Echo

 

 

Oh, wow, you guys are gonna seriously dig this episode! We've pulled out all the stops! We hired dancers! We bought a disco ball! There's food and drinks! Everyone's in costume!

 

 

And there's more! We've got---

Oooh, the new issue of Fooksburgh Magazine is here...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Media types have been censored and bullied by their corporate and government masters for so many years, and with such intensity, that a much greater threat to freedom of the press has emerged: journalists censoring themselves.

Journalists have learned that subversive types -- people who want to shake up the system and see justice done -- are ignored by the publications and networks that employ them. In a bitter twist of fate, these days the only way to succeed in the free press is to censor oneself.

 

 

Look! They printed my letter to the editor! *reads* Dear Sir or Madam, Why are there no penguins in your magazine? In the future, please print more articles and pictures which involve penguins. Also, from now on please include more content about Dustin Hoffman. Sincerely, Echo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is reminiscent of George Orwell's famous observation: "Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks the whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip."

That might explain why you haven't heard much about how almost all American weapons --- even conventional ones --- contain traces of uranium, which is a likely cause of the skyrocketing birth defect rates among the children of U.S. soldiers and of Iraqi civilians.

So who's the editor of Fooksburgh Magazine, anyway?

I am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, if you're the editor, why did you write a letter to yourself?

This obedient self-censorship might also explain why the public at large heard nothing, nothing, about my ingrown toenail.

That's the nastiest censorship case of all. The public has a right to know!

Journalists have also kept a safe distance from the controversial appointment of a Christian Scientist to the position of Surgeon General.

A man who recommends prayer for relief of such ailments as endometriosis.

To remind me. I lost my Palm Pilot.

Come on, people, the country is at stake!

Here, look...

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I can't wait to read this.

Uh...so, in lieu of a new episode, Noam Chomsky will now explain the death of investigative journalism