At 12:53 PM 8/4/99 , Nick Patience wrote:
>At 12:37 PM 8/4/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>Ronda:
>>
>>The magazine you were dealing with could just of run out of space to print
>>the op ed. That does happen at the last moment.
>>
>>Have you tried asking them to run it again, in another issue, or have you
>>recieved a definate no on this.
>>
>>Has anyone else had this sort of problem with the press?
Yes, Jeff,
I've been involved in the DNS wars for
two and a half years, and I've seen many
examples of media bias.
In fact, I just recently posted several
examples of media bias to this list.
More below . . .
>>Regards
>>Jeff Mason
>
>Yeah, well this is my problem with these recent press censorship
>allegations. Mags have deadlines and demands that have to be flexible - eg
>Tina Brown cramming in an 'essay' about JFK Jr at the last minute to shift
>a few more copies.
>
>Sure it might be a global conspiracy, it could also just be the regular
>timing problems associated with publishing magazines, especially physical
>ones where printers and distributors are involved. As Jeff, says ask them
>again and see what they say.
It's a two and a half year timing
problem?
Sorry Nick, I don't buy it.
It's amazing how many people believe
that the press is not biased. We have
a long history which suggests otherwise.
Yesterday, I posted the story of "Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington". It's one of
my favorite movies, and it highlights
the power of the press from way back
in 1939.
Even so, many will refuse to believe
that this level of coordination can
exist in a free press. I guess it is
because it challenges everything we
believe about the way our world works.
But, you can't deny the evidence!
Here's what a reporter from the
Spotlight wrote:
At 01:33 PM 7/29/99 , spotlight special wrote:
>There is nothing theoretical about a biased press. Evidence is in
>mountains that even the blind can "see."
>As one newsman who covered the Weaver-Harris trial with me said,
>"Freedom of the press belongs to its owners."
>I didn't think there was a single individual left on the planet who
>didn't understand the total bias of the establishment press.
>There are hundreds of journalists who quit because they became tired of
>their non-politically correct stories being spiked at the top, more
>often by the publisher than the editor, even.
>Get real.
>
>Tony Blizzard
For the un-initiated, the Spotlight is an
Alternative Press outlet:
http://www.spotlight.org/
They, along with other Alternative Press
outlets, were added to my private distribution
list earlier this year, when I suspected that
we were going to have another media blackout
shortly.
Obviously, they *are* reading my email.
Hopefully, they will do a full expose
shortly.
Respectfully,
Jay Fenello
President, Iperdome, Inc. 404-943-0524
-----------------------------------------------
What's your .per(sm)? http://www.iperdome.com
"Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one."
-- A.J. Liebling----
>Nick
>
>
>
>>--
>>Planet Communication & Computing Facility [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>Public Access Internet Research Publisher 1 (212) 894-3704 ext. 1033
>>
>>On Wed, 4 Aug 1999, Ronda Hauben wrote:
>>
>>> U.S. Press Censorship of any Criticism of ICANN
>>>
>>> Press Censorship of criticism of ICANN is rampant in the U.S.
>>> A while ago I wrote to a computer trade magazine that played
>>> an important role in reporting a story about some problems
>>> in making the cutover from NCP to TCP/IP and asked if they
>>> would be willing to run a story investigating what was happening
>>> with the creation of ICANN. The editor I wrote to told me
>>> that I couldn't do that, but that I could do an op -ed as
>>> long as it was limited to a certain number of words.
>>>
>>> At first I found it difficult to do the op ed as it is hard
>>> to write something short that is also specific. However, I
>>> finally did something and sent it to the editor. He referred
>>> me to the new op ed editor. The new op ed editor asked me
>>> to redo the Op Ed. I did. He said it would be accepted and run.
>>> Then 2 hours before he would be running it, he told me to
>>> rewrite it, cut the word count, and answer a number of questions
>>> he gave me.
>>>
>>> I did so. Got it back to him in the 2 hours. And he wrote me
>>> back that he wouldn't run it.
>>>
>>> I had thought that op ed's were to be alternative viewpoints.
>>>
>>> It became clear from my experience in accepting an invitation
>>> to do an op ed that that isn't true, particularly for the
>>> computer trade magazine that I was working with.
