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Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.
In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with Andy Lee Roth of Project Censored about the State of the Free Press 2025, marking 50 years of tracking underreported stories.
“Censorship by proxy… corporate entities… are in effect doing the dirty work of the government.”
Then, Michael Ellsberg discusses Truth and Consequence, a powerful collection of writings by his father, whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, exploring moral responsibility, war, and resistance.
“What do you do as an official when you realize that the policy that you are enacting is crazy or immoral or evil?”
Together, these conversations examine the forces shaping what we know—and what we don’t—and the landscape of moral choice in confronting injustice.
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Tags: free press 2025, media censorship, Project Censored, independent journalism, ICE surveillance, Meta censorship, climate crisis news coverage, Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers, media consolidation, Writer’s Voice podcast, literature podcast, interviews with writers, book author interviews, interviews with authors,
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Segment One: Andy Lee Roth — Project Censored, State of the Free Press 2025
Fifty years after its founding, Project Censored continues to document the most important underreported stories in U.S. media. Andy Lee Roth discusses how media consolidation, “censorship by proxy,” and algorithmic control are reshaping the information landscape.
He highlights key censored stories, including ICE surveillance of critics, Meta’s mass takedown of pro-Palestinian content, underreported police violence, and the climate crisis.
Roth also warns of growing threats to press freedom and emphasizes the vital role of independent journalism.
Segment Two: Michael Ellsberg — Truth and Consequence
Michael Ellsberg discusses Truth and Consequence, a posthumous collection of writings by Daniel Ellsberg, best known for releasing the Pentagon Papers.
The book explores Ellsberg’s central moral question: how ordinary people become complicit in massive harm—and how they can resist.
From nuclear war planning to Vietnam, Ellsberg’s writings challenge readers to confront the ethics of power, obedience, and dissent—and to embrace moral courage in the face of injustice.