[960] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Privitization is the issue today
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard Mandelbaum)
Fri Jul 12 13:36:58 1991
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 12:35:31 -0400
From: Richard Mandelbaum <rma@tsar.cc.rochester.edu>
I have been following the recent interchanges on this subject with increasing
interest. I am curious to know , if there are other forums where
journalists actually defend their views and biases about the articles
they have written in such a public fashion. Generally letters to the
Times or other papers seem to be printed with little or no response
from the Newspapers, especially when the letter is in response to a
"news" article as opposed to an editorial opinion. I know that opinion
magazines, such as the New Republic and others do have reasonably lively
interchanges on their Letter to the Editors page .
I feel that the Internet community as a whole is remarkably naive as
to what the real world of newpaper journalism is about and what is
or isn't fair reporting. If we expect the newsreporters to learn
about our world it makes sense for us to understand a bit more about
theirs.
Without getting bogged down in a discussion of Joe Abernathy's piece,
I think it is ludicrous for us to say,
"We didn't like what you wrote so we won't speak to you ever again"
Is that a reasonable way to insure that we get good reporting in the future?
I think it is a guarantee that we get misrepresented even more!
Sure, quotes from experts and respected members of the community can
be twisted. However if the fourth estate doesn't get cooperation from
the real members of the community, there will be plenty of self-styled
experts who won't have to be misquoted in order to develop a faulty
picture. i, for one, would have no problem speaking with Abernathy,
or any other reporter , irrespective of their previous track record.
I would of course take more or less care with the words I spoke, depending
upon who thje listener was.
By the way the idea of a reporter as opposed to say a biographer giving
one preaproval rights on a story he/she has written seems as ludicrous as
the idea of having appropriate usage guidelines based on content.
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