>>>
>>> Following is the op ed I ended up writing, as a result of
>>> all the rigid requirements I was given. I thought it should
>>> circulate despite the censorship by the computer trade magazine.
>>>
>>> Ronda
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Is ICANN out of Control?
>>>
>>> On Thursday, July 22, 1999 the U.S. Congress held a hearing
>>> on the subject: Is ICANN out of control? It was held by the
>>> Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House
>>> Commerce Committee.
>>>
>>> ICANN or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
>>> was created in Fall '98 as a private sector non profit
>>> corporation to take over ownership and control of certain
>>> essential functions of the Internet. These functions include
>>> among others, the IP numbers, the domain name system and root
>>> server system, and the protocols.
>>>
>>> It is good to see the beginnning effort by the U.S. Congress
>>> to investigate what has happened with the creation and manipulation
>>> behind the scenes of ICANN.
>>>
>>> Such investigation is needed. But it is only the beginning of the
>>> needed government effort to find a solution to the controversy
>>> over ICANN. The hearing was a very meager beginning of the kind
>>> of study and input needed by Congress to understand the problem
>>> that ICANN is creating for the Internet community. Unfortunately,
>>> with a very few exceptions, most of the witnesses were supporters
>>> of ICANN, or were involved in protecting their own stake in
>>> gettting a piece of the wealth from transferring essential
>>> functions of the Internet to the private sector. Some Congressmen
>>> asked good questions. The absence of witnesses who would be able
>>> to help to identify the problem, however, showed the pressure
>>> by those who feel they will benefit from the privatizing of what
>>> has functioned effectively as a public sector responsibility.
>>>
>>> ICANN was created in the midst of a controversy over what would be
>>> the appropriate institutional form for the ownership and control
>>> of these functions of the Internet that are crucial to its
>>> operation.
>>>
>>> At an ICANN meeting in January of 1999, a panelist from the Kennedy
>>> School of Government, Elaine Kamarck, explained that the nonprofit
>>> corporate form was inappropriate for the administration of
>>> functions like those that ICANN will be controlling. Since a an
>>> individual's or company's economic life will be dependent on how
>>> these functions are administered, there needs to be the kind of
>>> safeguards that government has been created to provide. A nonprofit
>>> entity, even if it is a membership organization, does not have such
>>> safeguards for the kind of economic responsibility that ICANN is being
>>> set up to assume.
>>>
>>> The development of ICANN over the past seven months has indeed
>>> demonstrated that the nonprofit corporate form, the
>>> structural form of ICANN, does not have a means to provide
>>> internal safeguards to counteract the tremendous power to control
>>> the Internet and its users which is being vested in ICANN.
>>>
>>> Contrary to popular opinion, the Internet is not a "finished"
>>> entity. It is a complex system of humans, computers, and networks
>>> which makes communication possible among these diverse entities.
>>> Scientific and grassroots science expertise continue to be needed
>>> to identify the problems and to help to figure out the solutions
>>> for the Internet to continue to grow and flourish.
>>>
>>> A crucial aspect of the governance structure for the first
>>> 12 years of the life of the Internet had to do with being
>>> a part of the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) of
>>> the research agency in the U.S. Department of Defense known an
>>> ARPA or the Advanced Projects Research Agency. ARPA/IPTO was
>>> created to make it possible for computer scientists to support
>>> computer science research like that which gave birth to and made
>>> it possible to develop the Internet. This early institutional
>>> form made it possible for people of different nations to
>>> work together to build the Internet.
>>>
>>> How this was done needs to be understood and the lessons
>>> learned for designing the institutional form to support
>>> vital Internet functions today and for the future.
>>>
>>> The U.S. Congress needs to be willing to raise the real questions
>>> and to look for the answers wherever they are to be found.
>>>
>>> ---------------
>>> * URL: http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/5106/1.html
>>>
>>> See also: URL: http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/2837/1.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Netizens: On the History and Impact
>>> of Usenet and the Internet
>>> http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
>>> in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>_______________________________
>Nick Patience
>Internet Editor, ComputerWire Inc
>T: 212 677 0409 x18 F: 212 677 0463
>http://www.computerwire.com
>
