In 1996, Gary Webb, an investigative journalist exposed the CIA’s alleged involvement in the drug trade in his Dark Alliance series. After the publication of his groundbreaking work, Webb faced intense backlash from government officials eager to discredit his findings. His career was ruined, and just eight years later, he was found shot twice in the head.
“I was winning awards, getting raises, lecturing college classes, appearing on TV shows, and judging journalism contests. And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. The reason I’d enjoyed such smooth sailing for so long hadn’t been, as I’d assumed, because I was careful and diligent and good at my job… The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn’t written anything important enough to suppress.”
His death was ruled a suicide, but it raised troubling questions about the lengths to which some will go to suppress inconvenient truths.
While government crackdowns and book burnings once defined censorship, today it’s quieter, hidden in algorithms, corporate policies and digital barriers that suppress critical stories in seconds.
This shift has led many to question whether the truth can ever truly be free.
“There’s so much misinformation running rampant, and it’s dangerous when one person or one company controls what gets seen and what gets suppressed,” said Eric Pierce, longtime editor of The Downey Patriot, a community newspaper and news site that covers Southeast Los Angeles County, home to 2 million people.
Pierce pointed out, “Censorship has definitely increased in the last four or five years. It’s not just governments; now it’s tech companies and large organizations feeling they can get away with it. Misinformation is being rewarded, and independent journalism is being suppressed.”
Pierce added that while censorship is often thought of as a government-imposed restriction, “it exists at every level of the media industry.”
The role of tech companies in shaping the media landscape is critical.
In an article by Annie Palmer for CNBC, published on February 27, 2025. Address recent issues, like subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee to tech giants Meta and X, to show how much control these platforms have over what we see and hear.
The committee is investigating whether foreign governments pressured these companies to censor speech in the U.S.
“Social media companies hold significant power over the information we consume,” Pierce said. “And when they suppress stories, it can change the course of public discourse.”
“There is no such thing as a free press,” said Dr. Michael Longinow, a professor of journalism at Biola University in La Mirada. “It is a fiction, an ideal that we have. There’s always pressure on the press, whether it is the government or your investors.”
Media companies are often owned by larger corporations, which can influence what stories are covered or omitted.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an inquiry into the rise of censorship by tech companies on Feb. 20, 2025, as many people have noted an increase in the restriction of free speech online, particularly as the digital landscape continues to grow.
“It depends on the administration in the White House, but it is not just federal — it happens at the state, county and city levels, too. It is like a cycle that goes up and down. Censorship has definitely gotten worse in the last 20 years,” Longinow said.
When large companies control multiple outlets, from news to entertainment, they decide which voices are amplified and which are suppressed.
“We need facts. We need the truth,” Pierce said. “Without accurate and honest reporting, misinformation spreads unchecked, and people are left confused about what is real and what is not real.”
In some cases, people face real-world consequences for expressing their views, as seen in the case of Maura Finklestein, a tenured professor at Muhlenberg College who was fired after reposting a statement by Palestinian American poet Remi Kanazi criticizing Zionists.
“I don’t really think it’s about me, I think it’s about a larger landscape of repression in the United States” Finklestein says.
“It’s dangerous when one person or one company oversees a specific social media platform because it gives them too much power over what information gets seen and what gets suppressed,”Pierce said, “That kind of control can be dangerous for democracy.”
Censorship may not always be obvious, but it quietly filters or limits information, raising concerns about restricted access to the truth.
As the media landscape evolves, experts warn that the risk of distorted information grows.
In a world where information is shaped, the question remains, will we ever truly know the whole truth?
