includes the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2023-2024.

Shealeigh is Project Censored's digital and print editor. She's worked on prior editions of "State of the Free Press," and this year she worked on the 2025 edition as an editor. She also has contributed articles to Truthout, The Progressive, and Ms. Magazine.

During this episode, Shealeigh talks about the impact of the United States and Israel's war on Gaza on journalism. She speaks about viewpoint transparency versus the conventional idea of journalistic objectivity.

We discuss Junk Food News that dominated U.S. news media coverage in the past year—in particular, Taylor Swift. And then the conversation concludes by highlighting a few "Censored" stories from the past year.

In this episode of the podcast, host Kevin Gosztola is joined by Chip Gibbons to discuss Donald Trump, Project 2025, and what Trump's election means for journalists and their sources in U.S. government agencies. Chip is the policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent and the author of the (very) forthcoming book "The Imperial Bureau" from Verso Books. It draws from FBI records obtained through numerous freedom of information requests.

Host Kevin Gosztola talks with journalist Andy Worthington about news involving 9/11 plea deals and President Joe Biden's legacy when it comes to the Guantanamo Bay prison. Andy has long been known for his work reporting on the nearly 800 men, who were detained, tortured, abused, and sent to Guantanamo as part of the global "war on terrorism." We discuss the continued secrecy by the CIA around their confinement, the men who remain indefinitely at the military prison, and the disreputable military tribunal system.

Host Kevin Gosztola welcomes Israeli journalist Gideon Levy to the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss his new book from Verso, "The Killing Of Gaza: Reports On A Catastrophe" (available here).

He is a distinguished and well-known dissenting voice in Israeli media. During the conversation, he describes how there are very few journalists who show interest in the ongoing war in Gaza.

Gideon also addresses attacks on press freedom within Israel, such as the shutdown of Al Jazeera. He recalls how he was banned from a popular liberal-leaning current affairs program because he said Israel's treatment of Palestinian prisoners is as bad as Hamas' treatment of Israeli captives—or worse.

Matthew Hoh, a a former United States Marine, a former State Department official who resigned in protest against the Afghanistan War, and the associate director for the Eisenhower Media Network, returns to the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss the latest terrifying developments in the Middle East. We begin with clips from the conversation that Rania Khalek had with CODEPINK about Israel's war on Lebanon. Rania started this show with host Kevin Gosztola back in 2014, and she's a longtime journalist based in Beirut. Matthew and Kevin also break down the death and destruction of the past week with a focus on the artillery that President Joe Biden's administration has supplied to Israel over the past year. *For the full interview, become a patron at Patreon.com/UnauthorizedDisclosure or subscribe to the show at TheDissenter.org

Norman Solomon, co-founder of RootsAction.org, returns to the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to talk about the afterword for his book "War Made Invisible: How America Hides The Human Toll Of Its Military Machine," which is now available in paperback.
The book is a follow-up to his 2005 book "War Made Easy: How Presidents And Pundits Keep Spinning Us To Death."

In 2023, Norman discussed the book on the podcast. But it was released before Israel launched its genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza. We spend the hour discussing how the US government has worked to make US involvement in the war invisible.

Norman responds to Israel blowing up pagers in Lebanon—twice. This was an act of terror that killed dozens and wounded thousands of civilians. The explosions occurred far away from any battlefield. It was hardly "precise" warfare.

Later in the show, Norman briefly departs from the topic of the war on Gaza to address Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other U.S. officials granting Ukraine permission to launch deadly military strikes deep inside Russia with arms from the U.S. or NATO.

The Movement Media Alliance is a newly-formed "coalition of grassroots-aligned social justice-driven journalism organizations." Each organization in the coalition is committed to growing support for "accurate, transparent, accountable, principled, and just media." Joining the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss the Movement Media Alliance and challenges for grassroots independent media is Lara Witt, the editor-in-chief for Prism, and Maya Schenwar, Truthout's editor-at-large. Both are co-founders of the Movement Media Alliance.

