Maher is woefully misinformed on the gravity of SOPA's reach. I think his position goes well beyond simply playing the role of devil's advocate. He has (had?) a personal stake in the issue because of his own personal media ownership. He really shouldn't have brought it up without researching.

I watched this on Movie Central as part of my cable TV package. I tend not to buy/rent stuff when there's plenty to watch on cable anyway. But much like Metallica, his stance on piracy has likely alienated his own fans. I bet he hopes people quickly forget what he said here.

One thing thats been on my mind is the future of journalism in America.

About the war, everyone says, 'Where were the journalists? Why did journalism let us down?'

Its a complicated problem, but the heart of it is corporate media ownership. News media still treads lightly on politics, for fear of lost revenue. A complicating factor was how readily disinformation was given out to the press by this administration, and how hard they still make it to find the facts. Even with hard-won facts in hand, you are the minority against the deluge of news sources who are publishing what they are given (and not risking loss in shareholder wealth). So even then your story is marginalized.

What can we do in the future? The only steps I can think of are public financing through taxes, as in PBS, but thats hardly a solution... any ideas out there?