From: hallam@w3.org
Date: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 09:36:49 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Shimomura on TV?
In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19960112000749.2b6f98f8@terminus.storm.net>
Message-ID: <9601120038.AA04474@zorch.w3.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>Has anyone heard anything else about this? I am getting real sick of the
>media's portrayal of the internet. They never say anything good about it.

At the last World Wide Web consortium meeting I said that the media were
pumping up the bubble and their favourite game is to see if they can 
destroy what they have the arrogance to imagine they created.

That is why we have to replace the press. Consider this in the next 
election voters on the Internet will be able to read the press releases
of the candidates without the press filtering them. There is the potential
for the internet citizens to participate in shaping the political agenda 
- another role the press likes to usurp for itself.

I recently held a workshop on political use of the Web which was attended
by Republican and Democrat party workers and political activists from
6 other countries. One thing that suprized me was the consensus amongst the
politicians that the differences between them were smaller than their 
differences with the press.

To take one example. A collumnist in the New York Times recently received
much coverage for calling the First Lady "a congenital liar". Yet little 
mention is made of the fact that said collumnist worked for both Nixon and
Spiro Agnew and has never condemned either for their actions. 


	Phill