[net.general] Malicious rumor does not belong on the net

norman (10/10/82)

I am in the unfortunate position of feeling it necessary to  draw
your  attention  to  a  disgraceful  and irresponsible comment on
net.news in order that I might state strongly my public disappro-
val  of  it.   I am referring to a submission to net.general from
"rusty," alas, someone at  my  own  University  (but  not  on  my
machine,  thank  goodness).  Rusty decided to broadcast a comment
about Joseph Weizenabum that I consider to be without taste, pos-
sibly libelous.

I wish to make the strong statement that it is improper and inap-
propriate  to use public nets (or any other communication medium)
to make snide and irresponsible comments about individual people.

The fact that I know (and like) Joe Weizenbaum is  not  relevant.
I  happen  to disagree rather strongly with some of his opinions.
That  is  not  relevant  either.    Nonethess,  given  that   the
irresponsible message has been broadcast, I think it important to
state that whether or not you agree with his position,  he  is  a
very  fine  person,  with  high  moral standards, who has had the
courage to state his moral concern about the social  implications
of our work and of developments in computer technology.   We need
more discussion on these issues, not less.

The important point is that regardless of whether or not we  know
the  person,  the  spreading of malicious gossip and name calling
has no place on a public network.

Donald A. Norman          (ucbvax!sdcsvax!norman or norman@nprdc)
Cognitive Science C-015
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093
(714) 452-6770