Mark Twain
A friend has a small quote posted on his wall;
"If you do not read the newspaper you are uninformed.
If you do read the mewspaper, you are misinformed."
- Mark Twain
I don't know if Twain actually said it, but it sounds like something he would say.
The story had me a bit concerned, not so much for the restriction on getting a paper (I don't get them anyway - see the quote), but for the whole national database thing, for printed news, cable TV, Internet?, etc. Especially the part about all citizens having to be approved, but foreign nationals not. That part was especially well done, as it clearly illustrates the idiocy of the control freaks who would want a law "to keep terrorists from getting news" and yet at the same time writing into the law the means for terrorists to get news, without having to be checked, or in the proposed database!
Excellent story, realistic and terrifying. And sadly, not nearly as far fetched as some might think.