Currently the House and Senate are moving forward with two bills. One of these bills, the, authorizes indefinite military detention of US citizens. The other bill, the, gives the US government broad powers to block any website.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

How did we get here?

I think the answer is revealed when you ask: Are the majority of my friends and family aware of these bills?

The informative quality of news in the US is dangerously low.

In theory, the laws of a democracy are those that are desired by (or at least tolerated by), its citizens. However, this is only true to the extent that the citizens are informed and participate.

Ownership of news media in the US has been substantially consolidated over the last two decades. At the same time, news programming that once focused upon events of historical significance has been replaced with a focus upon entertainment or contentious political divisions.

At face value, this change in news programming has supported divisive politics, and has left US citizens less informed. However, news is not neutral. News programming is determined by companies that make money by selling advertising. Often, newsworthy events are not in the interests of a media company, or its sister companies, or its advertisers. As a result, coverage is reduced, or analysis is biased in the company’s interest. The effect of this bias becomes more pronounced with media consolidation. As the number of media companies is reduced, so do the potential differences in the interests of these companies. As a result, news programming in the US has become simplified and sanitized.

Loss in pluralism in news media results in an ill-informed public. When the public are not informed, it is easier to pass laws that are not in their interest.

Without pluralistic news sources, laws that are not in the interests of US citizens will continue to be introduced and passed. Eventually, the laws of the US will not reflect the will of US citizens. Instead the laws will reflect the will of those that determine the news.

One day, most Americans will point at us in the news media and say, ‘Why didn’t you tell us? Why did you encourage all that partisan bile and venom? Why did you feed us all that trivial crap, when so many terrible things were converging?’ And no one will be happy with the answer. Least of all those of us who offer it. ‘What we gave you,’ we will say, ‘is what you wanted.’

-Ted Koppel