[1465] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: So what is the answer?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joe Abernathy)
Wed Oct 9 16:03:23 1991
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 91 14:03:38 CDT
From: edtjda@magic322.chron.com (Joe Abernathy)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Cc: mcb@presto.ig.com
Michael C. Berch writes:
> I have watched this discussion, without participation, for quite a
> while, since the original controversy involving your "computer
> porn" article for the Houston Chronicle. However, I find it difficult
> to stay out after this. Mr. Abernathy, you have finally overstepped
> the role of a reporter and assumed the role of an advocate. And from
> the courses in journalistic ethics I've taken (B.A. Journalism, Univ.
> of California, Berkeley, 1978) I learned that in doing so you have lost
> whatever claim of objectivity and fairness that you might have
> originally possessed.
> Sir: it is not your job to determine whether alt.sex.bestiality is or
> is not "an indefensible application of public funds", or "an
> indefensible thing to bring into the public schools". That is what we
> have school boards for, and elected officials, and others involved in
> the public policy process. Your role, or so you have claimed, is as a
> reporter -- to give fair and accurate accounts of events, and perhaps
> to analyze them, in areas of interest to your readers, under the
> direction of your editorial management. I was not aware that it was
> within your reportorial purview to render conclusions about
> controversial matters of public policy; perhaps before doing so,
> especially in a public forum, you should check with your editor (I
> certainly will).
It is most certainly my job to understand what is right, what is wrong,
and what is neither -- all of which is what is under discussion here.
There's nothing you can do to intimidate me or dissuade me from doing
my job in what I consider the most responsible fashion possible. And
my idea of responsible doesn't have to match yours.
I don't have a position. Read that twice. I don't have a cause. I
don't disapprove of erotica in adult hands. But when you bring it
into the community I cover, when you do it with government funds,
I'm gonna keep writing about it until somebody settles the issue.
Raging on at me isn't going to solve anything, and every time somebody
rages instead of reasons, it makes me wonder why.
Don't they sell Playboy where you live?
Joe Abernathy edtjda@chron.com
Special Projects P.O. Box 4260
The Houston Chronicle Houston, Texas 77210
(800) 735-3820 (713) 526-9711
