No, but something IS effectively hidden if the main media do not cover it and the vast majority of the citizens of a country are not aware of it on a daily basis, and do not understand its implications.

That's how consent is manufactured. By covering certain news exhaustively and ignoring other news. That's why you will hear a lot about Brittney Spears' personal problems or how Iran is a "threat to the world", but very little about what Mr Bush is doing to establish his dictatorship.

The legal moves that Adolf Hitler and Mussolini made to consolidate their power were not hidden either. They were just camouflaged and justified under rhetoric about other stuff, and the people bought it.