It sometimes seems as though quite a lot of the issues affecting Internet freedoms tend to be largely ignored or "under-reported" by the MSM (MainStream Media), so that we interested parties (Internet users) actually only find out about things at the last minute.
Now why might that be?
...
-IainB
I didn't try to answer my own question, but I have just read where Rick Falkvinge answers it for me - and very cogently, it seems:
Why SOPA-supporting news networks don't mention SOPA.He starts with an arguably valid assumption, which he then substantiates, that there are relatively high levels of
functional illiteracy in some populations, and gives the estimate of being (typically) 50% in the industrialized parts of the world, but Italy being higher - about %57% (i.e., only 43% functionally
literate). He then goes on to suggest that that functional illiteracy was taken advantage of.
He writes of the Berlusconi fiasco: (my emphasis)
On these six [Italian] television networks, the referendum was simply not mentioned. Not once. Deemed not newsworthy.
At the end of the day, this enraged the Italian people enough to bump voter turnout over 50% anyway, and the referendum passed. Very shortly thereafter, having had his immunity revoked, Berlusconi stepped down.
Are we starting to see parallels to the SOPA blackout yet?
Conclusion
If you control what other people know, if you control the village newswell, then you control the entire village. The Catholic Church was in this privileged position before the printing press (which is also why they demanded harsher and harsher penalties — up to and including the death penalty — for unauthorized copying of knowledge in their time).
The one thing that can threaten TV news networks is the Internet and the ability for people to communicate directly, bypassing the judgment of the now-famous 1% to determine what knowledge befits the masses. We learn from history that all such power is always used to maintain and strengthen itself first. So, SOPA basically kills that ability of the everyday person to bypass the 1%.
Therefore, it is in the economic and political interest of today’s newswells to kill a strategic threat to their privileged position, and to act just like Berlusconi did in Italy: to actively not bring the topic up onto people’s radar.
In other words, Corporate United States is just as corrupt as Berlusconi’s Italy was, and is acting just like the Catholic Church did when they tried to kill the printing press.
Worth reading the whole post.
