From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@snark.imsi.com>
Date: Wed, 11 May 94 07:28:42 PDT
To: dmandl@panix.com
Subject: Re: Here they come...
In-Reply-To: <9405111416.AA03845@disvnm2.lehman.com>
Message-ID: <9405111428.AA12782@snark.imsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



David Mandl says:
> In today's New York Times: "Anarchy, a Threat on the Electronic
> Frontier," by Peter H. Lewis.  It's kind of a scare piece on how
> flame wars, abuse, and out-of-control sociopaths are destroying the
> self-regulating Eden of the net.  The piece itself is more or less
> "neutral," in classic NYT style, but it can also be seen as the first
> rumblings of a call for some kind of "responsible regulation" of the
> net.

The Times has two beat reporters for cyberspace. They are Peter Lewis
and John Markoff.

Markoff's pieces in the times show remarkable understanding of the
issues, but Lewis's make it seem like he's never even logged in. I
suspect he has, but he shows no signs of actually "living" in our
world. I really find it horrifying that in three articles on the
subject he has yet to explain the fundamental problem with the jerks
at Canter&Segal, and even whitewashed their disbarrment in Florida in
today's piece.

There is a difference between "neutral" reporting and uninformed
reporting.  Peter Lewis hasn't really shown much of a comprehension of
what the fundamental issues he is supposed to be reporting are.

I encourage people to feed Markoff their interesting scoops and tips,
and for people being interviewed by Lewis to ask why Markoff isn't
covering a piece. I haven't anything against Mr. Lewis personally, but
he seems more interested in finding juicy stories than in producing
good stories. Maybe he'll change as he learns more about the beat he's
covering.

Perry