Host Kevin Gosztola interviews Jeff Schuhrke, labor historian, journalist, union activist, and author of Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story Of US Labor's Global Anticommunist Crusade.
Renewed "great power" rivalries threaten billions of lives, along with a host of planetary crises. Within that context, Schuhrke provides an overview of labor history that involves the partnership that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) had with the CIA, the State Department, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Note: This is the free edition of the episode. For the full version, become a patron at patreon.com/UnauthorizedDisclosure or subscribe at TheDissenter.org

Kevin Gosztola interviews Andy Thayer, a longtime grassroots activist and organizer in Chicago. He is part of a coalition called Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws that obtained a permit for the first protest that will take place on Sunday in opposition to the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Andy discusses the formation of Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws and why the coalition is marching against the DNC. He also addresses the rich history of Chicago police attacking protesters and trampling on people's First Amendment rights.

And Andy highlights several additional demonstrations that will take place during the DNC and how the city, even under progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson, frustrated requests for march permits.

On July 29, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected president in a democratic election. The United States government, however, immediately declined to recognize the result and then came out days later with a statement that erroneously claimed Edmundo González, the opposition candidate, had won. González is now effectively the country's new Juan Guaidó. Cira Pascual Marquina joined the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss the Venezuela election and its aftermath. Cira is based in Caracas and a part of Venezuelanalysis.com's editorial team. BECOME A SUBSCRIBER: patreon.com/UnauthorizedDisclosure OR SUBSCRIBE at TheDissenter.org

The movement for fair and equitable policies in United States jails and prisons notched a major victory a little more than a week ago: prison and jail calling rates were cut dramatically by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Joining the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss this victory is Wanda Bertram, a communications strategist for the Prison Policy Initiative. Wanda describes this development as the product of a "decades-long fight for prison and jail communication justice." Wanda outlines the price caps, how something called "ancillary fees" were eliminated, and how most corporate kickbacks were banned as a result of the FCC's order. Later in the episode, Wanda talks about the increased use of prison tablets and the way that jail or prison administrators seize upon this technology to justify doing away with a range of services for detainees or prisoners.

On this week's edition of the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast, host Kevin Gosztola talks with Juan Betancourt and Larry Hebert, who are both United States Air Force members who applied to become "conscientious objectors." Juan and Larry were moved to apply for "conscientious objector" status when they observed the Israeli military's genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza. They discuss becoming a part of a long tradition of U.S. military resistance and dissent. Both interviews were recorded before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington to address the U.S. Congress and meet with officials in President Joe Biden's administration. Given Biden and the wider U.S. government's unwavering support for the genocidal violence against Palestinians, their opposition is courageous and inspiring.

This week, Dave DeCamp, the news editor for Antiwar.com and host of the daily podcast "Antiwar News", appears on "Unauthorized Disclosure" to discuss the latest in the war in Ukraine and a list that a United States State Department-linked group put together, which smeared Antiwar News and hundreds of foreign policy experts, politicians, journalists, and media organizations. David and Kevin describe the absurd nature of this list and particularly how it blames nearly 400 individuals and groups for stalling U.S. military aid to Ukraine. They additionally ask, why did this group put out a list now? President Joe Biden's administration has fueled escalations in the war by authorizing Ukraine to launch attacks against targets inside Russia with U.S. weapons. Given recent developments—and especially because groups like this State Department-linked NGO don't want us to have this conversation, Dave and Kevin spend the rest of the episode discussing what is at stake as the war drags on.

On this week's podcast episode, David Beito, the author of The New Deal's War on the Bill of Rights: FDR's Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance, joined the show to discuss his book. David is a history professor at the University of Alabama, and he spent 15 years researching and compiling archival materials for this thorough examination of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's attacks on civil liberties. During the interview, David describes how historical accounts tend to downplay the racism that drove FDR to roundup Japanese Americans during World War II and put them in camps. He articulates the ends-justify-the-means approach that FDR and his administration had to the New Deal, which helped officials justify trampling rights to privacy and freedom of expression. ***NOTE*** This is the free edition of the episode. For the full interview, become a patron at Patreon.com/UnauthorizedDisclosure or subscribe at TheDissenter.org — https://thedissenter.org/#/portal/signup

You probably know that Kevin Gosztola spends a lot of his time covering the political case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Given that Assange was granted an appeal hearing (the first positive development in a long time), he invited London-based journalist Mohamed Elmaazi on the show.

