Freelance writer Nicola Cutcher sent this message, which links to a piece she wrote for Comment Is Free, at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/23/iraq

In Australia we are yet to feel the complete savagery of the medical profession's insatiable desire for personal wealth. There is no better place to see this in action than in debates, discussions or news release about health insurance.

The specialists and hospitals funded by 'private' sources have a vested interest in ruling the roost. They start by assuming that any form of public health can not be as 'good' as what can be provided by private enterprise. But you have to pay for the best.

A loyal reader of Flat Earth News sent in the following short extract from "Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism" by Greg Grandin. You'll see that it merges some of the book's themes about the pressures of churnalism with the production of propaganda.

Here's a link to a very interesting and revealing investigation by the New York Times which uncovers the way in which the US media have been using supposedly independent military experts to analyse news stories a) generally without disclosing that these experts work for military contractors who have a commercial interest in the activities they are covering, and b) apparently without realising that these experts have been briefed and substantially misled by the Pentagon. As the New York Times puts it: "A Pentagon information apparatus...

I have finished the book and in a way I am relieved by the treatment of Rupert Murdoch. Being an Australian it seems fascinating how one of our own (formerly) can cause so much damage on an international scale. The book seems to focus on the chaotic but still planned nature of the assault on reason and responsibility rather than some conspiratorial view of what is happening. However, even paranoids have real enemies and despite what Mencken says in the quote close to the end of the book.