The Government Is Spying. Does Anyone Even Care?

It’s been a big week for the large-scale demolition of privacy and the rise of the surveillance state. First, reports surfaced about the tracking of phone calls here in the United States. The larger news involved reports of a seven-year-long systematic sweep of the Internet, code-named Prism, which allowed the government access to e-mails, Facebook accounts, and audio and video transmissions, though only of foreigners. Anthony Romero, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, had strident words of outrage he seemed to have been nursing for months. Many journalists, here and at other outlets, seemed ready to head for the barricades.

On Friday afternoon, a much shorter, more informal sweep of the Internet revealed something like a collective “not now, honey” when it came to stories dealing with massive sweeps of data about foreigners, albeit with the cooperation of homegrown companies such as Facebook, Yahoo!, Apple, and Microsoft. On the New York Times‘ Most E-Mailed list, national security took a back seat to digital password management, Israel, and the neurological effects of coffee. At the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan on the IRS and the cost of health insurance won out; on National Public Radio’s website, a story about selling Coke in Myanmar was a bigger draw. On Businessweek.com, our story about Costco Chief Executive Officer Craig Jelinek was four times as popular as “What You Need to Know To Understand the NSA’s Spying Program.”