Neal Bowhay, Myocum
I have lived in the Shire for over 20 years and from the beginning enjoyed reading the independent and alternative local Echo. That appreciation has dramatically declined. The Echo now seems stuck in the past, arguing ‘left wing’ mainstream agendas, believing itself edgy by supporting legalisation of marijuana and adopting an outdated stance affording credibility to the theatre of two-party politics.
It seems nobody in your editorial department bothers to read outside the corporate news, resulting in you pushing vaccines with no investigation into the unelected Big Tech/ Pharmaceutical influence behind them that has censored hundreds of brave doctors and scientists, risking lives and livelihood to question what is becoming increasingly mandated (eight million videos contrary to the mainstream COVID narrative have been censored from YouTube alone).
The Echo displays no awareness of the massive protests against worldwide policies, hundreds of thousands, or millions, on the streets in the UK, Europe and to a lesser degree, Australia. Or the court challenges that are springing up internationally in the fight to preserve freedom of speech and movement. Or even the mainstream revelations about the collusion between Fauci, the CDC, Google, the CSIRO, WHO, etc, in the Wuhan Gain of Function scandal. Or the role of 5G in all of this (yes, I dared to say it, in your eyes I must be a nutter). On these fundamental issues The Echo is either mute, derisive or actively hostile, leaving a large percentage of the Byron Shire unrepresented and disenfranchised.
The Cairns News is a local newspaper that addresses issues of contemporary importance, exercising its independence. Fox and Sky news are increasingly relevant in their reporting, while The Echo falls into tired anachronism and divisiveness, which entertains only a part of its demographic.
Even worse than parochial irrelevance, The Echo is now actively trying to dob in local businesses to the police for expressing anti-Echo views! That is what inspired me to write. What kind of community newspaper have you become?
In praise of investigative journalism, diversity of opinion and a community that embraces all!
♦ Ed note: In The Echo, like the community, there are different points of view, but we are all committed to expressing this diversity of beliefs on the causes of, and best responses to COVID-19; including the conclusions of the taxpayer-funded scientists we all pay to extensively investigate these issues.
Those who read opinions they don’t agree with might gain more understanding – even if they may not agree with your opinion – that 5G played a role in what you call the ‘Wuhan Gain of Function scandal’ – at least they know what you think! People have views others would call ‘nutty’ on fundamental issues like climate change, entrenched racism in Australia, social inequality, homelessness or Middle East conflict, or even on global banking and conspiracy theories, and you’ll read many of them in The Echo, even if you prefer Murdoch’s papers, or Fox and Sky News.
One opinion, that is quite nutty, is that The Echo has ever dobbed anyone in to the police for ‘expressing anti-Echo views’ – the police would probably give them a medal.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
