From: lucifer@dhp.com (lucifer Anonymous Remailer)
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 21:38:25 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Internet knuckle-dragging from the New York Times
Message-ID: <199706251312.JAA24535@dhp.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Declan McCullagh wrote:
> 
>  It was the New York Times, which had front-paged a scaremongering
> above-the-fold article by Christopher Wren:
>   http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/062097drug.html
> 
> Then the Boston Globe's technology reporter, Hiawatha Bray, leaped in...
> 
>  Every time a journalist
> writes a story about the seamier side of the Net, somebody complains that
> this will give outsiders the wrong idea.  Nonsense.  I think what really
> worries you is that such stories give people the RIGHT idea--that there are
> sex fiends, dope smokers and would-be Unabombers on-line.  Well,  there
> are.  And as long as there are, journalists will write about the fact.

  "And when somebody's mother gets machine-gunned in the street, we'll
send some joker with a Brownie (camera) so you'll see it all complete."
   - Frank Zappa, "I Am the Slime" (That crawls out of your TV set)

  A person unfamiliar with technology might have trouble knowing if
they have hit the correct button to switch from the "snuff-flick"
video they were watching to the news channel.
  Take pity on the Times and the Globe. After all, they have to
compete with headlines such as "I Cut Out My Baby's Heart and
Stomped On It!" (National Enquirer) for the public's hard-earned
dollars.
  As far as Bray's view that journalists know the RIGHT idea of how
things should be viewed, I would be the last one to suggest that
he is a FUCKING FASCIST JOURNA-PROPA-GANDIST who attributes RIGHT
ways of viewing an issue as a divine right of journalists.

  Most journalists are similar to lawyers, it may be their job to
take one stance/view today and another one tomorrow. If Timothy
McVeigh's actions had resulted in sweeping government changes
which led to the halting of all government abuses, then we might be
seeing stories reflecting McVeigh's regrets about the children
present. {cut to picture of Timothy playing with neighbor's
child}
  Journalists have to maintain a facade of self-importance in
order to be able to live with the fact that the eloquent expose
they have worked on for a month might get thrown in the crapper
if Elvis is spotted on the internet shortly before press time.

TruthMonger