[1474] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: So what is the answer?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joe Abernathy)
Thu Oct 10 04:01:29 1991
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 91 00:00:00 CDT
From: edtjda@magic322.chron.com (Joe Abernathy)
To: uunet!looking.on.ca!brad@uunet.UU.NET
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
Brad Templeton writes:
>People rage at you instead of reason because you continue to focus in
>your writing on what most people who are actually witness to the facts
>consider a minor issue. They think you are being sensationalistic, and
>appealing to the purient interest to the detriment of almost everybody.
That's a really good point, Brad. And I think that I might be able to
follow it with a vignette that may actually shed some light on things.
Another reporter came by to ask what I was working on today, and I
told her about the query I'd posted and this most unusual response.
The interesting thing was when I told her about how pornography had
caused TENET to suspend Usenet access almost immediately upon being
activated.
She said, "That's an incredible story. When are you going to break it?"
This woman has won more awards than anyone else in the building. She's
our top reporter, bar none, and arguably the best investigative reporter
in Texas. She reeks of Politically Correct Thought, she's widely loved
as a champion of the downtrodden.
And she couldn't understand why I wouldn't go for the jugular on this, until
we'd had a fairly lengthy discussion about trying to get it into the broader
context of the truly amazing fact that all of the parents and classrooms
in Texas <are even getting access to this network>.
You want to talk about the appearance of sensationalism? I've got 210
colleagues here that are going to have Sun workstations dropped in their
laps momentarily. It ought to be fascinating when they find out what
they'll do in addition to word processing.
Best Regards,
Joe Abernathy edtjda@chron.com
Special Projects P.O. Box 4260
The Houston Chronicle Houston, Texas 77210
(800) 735-3820 (713) 526-9711
