The fundamental problem of modern American democracy is -- "we don't know what we don't know." Some years ago, I read about a newspaper in a country that had just become a totalitarian state. One day the state censors arrived and told the newspaper what stories could or could not be printed in that day's newspaper. When the paper was finally printed, the editors chose to leave the space originally occupied by each censored story blank. Thus the people reading the paper could tell that most of the news they were supposed to getting had been censored.

So here I am, a common citizen of the United States. As a person who came to maturity in the years before the Mainstream Media was corrupted by money, by market share, and by a particular economic point of view, I understand that I still need to know the truth about my country so I can make well-informed decisions about my country's future.

But truth is a very illusive thing. How will I know it when I see it? Perhaps I should ask for something less -- how about simply the best understanding I can obtain on the reality of the World around me? But even this is not that easy to come by. For reality in this world of ours is not a black or white situation -- there are many shades of gray.

Some of you may be surprised that the links I have provided in these portals are to organizations and to voices I believe are the enemies of democracy in this country. To know how to fight an enemy, you must be able to understand the enemy. To know the issues, you must be able to understand the issues. In fact in some cases I believe we will find there is more agreement on the issues than the black-or-white differences in ideology would indicate. We cannot run this country by shouting at one another. We must engage in reasoned discourse.

This is one of the great failures of the Mainstream Media in the current era. Where is the critical, but the fair and the objective description of the well organized and well-funded radical right wing in this country? I don't want to be told they are nasty people, I want to know what they believe in and I want to know the nature of their goals.

Where is the newspaper, magazine, or journal article which critically, fairly and objectively describes the beliefs and the goals of the "Fair Use" Movement? Do not tell me they are bad people who, because they are bad, I must oppose and I must fear. Tell me what they stand for and what they oppose and I, as an informed common citizen, will make my own decisions.

Where is the media coverage of federal, state, and local court decisions and federal, state, and local judges? Judges deemed "activist" by a Republican Senate have difficulty being nominated and confirmed -- and this story receives no attention in the Mainstream Media. Judges who are very active judicial conservatives and libertarians are never examined by the Mainstream Media to determine the role of ideology, if any, in their decisions.

In recent months, the public health community in the United States has finally come to the realization that gun violence, and in particular, handgun violence is a costly epidemic threatening the very health of the country. Does anyone doubt that if every newspaper in the United States published a weekly national and local scorecard of deaths and injuries due to gun violence that the American people would soon understand the dangers of unregulated handguns and automatic weapons? Does anyone doubt that the same scorecards would show that hunting rifles and shotguns are a minor part of the gun violence problem? Why isn't the Mainstream Media printing such a scorecard?

The League of Women Voters (LWV) supports the use of statistical sampling in the Year 2000 census. A major opponent of this is the radical right wing organization called the Southeastern Legal Foundation (the SLF). So the LWV is right and the SLF is wrong on this issue? Probably so, but not because the SLF is a radical right wing organization.

In the March/April 1999 issue of the LWV magazine National Voter, there is a long article on Census 2000. It begins by stating the reasons why the founders believed a accurate census every ten years was necessary -- and that an accurate census is one in which the census accurately reflects the numbers and the conditions of the people of the United States. But there has been a persistent problem in census-taking since the first census -- undercounting. Even this would not be too large a problem if all sectors of our people were undercounted by the same amount. This has not happened. As the National Voter article says,

This was discovered during a national crisis -- the Second World War. When the draft was initiated in 1940, and information on the draftees was collected, the reality of the census undercounting was immediately apparent. The National Voter article continues:

Those three sentences alone encapsulate the Year 2000 Census controversy. When we needed them, the uncounted were there. And even when they are not counted, as is the case today, they are still there.

The National Voter magazine, however, is fair in its article about Census 2000 because it also presents the views of the Southeastern Legal Foundation and whatever national and regional interests that Foundation represents.

But how many people receive the National Voter and how many read the article? Where is the coverage of the article in the MainstreamMedia? Unfortunately, the League of Women Voters makes the National Voter available for downloading as a PDF file months after a particular issue is printed and distribututed to LMV members. There are two problems with this. First the each issue is downloaded in its entirety, making for a large PDF. Second, we all will have to wait several months until the March/April 1999 issue can be downloaded and then linked to a Watchdog Portal.

If this occurs, then they may recognize they are doing a major damage to American democracy and to the democratic traditions of this country. In the meantime, we have to provide an alternate means to fair and objective information about this country.

For in the final analysis, the function of a Watchdog Information Portal is to link us "common American citizens" to the information we MUST HAVE if we are to be well-informed and capable of making good decisions about the future of our country.