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Mohamed covered the latest Assange hearing at the British High Court of Justice for The Dissenter—another reason why it made sense to offer him a platform to share his reporting and analysis of what happened.

During the episode, Mohamed breaks down the specific legal issues that were at issue and will be part of Assange's limited but important appeal. A particular problem for the United States government is the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Mohamed and Kevin highlight why this appeal could finally be an opening for defeating the U.S. government's push to extradite Assange and put a journalist on trial.

In this free edition of the "Unauthorized Disclosure" weekly podcast, Kevin Gosztola talks with CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former State Department diplomat. Medea discusses CODEPINK's actions on Capitol Hill against U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza. Ann offers an update on efforts to break the siege with the Freedom Flotilla. Both Medea and Ann respond to the propaganda coming from President Joe Biden's administration that justifies genocidal violence as well as the climate of repression that is intensifying daily. In particular, CODEPINK and other U.S.-based nonprofits face a bill in Congress that would potentially result in their organizations being labeled "terrorism supporters" if passed.

For this episode of "Unauthorized Disclosure," Kevin Gosztola speaks with Khawla Nakua, an organizer with the National Writers Union (NWU) and a criminal justice reporter.
Nakua joins the show to discuss a report from NWU called "Red Lines: retaliation in the media industry during the war on Gaza."
The NWU "tracked 44 cases of retaliation that impacted more than 100 media workers, who are disproportionately people of color," according to the report. Retaliation has particularly impacted media workers of Middle Eastern or North African descent.
Nakua describes the different types of retaliation that media workers have endured during Israel's assault on Gaza and addresses the intense climate of censorship. Various examples of retaliation mentioned in the report are highlighted throughout the conversation.

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Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola interview Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández about two documentaries that cover United States policy toward Cuba. Liz, who worked with Belly of the Beast on the films, obtained a visa to travel to the U.S. and confront the very politicians, who are behind the embargo and other measures that disproportionately impact Black Cubans. She spent time in Washington, D.C., and New Jersey, where she spoke to a number of everyday Americans about their attitudes toward Cuba. The first film, "Hardliner on the Hudson," premieres on May 13. It covers corrupt Senator Bob Menendez and his instrumental role in shaping the U.S. agenda against Cuba. The second film, "Uphill on the Hill," examines the "political interests" that have led President Joe Biden to "embrace Trump's economic war on Cuba." It premieres on May 20. Both films will be available on the Belly of the Beast's YouTube channel. *SUBSCRIBE for full episodes and early access to episodes at TheDissenter.org **BECOME a Patron at Patreon.com/UnauthorizedDisclosure for full episodes and early access to episodes

On this week's "Unauthorized Disclosure," Kevin Gosztola interviews Greek economist and author Yanis Varoufakis about his new book, "Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism." Yanis argues that "Big Tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and [cloud] rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power." Later in the show, Yanis outlines the impact this economic transformation has had or may have on geopolitics. He discusses China, the only country with cloud capital capable of rivaling the United States, and what the rivalry between China and the U.S. may mean for the Global South. *This is the free edition of the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast. For full episodes and access to exclusive content, subscribe to the podcast at thedissenter.org/#/portal/signup **Become a patron at patreon.com/unauthorizeddisclosure ***Donate to support the show at thedissenter.org/donate

For this week's episode, journalist Patrick Winn, who has lived in Bangkok for 15 years, joined the "Unauthorized Disclosure" podcast to discuss his new book, "Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA."
Patrick is a correspondent for NPR's The World and specializes in reporting on black markets and rebellion in Southeast Asia. He gained special access to the Wa people, who are "among the most vilified people in Asia if not the world." The Wa established a nation state in Myanmar. The nation state exports billions of dollars of heroin and meth every year, and it is controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
But as Patrick outlines in the interview, the United States has its fingerprints all over this narco-army. "Not only did the CIA create the conditions for its inception, but one of its foremost leaders was also a DEA asset."

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