The Internet: Our Last Hope for a Free Press
I consider the Internet to be one of the world’s great wonders. And also America’s last hope for a free press.
When I was growing up in the 1970s, there were many people with a lot of things to say, but they generally had no platform. That’s why we needed figures like Bob Dylan to be “the voice of a generation.”
The present generation has YouTube, whose motto-irresistible to young people-is “Broadcast Yourself.” So now, for example, a pert 18-year-old known as “AngryLittleGirl” can challenge her peers regarding their lack of critical thinking, especially when it comes to religion, by uploading a video op-ed. As of this moment, her piece has been viewed by more than two million people.
YouTube is but one manifestation of a rapidly expanding “social media” that performs the vital function of promoting honest discussion and analysis at a time when spin, trivia, and advertising dominate the mass market profit-driven mainstream media –or MSM as it is often called on the net. Social media also encompasses web-based interactive communication tools such as blogs, message boards, forums, pod casts, online communities, and wikis.
I have seen bloggers expose mistakes and biases in the MSM within hours or even minutes of an article’s release. For instance, when New York Times science writer William Broad ran a piece deflating Al Gore’s claims about global warming, numerous bloggers pounced on it for being sloppy and skewed. Among them were Robert Dietz and Julie Millican at Media Matters, who documented how Broad had misrepresented the backgrounds of most of the supposedly “rank-and-file” experts quoted.
I don’t know what possessed Broad to so bend his reporting that he would lose credibility across a wide swath of readers (something he has in common with journalist Judith Miller, with whom he co-authored a book), but I do know that the MSM has become consolidated to the point that just a few transnational conglomerates and capital management companies control network TV, commercial radio, and most of our newspapers.
As for the repercussions of this ominous development, John Carroll, former editor of the Los Angeles Times, states them quite clearly: “Gone is the notion that a newspaper should lead, that it has an obligation to the community, that it is beholden to the public.” The current owners, he explains, care only about money, and “are sometimes genuinely perplexed to find people in their midst who do not feel beholden, first and foremost, to the shareholder.”
Bloggers are in an entirely different position: They tend to be mavericks who work for free, and operate far from the sources of power. Feeling no need to ingratiate themselves with the movers and shakers of industry and government, they simply tell it like it is from where they sit as concerned, informed citizens with diverse areas of expertise. Though they don’t often have professional training as journalists, many of them exceed professional journalistic standards, because they answer to their consciences alone rather than to corporate honchos and fund managers. We need to hear from such people, and the fact that there are more blogs out there worth reading than anyone has time to read is a hopeful sign.
Of course, the blogosphere is also filled with nonsense, and worse –as might be expected in any open space that lacks gatekeepers. The all-too-human reality of the web is that the majority of its traffic is directed to sex sites. What’s more, hate groups of all kinds find it a perfect forum to purvey their sick ideas. Even the benign Wikipedia can be used to disseminate false information with an effortlessness that has earned it the gratitude of propagandists everywhere.
How remarkable, then, that out of the cyberslime the lotus of a truly free press has been able to grow. Citizens seeking to avail themselves of the valuable commentary to be found on the web, as well as the fact checking services of legions of bloggers, can learn to easily bypass the detritus and go directly to those sites that offer valuable content.
Where, though, does one turn for in-depth investigative reporting? Though projects such as The Real News Network are attempting to create an alternative, the MSM is still pretty much the only show in town. Bloggers are generally not trained or equipped to do such reporting, and anyway, it´s a full time job that usually requires travel and a support staff, as well as knowledge and contacts developed over many years.
Newspapers carry out at least 80% of primary reporting. And yet the newspapers have repeatedly failed us, sometimes with tragic consequences, such as during the buildup to war in Iraq. In his documentary Buying the War, Bill Moyers (an exception to the rule that there are no outstanding journalists working in television) exposes how reporters at newspapers such as the Washington Post consistently deferred to the wishes of the Bush administration or were tricked, pressured or seduced into doing so. And behind Bush are the huge corporations that helped to put him into power, including those that own the MSM. What’s a citizen to do?
