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Brendan, I can't read the speech balloons on my monitor. However that works.

I heartily encourage you at cartooning, and in general, the future of print as a political influence looks much stronger and longer than broadcast, I think.

Here's an update in the deathwatch on broadcasting news's suicide.

The Art of Manufactured News By Joe Mandese -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/28/2005

“Now…News from the Net,... for infants. Hi, I’m Kate Brookes with News Break.”

So begins a 30-second commercial break that, at first glance, looks like so many network news updates. ...But she doesn’t work for a network, despite the official-looking logo and anchor backdrop. She is hawking ... (product), in this case for the company that employs the “expert” being interviewed....

The spot, bought by a public-relations company instead of an ad agency, is the latest twist in the morphing of news and public relations. As the media world assesses new ground rules, producer Medialink Worldwide says “branded journalism” is the best way to advertise in a splintered market. Instead of sending out video news releases in hopes that stations and cable networks will air them, PR firms are actually creating the newscast, then buying spots on networks the way a Madison Avenue firm would. If viewers were confused before, they’ll certainly have a hard time discerning news updates from mini-infomercials now.

The creative and contributory lives of citizens, on which democracy is built and in which it stands, are characteristics of American society now in critical condition and near death from an accidental overdose -- of the narcotic TV drug; vegetative potato-people.

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