Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!panix!gcf
From: gcf@panix.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: misc.headlines.unitex moderator RESIGNS
Message-ID: <548@panix.UUCP>
Date: 20 Nov 89 12:16:58 GMT
References: <3708@ccnysci.UUCP> <2388@stl.stc.co.uk> <9739@zodiac.ADS.COM> <5408@cps3xx.UUCP> <9813@zodiac.ADS.COM>
Reply-To: gcf@panix.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Organization: Beauty in the Beast
Lines: 57

)>)In article <2388@stl.stc.co.uk> "David Wright" <dww@stl.stc.co.uk> writes:
)>)>So how about it?   Should we really let this news group die?

)>charleen@ads.com (Charleen Bunjiovianna) writes:
)>)Yes.  It should never have been created.  Opponents of the creation of
)>)misc.headlines.unitex feared that it would be a political tool, and as
)>)Patt has so amply demonstrated by her resignation as moderator, that's
)>)exactly what it is.

)In article <5408@cps3xx.UUCP> gcf@frith.UUCP (Gordon Fitch) writes:
)>I don't understand the proof here.  Actually, I don't understand
)>the one of the definitions: "political tool."  Can someone 
)>explain?  And how that connects with Patt's resignation, etc.

charleen@ads.com (Charleen Bunjiovianna) writes:
)Sorry, I don't have articles handy, so there is no "proof."
)My none-too-perfect memory seems to recall, though, that some
)of the people who voted NO on misc.headlines.unitex were concerned
)that the net would be distributing UN propaganda.  I certainly thought
)that some UNITEX articles were deliberately slanted.

I'm sure UNITEX articles were slanted; so are all other articles,
with the exception maybe of things like the maps.  This in itself
would not make UNITEX unique.  Actually, keeping UNITEX off the
net is as much an act of propaganda as putting it on the net.

)How does this tie in with Patt's resignation?  Did she not resign
)because she was pressured by the powers-that-be to publish certain
)kinds of articles?  Did she not attempt a political power play of
)her own by declaring the newsgroup dead simply because she was
)stepping down as moderator?  I don't recall any discussion over
)installing another moderator, just her startling announcement that
)she was picking up her toys and going home.

The only article from Patt I saw said she was resigning for two
reasons: unspecified disagreements with the Unitex people, and a
heavy workload.  This is not exactly a power play in the usual
sense of the words.  The power play followed.  Although she gave
two weeks' notice, so to speak, the group was _immediately_
removed without any attempt to find another moderator.

In summary:

1.  Anti-Unitex people militated against its creation, saying it
would be propaganda because in came from the U.N.

2.  It was voted in anyway.

3.  At the first opportunity, an anti-Unitex person destroyed it,
before another moderator could be found.

Who's being political?  Who's playing power games?

These questions are only partly rhetorical.
-- 

*   Gordon Fitch || gcf@panix | uunet!hombre!mydog!gcf   *