Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!plaid!chuq From: chuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Is the news media really that stupid? Keywords: ignornace, money, power, the usual stuff Message-ID: <80985@sun.uucp> Date: 10 Dec 88 04:07:32 GMT References: <6023@hoptoad.uucp> <885@hdr.UUCP> <1116@tank.uchicago.edu> Sender: news@sun.uucp Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Distribution: na Organization: Fictional Reality Lines: 96 >How about this? Give a major newspaper(s) a feed to usenet. Let them >(or a particular reporter) run around reading the news. Some do. Which is one reason why the New York Times beat the rest of the country in reporting the Internet Virus. (hi, guys!). >I'm sure they will find: >1) a wealth of knowledgeable people, And a wealth of loud, over-opinionated, under-informed, stubborn people with axes to grind and special interests to put forward. >2) a great source for diversified opinions Only as long as you agree with the folks in (1) above. (Reference: rec.humor.funny) >3) a gathering of people interested in a particular field (i.e. rec.guns, > soc.*, macintoshes, ibm's, unix, etc.) And a gathering of people who *think* they know what they're talking about and don't. But are willing to shout louder than anyone else to prove it. >4) what this network is really about. It's about a few people who put in a lot of time and energy to try to help the large number of people who quietly read and appreciate what they do. And the few people who do everything they can to screw it up for everyone else. Whether that be personal abuse heaped on any and everyone they disagree with (or THINK they disagree with); massive, random blatherings at great length that drown out with the noise any information in a newsgroup; thoughtless, selfish attitudes (the infamous "I don't like it, so it's useless" mindset); or just being plain noisy and/or obnoxious. It's the small percentage of noisy idiots who make life miserable for everyone else -- the one or two people who think it's their right to shut down newsgroups because they disagree with them, or restrict postings because they don't find them interesting, or who simply try to out-yell anyone who stands between them and their firmly held beliefs. That's what the network is about. Envy, sloth, stupidity, stubborness, ignorance, racism, greed and hate. Also love, caring, joy, happiness, working together, cooperation and friendship. The net is, for better or worse, about life. The problem is that the noisy twits are a lot louder and noticable. It's sometimes hard to remember all the good things. Until the idiots drive all the good people away and win by default. >Agreed that a reporter using news may be inappropriate within the charters >of the net, but wouldn't that free up many confused or ignorant >conceptions about us? What charters of the net? We're getting back into implicit ethical agreements for the use/abuse of USENET, and the reality is there are none. They're welcome to use this stuff any way they see fit. If you don't agree with that, just try to stop them. Rules without police is like having sex from across the room. The sex sounds like a great idea, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I leave you with a little parable. A dog and a cat were sitting on a beach, talking to each other. The dog looked at the cat and said "I'm a better animal than you are because I can dig a hole in the ground faster and deeper than you!" The cat thought about this a second, and then replied "But I'm a better animal than you are because while I my hole digging is slower than you are, I can still dig the hole eventually. But I can also climb trees, which you could never do." At this point a duck walked up and looked at both the dog and the cat. "I'm better than both of you!" he declared. "For neither of you can swim as well as I can, and that's only skill that matters!" The Dog and the Cat both laughed at the duck. "We can swim as well as you! And let us have a race to prove it!" So they agreed to swim from the shore to a buoy that was anchored a distance away and back, and the winner would be declared the best animal of all. All three animals jumped in the water and swam to the buoy, neck and neck. When they reached the buoy, however, they found they were in a massive rip-tide. "Woe is me!" cried the dog. "What shall we do now?" "Oh, did I mention that I can also fly?" asked the duck? And he took wing and flew to the buoy, where he sat and watched the dog and cat float out to sea, where they drowned. I leave the moral to you. Chuq Von Rospach Editor/Publisher, OtherRealms chuq@sun.COM When you're up to your *ss in alligators, it's hard to remember your initial objective was to drain the swamp.