[8340] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
WSJ Technology supplement
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Mon Nov 15 14:05:07 1993
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 14:04:07 -0500
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: clocke@panix.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Christopher Locke's message of Mon, 15 Nov 1993 11:21:03 -0500 <199311151621.AA20976@panix.com>
>Are we seeing confirmation here that the Journal perceives the
>net as competition, and is positioning itself against the
>inevitable attrition of readers it expects to this new medium?
>;-)
I think a well-worn bit of wisdom from the newspaper biz is that a
paper will publish glaring 72-point headlines about their own demise
if it will help sell papers (in fact, I think the NY Post recently did
that, repeatedly.)
More likely (and I've seen the articles) they were reporting the truth
as they saw it. I bet someone at a major competitor to internet (and
they do exist) drew the exact opposite conclusion ("hey, a whole
*section* on this internet crap! whatta those guys in Gore's pocket or
what?!")
It'd be fun to think there are star chambers where "the truth" is
manufactured in devious and conspiratorial ways but unfortunately the
reality is much more mundane, most of the stuff was probably written
by staff writers and freelancers whose only real contact with
editorial was getting the assignment, described in very general terms,
and polishing the copy at the end.
Even the use of the phrase "the Journal" in the above belies a common
illusion of confusing the thing and the thing contained (i.e.
describing it as one entity soas to imply it has one mind and one
will.)
-Barry Shein
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