A really funny advertisement

I just got the November 14 New Yorker, and it contained a full page add that just struck me as incredibly funny. Next to a picture of a woman who looks like a well made-up hausfrau is this big, bold headline: "NO ONE'S CENSORING HER NOW." Move your eye down the page, and it turns out to be an ad for Mary Mapes' book. More text:

Get the clear, unedited picture of the biggest news stories in the run-up to the 2004 election. Bush and the National Guard. Abu Ghraib. You are given unfettered access to the CBS newsrooms by Mary Mapes, a Peabody Award-winning produce who believes [I can hear portentious music playing in the background] you have the right to know the truth.

What struck me as so funny about the ad -- aside from its abandoning any pretence that CBS was an impartial reporter of the news -- is that headline: "NO ONE'S CENSORING HER NOW." Pardon me, but was anyone censoring her before? If I recall matters correctly, Mapes had the unfettered opportunity to get her "news" on the air, an opportunity she abused by trying to sell the American public on blatantly forged documents. No censorship there. She then had several weeks during which her bosses urged her to support her story with actual facts. No censorship there. Her bosses eventually fired her for doing an abysmally poor job that didn't even meet CBS's currently low standards. I don't consider that censorship either or, if it is, every inept employee who is fired for abusing a position of trust is being censored. It is to laugh, as my friends and I used to say, when we knew something was funny, but couldn't force the laughter out. UPDATE: Check out this Independent Women's Forum post for another funny take on Ms. Mapes' new book.