The free press has all but disappeared. The news is often little more than a means of controlling the message. Entire areas of the country have experienced an information blackout. Many frightened citizens rely on bloggers, face book, twitter and text messages as their only source of news and information. Open warfare rages below the Rio Grande.The Houston Chronicle reports that. After years of relative calm, the gangland nightmare is back-and yet, barely a single mention of the clashes here has been made by local radio and television or newspapers. The city's journalists, having lost some of their own and seen their colleagues across the country killed or kidnapped, have been silenced for fear of their lives."Nowhere is the media controlled more than it is here," said one reporter, who stressed he would face serious danger if identified. "There is total control."In border towns like Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Reynosa and numerous others, gun battles between the...(Read Full Post)