Broadband internet – vital to a democracy?

As I sit through this circus which they call the John McCain/Sarah Palin candidacy, a thought popped into my head (as thoughts tend to do sometimes).  I’ve read several articles and blogs which make the case for the necessity of broadband internet being accessible to all Americans.  Local governments depend on broadband internet as part of their operational infrastructure.  Much of our commerce takes place online.  Barack Obama has made incredible use of it in his presidential campaign to raise funds and give volunteers the tools to organize amongst themselves.

As I was reminded of these articles, something else occurred to me: the internet is an excellent information source for fact-checking politicians.  While it was once the responsibility of the press to have an objective and critical eye on those who run for public office, today’s mainstream media has mostly negated that responsibility since they are now accountable to their shareholders and not the public that they serve.

Therefore, if you want solid, credible information that is unfiltered by blowhard talking heads posing as reporters, the best place to seek out this information is on the internet.  Obviously, not all of the info will be correct, but if you seek it from credible sources and look at the information with your own critical eye, you will certainly be a more informed voter.

Informed voters are critical to the success of a democracy.  The present-day Republican party would never succeed with an informed electorate.  Watching the convention speeches and hearing lie after lie after lie would be incredibly funny if people weren’t buying it; however, many people did.  They are counting on their uninformed voters to win this election.  Lying and throwing Sarah Palin into the mix as an attractive distraction is their last best hope to keep their power.

I have perused many blogs, and I see a whole slew of intelligent and informed people who can see what’s going on.  Many of them are acting as journalists and doing the job of the press for them.  This is extremely comforting to me on some level.  However, without knowing the exact statistics, I’m sure there are many people who simply don’t have internet access and are more vulnerable to falling for what they see on TV.  Therefore, I get the feeling that the informed voters that share information over the internet are only talking to each other and not getting the message out as far as they could.

The press isn’t doing its job to keep this democracy alive, and it won’t as long as corporate media consolidation is in play.  If by a huge stroke of luck we manage to elect Obama and take our democracy back, I wonder which will take a shorter time to accomplish: the dismantling of corporate media consolidation, or the expansion of broadband internet accessibility.  I have a feeling the latter is true.

I realize that just because people have the internet doesn’t mean that they will seek out information that has an impact beyond nude Britney Spears photos posted on TMZ.  However, I think it’s a good start, and anything that can get us started in the right direction is ok with me.

For an excellent site that keeps an eye on the mainstream media and instances of lacking investigative reporting, go to Media Matters for America.