Again I say: go to the Internet. Though it’s worthwhile to read the print publications that pursue quality reporting-and some of the smaller ones really need our support-subscribing is not essential: nearly all of the important articles from these publications may be found on the web, and bloggers often link to them. And besides, there is also some fine web-based reporting, such as (to pick an example that is apropos to this discussion) the Salon piece that dissected and disposed of the myth, perpetuated by the MSM in tandem with then press secretary Ari Fleischer, that the exiting Clinton staff had removed the W’s from their keyboards, and in other ways vandalized government property.
As our titanic democracy is sinking and the band of trivia and denial plays on, each Internet connection can function as an intellectual life preserver. The net has also proved invaluable as a way for concerned citizens to offer support to each other, and to act together for political and social change.
From Salon in 1995, to Common Dreams in 1997, AlterNet in 1998, truthout in 2001, The Raw Story in 2004, and The Huffington Post in 2005, the news coverage on the Internet has matured to the point where we don’t really need to deal directly with the MSM anymore. As my wife says, “No MSG in my takeout; no MSM in my living room.” One household at a time, we’ll escape the grasp of the Rupert Murdochs of this world, at least when they meddle with our freedom of the press.
Mark Klempner is a historian and social commentator. His book The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage was published last year by the Pilgrim Press. He would like to thank Paul Glover and Richard Silverstein for commenting on an early version of this piece.
History offers hope. I’m thinking of the advent of the printing press in Europe in the 15th century (about 600 years after the Chinese invented it, but that’s another matter). Up until then, the dissemination of the written word had been generally in the hands of scriptoria in which nanuscripts were coppied one at a time at great cost. The printing press brought down the financial cost of the written word and made it possible to spread a virtually unlimiten number of copies in a relatively short time. It also gave previously muted voices a forum in which to speak, and made possible, through the sheer power of numbers and accessibility, the translation and circulation of the Bible into the vernacular, allowing any literate person to read and interpret the most important book in that culture. This development effectively broke the power of the theocracy of the age–a corrupt and worldly church–and gave rise to the Protestant reformation and ultimately the enlightenment, the press, and modern democracy itself.
Unfortunately, of course, the press is no longer as free as it ought to be and, in the context of democracy, needs to be. In fact, the tight control that vested interests have over the media reminds me very much of those old scriptoria. The internet is our printing press, and the transformative potential it offers is no less than the potential offered by the printing press itself 600 years ago.
but I await the day when we can all get out again and just live life without having to be glued to any kind of screen in order to arrive at truth and understanding. here’s hoping that day arrives soon.
Access from within the U.S. to the Internet and the World Wide Web can be cut off by the U.S. government whenever it chooses to do so. I don’t know if they can shut it down for the whole world because many servers are now outside the U.S. but they can black us out at the drop of a hat.
If not for the Internet, we’d all be goosestepping with the Shrubster and his merry bank of fascists by now!
Keep the Net free, keep the Net neutral!
This is exactly why net neutrality is so important. We’ve already seen Verizon and other cell phone service providers interfering in phone traffic, for example:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/verizon-blocks-prochoice_b_66058.html
Foreign governments are well known for blocking internet service and connections, and the like of yahoo have aided in such efforts. The worst example at present is Burma:
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/09/28/myanmar-internet-blocked/
Even inside the USA, AOL and MSN are blocking emails from ‘inappropriate news sources’:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/383247/aol_msn_hotmail_wont_deliver_truthoutorg.html
The main group fighting this in the United States is the EFF - see
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070928-eff-sues-the-doj-for-withholding-records-of-telecom-surveillance-immunity-lobbying.html
It’s time for a revolution in communication that doesn’t involve top-down corporate control - at that means preserving the internet as it is, and getting direct person-to-person email and cell phone networks up and running.
The great thing about the internet is that some people can have there all the Britney and O.J. that they want, and some others of us don’t have to.
“Where, though, does one turn for in-depth investigative reporting? Though projects such as The Real News Network are attempting to create an alternative, the MSM is still pretty much the only show in town.”
If you aren’t already logging on to The Real News on a regular basis, I would enthusiastically recommend it. These are real journalists doing real journalism:
http://www.therealnews.com/web/index.php
I agree that the internet does provide an avenue for individual research, and community building. It provides a means by which many can come together and share information. It also provides a means by which we can organize protests and educational opportunites for citizens. Naomi Klein has discussed the importance of this aspect of the internet for the big Seattle protests against the WTO. I believe in an internet without restriction, because I feel it is the last true bastion of free speech.
However, I am concerned that the recent CNN blurb discussing the possibility of a cyberattack by ‘terrorists’ is in fact the preperation of this Adminstration and the corporatized Congress for taking over. Just like ‘free speech’ zones, and censorship of everything else, this false flag operation will provide TPTB the excuse needed to take away this freedom.
I wish I was just being paranoid….
at one time in the u.s., labor unions and granges had their own radio stations and newspapers. the internet, if we can keep it, is vital to be sure, but low-power FM radio can also be an effective community organizing tool.
As a blogger, I try to persuade my wife that what I do is important with precisely the argument you use above. You’ve hit the nail on the head (I wish my wife agreed with you more!).
And thanks for acknowledging my very small positive contribution to commenting on this article.
THough I’m a friend of Mark’s, I highly recommend his book to his other readers here.
I agree the internet is a good thing, however, I’m sure that blogging ideas that are contrary to the fascists regimes like the United States of America will soon be illegal and the blogs and bloggers will be incarcerated, interrogated, and prosecuted(or perhaps just detained indefinitely as enemy sympathizers without a trial). This will take place in 2008 if another repuke is elected. It will be probably be enacted under the guise of protecting, “The Homeland.”
As much as I love the internet, I do not think it is good for democracy (whoa, that should elicit some response).
Why? The internet keeps us off the streets. And that is bad. If we are not on the streets, we are just shouting silently. We need ORGANIZED protest, not couch-potato protesting.
Pleasethink posted the following here to CD on 9/19/07 that I repeat in its entirety. It made such an effect on me that I had to keep a copy, hence I can reproduce it now:
An interesting book by the French philosopher Jacques Ranciere, “Aux bords du politique” (translates as something like, “On the Edges of Politics.”) The point he makes that is so relevant to the situation in the US right now is that governments maintain control by trying to keep people happily employed and dispersed from the town center, so that they cannot gather to discuss and protest (he goes back to the greek root “demos” for democracy, which implied such a gathering). This is THE major way power is maintained and dissent quashed, never even being able to take shape through communal discussion in the town square. This means that the creation of the suburbs and commuting culture was a coup for the elites, as well as, perhaps, the internet, which brings us together but also keeps us separate, in our own private spaces. At least we are talking to each other, but we are physically dispersed.
Having said that, the Govt is only too pleased to have you all shouting silently into your computer screens.
Well said! The internet is our voice, and that is why the corporations want to take it away from us.
this is an important issue, here is the google primer on net neutrality, please read it:
http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html
The Chinese had woodblock printing over 2,000 years ago, but not moveable type, unsuited to Chinese characters.
The internet is a peaceful revolution.
WTF: You made a great, great point. The internet is great for gathering information, but it’s not good for getting things done. Victory takes action, and it takes trusted allies, and it takes aggressive, bold, overwhelming numbers. Numbers are the principal, fundamental advantage the people have over the elites.
Our challenge is to mobilize. To gather, to encourage, to high-five one another on the way to victory.
WTF, I hope you repeat this message far and wide. You’re on it.
Separately, if any of you haven’t yet seen this video of Hilary Clinton using her chilling “laugh” to try to deflect attention from her vote on the Iran quasi-invasion authorization vote yesterday, I heartily recommend that you check this out. You will not see Hilary in the same light again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gQfz8GC0o
Street protests are an irrelevance. They didn’t used to be: the central mechanism of change in a democracy is to communicate with people to ge them to change (or threaten to change) their *vote*. The only way to do this on a large scale is through the media. The purpose of street protests was always to grab a few seconds of airtime so as to broadcast slogans written on banners. That was the whole, entire point. Now that TV is so tightly controlled, there’s just no point waving banners in the steets. So other media must be sought.
As for corporations controlling the internet - before the internet we had fidonet, which was a worldwide BBS which worked by telephone connections. Mind you - now that the phones are digital, even that can be blocked. Consider also “mesh” networks.
To give up on ever having a free press is to give up on ever having a free society.
The internet is no substitute for a free press. It is far too fragmented to be a mass medium. People are very selective in the ways they use the internet, to avoid facts and opinions that upset their own particular worldview, and to obtain confirmation and validation from others who support that same worldview.
Instead of trying to escape into a virtual world of “freedom” we need to turn off our computers and get out into the streets to work to build a truly free society. That’s the only way we will get a “free” press.
While we still have it, let’s use it for all it’s worth. Here’s a link to more information about DU (so called Depleted Uranium):
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/DU.htm
The government does not have to turn off the internet to seal off our last hope to expose the truth. If my computor repair man is correct, and I have no reason to doubt him, they have come up with a far better solution. Remember George Orwell’s 1984? Big Brother spied on the people through their own TV screens.
My technician says you have Homeland Security permanently embedded in Windows Vista to spy on your every click of the mouse. Boy, is Big Brother
watching you!!!
I’m sticking with Windows XP.
You can bet the CIA,NSA,FBI and so on are working overtime on way’s to destroy the internet. Of course I beleieve many of the trolls we see on many sites are operatives. They couldn’t possibly be that stupid without getting paid for it.
The internet is my news source. I hate the mainstream media with a passion.
That said even on the internet I check and recheck various sources and compare them until I can form an opinion on what I believe to be the truth.
We should purge our secret agencies from all news sources, and end the large consolidation of media into a few hands. We need the real news in order to be able to make informed decisions on the many critical issues we now face.
Mark Klempner has rendered a great service drawing attention to the internet’s role in preserving freedom of expression.
WTF: Street protests or any other action is only AFTER acquiring unbiased information, a great weapon for preserving democracy. Thought controllers, Murdoch-like can paralyse an entire society. Internet is the sole saviour. China, Burma and other totalitarian states have understood this well. And hence their obsession to preventing their subjects from knowing beyond what the ‘leaders’ want them to know.
Just follow the Lee Bollinger episode which is hardly a few hours old. The reaction from lay public, as can be seen from comments on the net is at total variance from the main stream media coverage. Does this not tell us something about the ‘objectivity’ of MSM ?
Mark Klempner is exactly right..I am fed a load of rhetoric in my local paper while my countries TV networks feed me Pro Israeli/American propaganda that they edit out from various US network programs…
To learn truth I turn to Commondreams and similar organisations on the internet..HK, NZ.
With no disrespect meant to the author, this essay has most of the serious flaws that Netroot people make about the Web, the Web vs Big Media, and the Web’s role in real power. In other words, not strong on realistic analysis.
What we have is a tool for instantly getting a large number of people together quickly for a particular action or to spread factual information. That’s great and has a lot of potential.
Keep in the back of your mind what many commentators pointed out–the Web can be shut down, shut out, or priced out. We’ve seen the first two in just the last few days: Burma, and China recently blocking 18,000+ selected sites. The 3rd can always be arranged.
Comparing the Internet to Commercial Media is mixing apples and harmonicas. The Internet is world-wide. But it’s also self-selected ghettos. The politicals hang out here, the catlovers there, the firemen someplace else… This means cyber “communities” can be very well informed on topics of their interest, but perhaps not on what they really need to know.
So you’ve got 500,000 (again, self-selected, volunteer) visitors at, say, the leading blog, DKos, every day. I don’t know what the average stay is, but I’ve heard 45 minutes. Let’s give it an hour. 500,000 hours.
Well, that day, about 100 million Americans watched near half-a-billion hours of TV, and the rest of Americans some on top of that. Further a hefty chunk watched a Corporate movie or TV show on DVD. In the course of three days, absolutely everyone in America will learn whatever it is Big Media wants them to know.
Half-a-billion hours a day. 500,000,000 hours. Very conservatively. That’s 1,000 times bigger than the leading blog. How many leading blogs are there? Again, the internet presupposes an active intelligence, and gives information to people who are looking for it. In a few days or weeks or months, something may percolate up into the general publics view. Now and then.
Big media imprints a visceral and subliminal impression–the exact same impression (the Dean scream) on practically everyone in the country whether they want it or not. And can do so at anytime.
So all this business about the Internets huge impact and glorious future seems to me more to do with enthusiasm than sense. And remember, the authorities CAN render the Internet ineffective anytime they choose.
What then is the right relationship of the Internet to Big Media? By which I mean the handful of Corporations, with a compliant Congress, which hold a virtual monopoly on each and everything Americans see, hear, or read. Not only news, but cultural messages imbedded in “entertainment” as well. For example “24″s permission to, and ennoblement of, torture, History Channel’s dutiful promotion of “Wunderwaffen” and glorifications of mass serial-killers like Alexander, and the like.
Well, fine tool that it is, we should be using the Internet, in my opinion, to figure out ways to break apart the Cartels. To force the average American’s way into the public space, through laws, through protest, and through pointed reality piercing the Washington/Media Bubble.
jim p: That the blogs are no match for MSM in their reach is not in doubt. THAT is not being debated. The point being made is that free access to internet is a positive factor, an enabling feature for freedom of expression, which cannot be said of the corporate controlled media. Klempner’s piece is to point out the potential of the internet and, as you rightly observed, “to figure out ways to break apart the Cartels”. And, may I add, to create public awareness against this potential too becoming a victim of moneybags.
I agree that internet access can be switched-off almost instantly. Or, even selectively manipulated such that ‘approved’ information can be disseminated, but all other information (blogs, youtube, etc) can be blocked. Mass media (TV/radio news, newspapers, etc) are easily controlled as well, especially now that a very few corporations have in the past 2 decades come to own the vast majority of media channels.
It’s recommended as many people as possible learn about and use amateur radio. It’s very easy to do now. Amateur radio has world-wide communication and even supports bulletin-board systems (similar to on-line forums and blogs)
Information and the ability to communicate it are two of the most powerful tools against corruption and tyranny. They can help offset the tool of one-way propaganda available to tyrannical and corrupt regimes.
The system won’t let me edit my post above, so here’s a bit more on the topic of amateur radio use by everyday people.
Amateur radio is now extremely easy to learn. The radios now available range from as small as a 4mm thick credit card to the large radios you’ve probably seen in newspapers or news shows while covering emergencies like hurricanes. Some radios can be computer controlled as well. Do an internet search on the subject…you might be surprised.
ggpearl is right in my opinion,
The internet is going to be the last flame of liberty that the bushmonkey is going to extinguish. Frankly I’m surprised he hasn’t done it already, (Maybe it’s because he can’t read….) but he’s not too smart…. just cruel.
Our solution: When he cuts it off: The power of small laptops is becoming phenominal. A New Apple powerbook, has enough processing power to let you use it and also BE a server. It can bypass regular internet (a lan) via it’s airport wi-fi system. So with a little common dreams programing magic, my post will wi-fi over to my nieghbor, and his neighbor.. etc. You don’t need their system.
It is doable. Of course they’ll probably countermeasure by jamming the wi-fi frequencies, then we’ll have to hack the jammers etc, etc…
Never surrender your right to Free Speech, no matter what Nazi law they dream up. We have the right to free speech.
Phuck em!
pac
Just another wing of the world’s examples showing why capitalism is going to fail and fall just like every other empire—It hates truth (like a murderer), hates freedom (like a factory boss), and hates equality (like an emperor dividing to conquer). Vietnam was the limit of its old way of operating, and after that it “came home” to screw the empire’s own citizens instead. (It’s called “downsizing.”) As Native Americans learned long ago—Businessmen lie: ALWAYS.
Comparing the Internet to Commercial Media is mixing apples and harmonicas.
I would add that the internet is like the inner voice and the main stream is like the mirror. The main stream looks at itself and says, “mike wallace, baby, that viagra still lets you swing it with the young folks.” While the muffled voice from the internet screams, “you’re old, you smell funny, and your gonna die.”
To Clinton, it screams, “yeah but your husband was just on the desk with his pants around his ankles.”
It hates truth (like a murderer), hates freedom (like a factory boss), and hates equality (like an emperor dividing to conquer).
and even though capitalistic realities still muffle this inner voice, the internet has revealed the democratic principle that each being on the planet has her or his purpose and not just those who have mastered the Darwinian trick of performing for coins.
The internet is going to be the last flame of liberty that the bushmonkey is going to extinguish.
I hope the government tries to pull the plug. First off something else will rise in its place like the proverbial phoenix.
Secondly, the powers that be might as well sit in the middle of the road, douse themselves in petrol, and light the match. Going out in a final act of self-immolation.
WTF, you’re not shouting silently, When you post something, those of us who read it, are listening to your shouts with our eyes. It might be done quietly, but the info goes to the brain and affects us.
During the buildup to this war, I knew there was no yellow cake from Niger, I knew there was no WMDs (because Scott Ritter and others wrote articles about this), and I read Joe Wilson’s posts on different sites. I knew when Bush addressed the nation that he was lying because of all the info on the internet–especially at Anti-war and other sites. Yet those around me who never visited the net actually thought we were attacking Iraq because of 9-11 and they held other zombie-like MSM-inspired brainwashing which gave them a false reality. Anyone who was seriously interested could have checked the ideas for themselves by going to the net, but they preferred to believe the Prez and happily ship their kids off to an unnecessary war. Of course, he is just as happy to ship them home in a box–which he refused, and MSM refused. to show the public.
Keeping shouting silently folks, my eyes are listening. We may not always agree, but my eyes are listening, and sometimes my fingers tapping will shout right back at you.
Freedom of the press. That sounds so American and makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. What a joke! When is the last time you actually experienced real investagive reporting? Let the media cover the million patriot march when we finally organize and take back America.
I think this is beginning already. A test run. Protesters used the internet to organize, and it is taken from them.
I have no wish to argue with any of your fine points at this exchange. My education includes the use of deductive reasoning which looks at the data, and then forms a conclusion. No matter where I look, this is the result. It is more subtle here, and TPTB certainly are more cautious about the takeover….but this conclusion is unavoidable. HAM is the way to go, and the use of high powered laptops. Necessity is the mother of invention, and someone will find a way.
Snip
MANILA, Philippines — Telephone and Internet access have been cut off in Burma as its military government began cracking down on protesters, according to the Southeast Asia Press Alliance (SEAPA), a non-profit organization that advocates press freedom and freedom of expression.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=91069
Do you really enjoy watching Mainstream Media News? Doesn’t it sometimes make you feel like blowing away your TV with a shotgun?
Trying watching the evening national news, while keeping track of the sponsors. Then email as many of them as you can and tell them that you prefer getting your news from the Internet. Let them know which websites you trust and frequent – and where you get to have your say because there is plenty of space and time.
Then email the news network and let them know what you have done. Tell them you are sick of Faux News, and that you think it is not only maddening but also deadly. Refer to Fox News’ attempt to incite an attack on Iran and the other news networks that fail to mention this for fear of starting an honesty war that might get to the bottom of who and what keeps inciting bloody wars that are required in order to conquer those divided thereby.
For too many decades the news networks have worried more about sponsors, and the sponsors have worried more about the pseudo-moralists than the viewers that have depended on the generosity of their discretion for news and information that affects their lives. Maybe it’s time the mainstream television broadcast news networks realize that they do have to worry about what the viewers want, since they now have a farther-reaching interactive news competitor that will win over the dictates of prized corporate sponsorship.
With millions of people today carrying video cameras, we don’t need their reporters to call press meetings where they keep their questions congenial for fear of being kicked out of THE exclusive club. We have thousands of honest hardworking journalists, as mentioned here, that deserve their time to shine. We could surround whichever house we choose, ring their doorbell, ask them a question and film their words and actions. Then, more importantly, upload to our favorite current events websites. Our mobilizations will be too difficult for any army to disrupt – unless lawmakers are permitted to pass more laws that will impede the safe-feeling freedom of the worldwide web.
Let ratings and sponsorship fees at the mainstream broadcast news networks drop. Watch all other programs that you enjoy, but let the Mainstream Media, the FCC, the CIA and the Whitehouse know that the one thing worse than half-truths is listening to them and being deceived and ruled by them to the detriment of many.
Enjoy the free internet while you can because a Federal Judge is not in favor of net neutrality and is siding with the likes of AT&ET and Verizon. Before long the cost of the internet will be too expensive for the average folk and the free press will be no longer. Even today Air America is continuing to be in a bind as corporate interests have pulled it in many locations. There are places in America that can only have Rush pig Limbaugh to listen to. The liberal voice could become drowned out if the neo-cons make greater headway in the next election, but we still have this deplorable Supreme Court to deal with. We may have to take to the streets instead of voicing our complaints on the net, but then we will have the “cops” to contend with. The squeeze will soon be greater.
AOL, MSN and Hotmail have been filtering out Truthoug’s e-mails to subscribers. Check out the story on the Truthout website at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091307Z.shtml and boycott those who would censor progressive truth off the internet.
Judi,
I agree that this “user fee” structure is more insidious than a martial law-completely shut down internet, and perhaps, much more dangerous. This happened repeatedly with general aviation over many decades. The government and individual airports would not charge anything at all to airlines for using their gas-tax built airports, but when it came to a little guy in a two-seat fabric Piper Cub they would charge him $100 every time he got in it. The little guys realized that they were about 70% of airport operations in the usa and about 90% of the collected gas taxes used to build these little airports in the 1950s in the first place. They were successful in thwarting the government and big corps all these years because they formed the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) and proved that the intent of the tax at the time was for citizen operations.
In 1775, we as colonies, forged strong relationships with those who hated the iron boot of the british even more than we did: the French. Without the arms smuggling and show of force of the French Navy there would never have been a United States at all. Continental troops had won little battles in Boston and Canada, but most of Washington’s engagements ended in disastrous retreat.
I think it is important, in our struggles against the iron boot of the Fortune 500, that we as a progressive movement, make strong alliance with other groups who are not happy with the corporatization of, and eventual demise of, the internet.
Geeks.
They hate the heavy hand of Microsoft and the government more than we do.
Many have have ditched windows for “open source” programming like Unix. All new Apple computers have switched to this operating system: OS10.4 This operating system has virtually few crashes, is immune to most viruses (i’ve never even used an anti-virus program and frequently keep the firewall down.) Op System X (ten) is a beautiful veneer on top of Unix. It’s invisably fixing problems for you all the time. Unix has all kinds of guys in white hats who donate free repair and maintenance of the system. That is why it is so stable and why it resists attack so well.
I agree with those who say, our groups: the greens, the libertarians, independents, all third parties, along with defecting democrats and republicans must coalesce together into a new party.
How about the Liberty Party?
We need to shift our focus away from the Republicrat government that is there now, and focus on our true enemy: The Fortune 500. That is where all our evil comes from.
and we must forge alliances with any group that hates them as much as we do.
And remember, support little business in all that you do.
pacplyer
“keep the faith baby”
1. I agree that the Dems haven’t done all they can. And it is true they can’t break a filibuster. We need to elect enough, probably 9 and 10 for sure next election. And for sure a Dem Prez no matter who. The Supreme court is on the verge and one more conservative on it can undo everything that is still intact. And that will last for another 20 years. I don’t contend this is more important than lives being lost isn’t the most pressing issue, but it is important to realize that one more wingnut judge and they will overturn not just Roe v. Wade, but Social security, medicare, most large social programs. Remember Social Security only survived by a 5 to 4 vote in the 30s despite a court that at that time was liberal. Think of the damage that could be done, millions of seniors in poverty, no healthcare for them. Medicaid, Schip. If you don’t think that the right wingers won’t push for all of this as they become more and more emboldened, you are wrong. If you listen to right wing talk, their overall objective is to totally overturn the new deal of FDR, the new society of the 60s and 70s of the war on poverty, medicare, etc.
The electorate in the last 7 years has made the Dems extremely gun shy and the constant lies from prez and repugnets do echo across the land and it is unfortunate that this still resonates in the red states. I live in Georgia and hear the wingnuts exicited that this can occur in our lifetime; Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia are licking their chops for just one more wingnut Supreme court judge and we can begin. Justice Breyer, liberal is 87, Ginsberg, Stevens, and Souter in their 70s DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, just licking their chops for one more wingnut
We must support the Dems and nurse them along no matter what!!! Don’t vote for any 3rd party candidates, don’t sign any petitions to get other candidates on the ballot in any state. THIS COMING ELECTION IS THAT IMPORTANT.
REMEMBER DIVIDE US AND THEY WIN!!!!!!.
OuterBeltway: Regarding the Hillary laugh, you’re indulging in one of the worst practices of the MSM: presenting soundbytes that are out of context. Though I’m no big fan of Hillary, I think you should consider her words rather than reading so much into a laugh. See, for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3jBYXx25tY
Mark Klempner: thanks for writing this piece. I’m going to think about the points you brought up and maybe comment again later.
WTF, though I agree that the internet can be a way of keeping people in front of computer screens rather than out on the streets protesting, it has been used successfully to organize rallies, and I participated in Moveon.org’s “Call for a Change” which enabled me, using info Moveon provided me with via the internet, to call over a hundred random voters during last November’s election.
Mr. Klempner, I checked out your website and I’m going to read your book, even though I think too much has been written about the Holocaust!
www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/09/25/questions-from-sen-kerry-how-can-we-connect-america/