Content Industry Conspiracy

So...I was reading through the article "Wired Shut" and came accross the point in the article that discusses how industry groups (content owners and technology manufacturers) got together to come up with a plan to protect digital broadcasts. The industries got together to discuss what would be the most advantageous plan for themselves, came to a self-serving agreement, and then presented that agreement to the FCC to endorse. I am doing my paper topic on the effect of the DMCA on fair use, and many of the articles/books that I have read have discussed how members of the content industry got together to come up with a plan to protect themselves from the great threat of "piracy". This group then presented this plan to Congress, which pretty much signed off on it, and it became the DMCA. I am just wondering who is looking out for the public during the planning and enactment of all of these schemes to change copyright law? It seems to me that it is Congresses' job to balance the public interest with the rights of copyright owners; after all the original purpose of copyright was to benefit the public. Congress seems to have done a poor job of protecting the public interest, but they have done a really good job of protecting industry interests.