The Free Press. What a joke. What a fucking joke. Maybe we never really had a free press. Maybe it's just another one of the lies we've been bottle fed since birth.

For instance, since I was a child I was told that the First Amendment defends freedom of speech, specifically: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It was a great idea. Too bad it's no longer true.

If you were to buy a little, local radio station and change the format of it from Christian Rock to Labor Awareness, the FCC would shut you down so fast, you wouldn't even know what happened, and they'd probably throw you in jail for good measure.

Free speech my ass.

We may have 'freer' speech that some other countries, but I strongly doubt that we're Number One on the 'Freedom of Speech Top Ten.' France, Britain, Spain, Germany, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands�I really don't think that our freedom of speech index has anything on them.

The only people in this country who think we have freedom of speech are the ones who have never seen fit to challenge the status quo of the powers that be; once you have done that, as I have in my very humble way, you will soon become the target of harassment and subterfuge the likes of which you only thought existed in the movies.

When a person speaks his or her mind and suffers some sort of mental or physical harassment as a result of it, then they do not live in a country that embraces and defends the freedom of speech.

For instance, this summer, while moving, I mailed myself some notebooks and journals care of the United States Post Office. Somewhere along the way, somebody opened the box, took out half of the notebooks, taped the box shut, and sent the remainder to me, apparently in an effort to give me a 'hint.' I'm convinced that whoever did that to me did it with deliberate forethought, and if they were not agents of an official governmental entity of law or investigation, then they were probably closely associated with that entity if only in a civilian role.

Had I the money and the time I might be able to hire a lawyer or an investigator so that the USPS would actually respond to my letters instead of blowing me off as if I were a bothersome, insignificant gnat.

Which leads me to the next revelation I'd like to share with you.

Here's America's real First Amendment: "No Money, No Rights."

One could infer that this could be extended to read, "Much money, many rights; little money, few rights."

Taken a little farther, and written more specifically in regards to the press, it could read, "The press's rights of expression are directly proportional to the collected wealth of the owners, shareholders, and advertisers of any given medium: e.g. a national news medium would be owned by, and cater to, a handful of very wealthy people whose financial interests are of a national scope - whereas a regional or local form of news, if not already a subsidiary of the aforementioned national medium, would be owned by, and therefore cater to, comparatively less wealthy people."

Laugh if you want, but despite the errors in syntax, that formula is fairly accurate.

The modern American press, especially the televised and radio broadcast version of the beast, is about the closest thing to pure, calculated propaganda there is.

In summary, if you really want to know what the hell's going on in our country and the rest of the world, don't waste your time watching syndicated network television.