[952] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Privitization is the issue today
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Pettitt)
Fri Jul 12 04:15:27 1991
From: John Pettitt <jpp@bugs.specialix.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 08:08:46 BST
To: Eliot <lear@turbo.bio.net>, edtjda@magic322.chron.com
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
Eliot to Joe:
> You ought to listen, learn, and ask questions instead of writing on
> that which you know very little about.
Hey people - lighten up ! I don't know how much dealing with the
press some of the contributors to this discussion have had but
several things should be pointed out:
1) You can NEVER win a fight with a newspaper - the retraction (if
you get one at all) is alway on page 50 in 6 point type !
2) Joe's article was very well balanced by the standards of some
that have appeared in the UK press over the last 3 weeks on the
subject of USENET.
3) SEX sells papers ! The amount varies with the target market
(Supermarket Tabloid to Quality Daily) but the basic premis holds
true. Here was an opportunity to write a story that will go down
well with a right wing readership and include a `long haired students
& 60's wierdos want nothing but sex' angle: does anybody think
that they would pass that one up !
Perhaps if less effort was spent on being outraged and more on
trying to present a positive image: E.G. (Child/Dog/Money) saved
by use of network. :-) well 1/2 :-)
He was probably put up to it by the 900 and 976 suppliers who
could not stand the competition from the network :-) :-) :-)
--
John Pettitt
Specialix International
jpp@specialix.co.uk
