walter@sumax.seattleu.edu (walter) (12/29/90)
This morning, I ran across the following report filed in Olympia,
Washington by the Associated Press. Why this story was filed from Olympia
is not at all evident from the story. More on this in a moment. What
follows is a segment of the same story -- published and released around
3:00 AM in Olympia TODAY.
======================= TEXT BEGINS ==============================
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Subscribers to a nationwide computer network
contend the owners are taking a byte out of the First Amendment by
censoring the network's electronic bulletin board messages. But officials
for the Prodigy network, which provides consumer and information services
to several hundred thousand subscribers, maintain they have the same
right as newspaper and broadcast executives to "set boundaries" on the
exercise of free expression. An electronic communications law expert
agreed, saying the challenge for Prodigy is enforcing standards tough
enough to avoid lawsuits sparked by bulletin board content. "They should
be able to forbid ... whatever they forbade in their subscriber
agreement," Dallas attorney Benjamin Wright said Thursday. But subscriber
indignation has been flowing for weeks into the electronic bulletin board
Prodigy sets aside for complaints. "Censorship is the most un-American,
communist thing in the Prodigy service, "wrote subscriber Chris Hanke,
who did not say where he lives. "If a member finds anything offensive (on
the bulletin boards) this service should ask them if they still want to
be a member of this service." Subscriber John Gillis likened the
service's editors to "old ladies" afraid of mice. Tha drew a one-word
retort from Ray Bandel, one of the badly outnumbered subscribers who
support Prodigy's standards: "Bull."
================= TEXT ENDS ==========================================
Hoping to find out what connection might exist between Washington
state and events related to Prodigy, I contacted the author of the story
and queried him concerning the story. The reporter's normal beat is state
government in Olympia. Like many reporters, he uses a computer in
connection with his job. Upon purchasing an IBM-PS1, he came into
possession of a trial subscription to Prodigy. His exposure to Prodigy is
mainly what prompted the story he wrote for the Associated Press. The
reporter, unfortunately, is a good example of mainstream press coverage
of computer related events and issues. What the reporter knows about the
Prodigy censorship debate is quite limited. In my conversation with him,
it was evident that he is unaware of other controversies relevant to
Prodigy. (i.e. the flak over private E-Mail surcharges and possibly the
advertiser boycott attempted earlier this year) His overview of the
censorship controversy is that some editors at Prodigy have simply acted
with too heavy a hand and/or without properly thinking through given
instances where material was not allowed to be posted.
Although the reporter seems sensitized to, and anxious for any
information about, how private E-Mail is handled on Prodigy, (i.e. is
Prodigy respecting the privacy of its subscribers?) his perspective on
the flurry of complaints registered by Prodigy subscribers about alleged
censorship appears to center on freedom of the press. In other words: the
reporter feels that it is Prodigy's legal right to edit what is available
on their service -- excluding private mail. When confronted with the free
SPEECH issue and the notion that Prodigy might be within its legal rights
but setting up a philosophically distasteful method of putting its best
foot forward, the AP reporter agreed. However, it was my impression that
he had never identified this particular problem on his own. In fact, he
commented that I had said "something profound" when I pointed out that
Prodigy may represent OR present us with a set of circumstances where the
right to free speech and the right of an editor to exercise free press
may be at odds.
The reporter has since been empowered with contact information that,
hopefully, will allow for some enlightenment. Let's assume this shall
happen in due course. Let's also not assume that the reporter is a black
hat when it comes to coverage of Prodigy and alleged censorship. Instead,
he epitomizes a key problem amongst the mainstream press that the EFF is
attempting to deal with AND THAT WE ALL MUST HELP WITH IN OUR OWN WAY!
For the most part, *WE* are experts on computer telecommunications. *WE*
are the experts on what little "electronic community" exists in this
country. It is up to *YOU* and *ME* to help provide *ACCURATE*
information to those who are ill-informed as to all or as many aspects of
a given issue or event as is possible. The matter becomes even more
critical when the ill-informed are responsible for passing on information
they've gathered to the general public. If *WE* do not do this, *WE* ---
I say **WE** condemn ourselves to a continuing cycle of incomplete and
therefore inaccurate information along with a lack of critical insight
into what the important issues are and how they weigh out against each
other. The continuation of the cycle aggravates the very problems we
might wish or attempt to solve. When you encounter someone who doesn't
seem to have all the clues, please ***POLITELY*** clue them in.
Walterjet@karazm.math.uh.edu ("J. Eric Townsend") (12/30/90)
In article <aqHXu1w163w@halcyon.uucp> halcyon!walter@sumax.seattleu.edu (walter) writes: >"Censorship is the most un-American, >communist thing in the Prodigy service, "wrote subscriber Chris Hanke, I fail to see how a model of economics promotes censorship. If you're going to talk to the media, don't say truly boneheaded polemic things. Especially if you want "our side" to have any chance of winning. -- J. Eric Townsend Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Systems Mangler - UH Dept. of Mathematics - (713) 749-2120 "If you are the system administrator and this is the first time you are logging into your system, use the login name root." -- IBM RS/6000 docs
zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Sameer Parekh) (12/31/90)
You say we have to do all these things. . . HOW? I have been asking myself this question many times? I tried to get some people actually doing something on the Ripco //, but no one seems willing to work. . . -- zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM