FC: Gore and Bush during debate: Equal-opportunity censors?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/18/042235&mode=nested

   Gore and Bush: Equal-Opportunity Censors?
   posted by cicero on Tuesday October 17, @10:58PM
   from the affirmative-action-for-censorhappy-politicos dept.

   There was something absent from this evening's presidential debate,
   and it wasn't Al's horn-blowing sighs or Dubya's runny-nosed
   sniffles. What was missing was an appreciation for the benefits
   of free speech, the perils of blocking software, and the hazards
   of blaming the world's woes on the Internet. In response to an
   audience question about "the morality of our country," both candidates
   talked up rating systems, blamed Hollywood, and recommended having the
   government help parents who have, allegedly, failed. Al Gore, who
   likes to talk about privacy, waxed downright Carnivorous over a
   "feature that allows parents to automatically check, with one click,
   what sites your kids have visited lately.. if you can check up on
   them, then you -- that's real power." Quoth Bush, who had similar
   ideas: "There ought to be filters in public libraries, and filters in
   public schools, so that if kids get on the Internet, there's not going
   to be pornography or violence coming in." Bush was talking about
   legislation currently before Congress that ties filtering to checks
   from the Feds.

Relevant excerpt from transcript:
http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/18/042235&mode=nested




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------