Without even getting into the last eight or nine months of blunderbuss advertising for war, with its attendant weapons of mass doo-daa, the Mayberry Press has now taken to reporting only what the recent topics of conversation happen to be at Floyd's Barber Shop and Goober's Garage, and even these tidbits are cherry picked with benchmarks provided by Washington.

By now, it should be obvious that we've gone far beyond John Swinton's famous 1853 speech about the lack of journalistic freedom.

Even long winded people like Senator Byrd, a man accustomed to reciting Greek tragedies on the Senate floor, is finding out what it's like to shout into the wind with about as much chance of being heard as a fart in a hurricane.

We just went through a pure economic power play by the federal government that wasn't even mentioned by the press, not a peep until the last minute, the last week or so, when the usual propaganda about "default" was discussed at the barber shop. Suddenly, the so-called watchdogs picked up on that, but still failed to recognize that the credit card expired three months ago on February 20, 2003, and absolutely nothing was done about raising the national debt limit when it is one of the easiest actions Congress and the administration can take, even easier than raising their own salaries.

Every state, city, county and local governmental entity in the nation, already reeling under greater unemployment and a shortfall in tax receipts, was further affected by this power play when federal funds were cut off and went elsewhere. But that fact wasn't mentioned, probably because the Fourth Estate was told to keep its mouth shut at a time when Bush was buying "the coalition of the willing."

Maybe we finally paid Spain for Hawaii, the Philippines, American Virgin Islands, and other territories seized in 1898, another very short war prompted by a mine floated up to the battleship Maine while anchored in Havana Harbor, another old weapon of mass destruction that, almost a hundred years later, turned out to be an inside boiler-room explosion. Oh well, "Remember the Maine" and take vengeance.

To make matters even more ludicrous, on Friday, May 30, 2003, the Associated Press came out with an article by Alan Fram that blames the public for not paying attention to soaring deficits and not having concern about the national debt.

Can you beat that? It's your fault for not paying attention to what's been happening and ignored by the likes of Mr. Fram, a person who "has reported on Congress and the federal budget since 1987." How dare you be more concerned with your job, family, and keeping your own head above water when you should be following the government's wild spending.

No doubt Mr. Fram believes the public was clamoring to do something about Saddam Hussein a year or two ago and before the press started beating the drums of war.

Here's the way Mr. Fram starts out: "Federal deficits are soaring to unprecedented heights, yet they are drawing scant public attention and showing little sign of becoming an issue in next year's presidential and congressional elections." Later, he gets into how deficits cause the national debt to rise and the almost one trillion increase that the government just granted itself for more borrowing.

Without giving credit to the Washington Post that first broke (on Sunday, May 25th on page 9 of its Financial Section) the story that we would reach this new debt limit by next summer, Mr. Fram merely claims that the government will have borrowed the entire $984 billion by "sometime next year."

Obviously, this reporter has forgotten the prime directive of investigative journalism and expects the public to direct him on what's important news. He is absolving himself and washing his hands of all responsibility to do anything but mimic politicians or deliver what the ministry of propaganda wants.

Unfortunately, the Associated Press is the wire service used by hundreds of newspapers across the country. You can expect Mr. Fram's article to appear in one form or another in your local paper or snatches of it to be used by your own local reporters.

Someone once said that if you can control the press you can control a nation. I don't recall who said this, but it's becoming truer every day.