WHEN CARL JENSEN , a professor of communications at Sonoma State University, founded Project Censored in 1976, his goal was to shine some light on big stories the major news media ignored – and to make some points about the failure of big newspaper and TV conglomerates to serve the public interest. Twenty-eight years later, with the Federal Communications Commission moving to allow even more consolidation in news-media ownership, Jensen's main point – that the biggest, most important stories are too often overlooked, blacked out, or downplayed by a media establishment more interested in sensationalism and currying favor with the powers that be than in exposing real social problems – only rings stronger.

Just look at this year's list. As Camille T. Taiara reports on page 16, the stories that weren't high on the news media radar include some astonishing stuff: Huge disparities in wealth and income that threaten the U.S. economy. The Bush administration censoring scientists to promote its pro-big business agenda. The wholesale giveaway of natural resources. Stuff that ought to be on the front pages of every newspaper, and leading the evening news on TV, every day during the presidential campaign. And because it's not prominent in the news, the major presidential candidates have been able to avoid talking about these issues.

Part of that – a good part – is due to the consolidation of ownership the FCC wants to encourage. When five big companies own a huge chunk of the radio and TV stations and newspapers in the country, a far smaller spectrum of ideas and opinions gets into print and on the air – and almost nothing that threatens the interests of those megacorporations gets out. The owners of these media outlets are lobbying the Bush administration for tax and regulatory favors – and the administration has the power to grant or withhold valuable broadcast licenses. Why would they threaten their financial interests by publishing and airing material that angers the president? (These big outfits are increasingly bottom line-driven too, and things like investigative reporting, which take time and cost money, are vanishing in the name of higher profits.)

A huge groundswell of public outrage helped force the FCC to slow down its plans to allow even further consolidation last year. But the battle is still on – and everyone who wonders why the big censored stories aren't part of the national debate ought to be calling and writing Congress to demand legislation further tightening the rules against cross-ownership and consolidation of the nation's news media.