bad press

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: Speaker for the Dead<klahn () uiuc edu>
Newsgroups: alt.journalism.criticism,alt.news-media,alt.politics.datahighway
Subject: Internet article in 4 July 94 Chicago Tribune
Date: 5 Jul 1994 21:45:48 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


As I walked into the billiard room of my campus, I noticed a _Tempo_ section
of the Monday, July 4th, 1994 issue of the Chicago Tribune.  This is the
section that has all of the lifestyle and entertainment information of the
Chicago Trib.  I said to myself "I wonder what Calvin is doing today," and
I picked up the paper.  I looked at the _front page_ of the section, and my
eyes jumped to the word "Internet" in the title of a story.  Again, this
was on the front page of the section of the paper that most people read to
get some enjoyment out of the day; the comics, crossword, and other "entertain-
ment" type stories are in this section.


I looked again at the title, which reads "Time to pull the plug on the Internet"
and I frowned at that point.  I read the article.  I frowned again.  I was
sufficiently outraged at that point to do what I am doing now, which is to
type in the full, unabriged, and completely non-edited version of said article,
which I am quoting from the Monday, July 4th, 1994 issue of the Chicago Tribune
and I give full credit to the Tribune.  I am quoting it, and I did not write
any part of this article. (I feel that I have to have this full disclaimer for
legal reasons.)  This is a full version of that story, no para-phrasing or
editing done. Here we go.


        "Time to pull the plug on the Internet"
        by Erik Lacitis
        Seattle Times


        Seattle - Excuse me, but I'm taking a little vacation
        from the Internet.  I'm going back to real life.  Jeesh,
        has there ever been a bigger collection of mean-spirited,
        emotionally deficient, just-plain-weird and mostly utterly
        boring people?
           And parents, when your 14-year-old Johnny - who you hope
        will be the next Bill Gates - asks if you'll sign him
        up with an Internet provider at only $13 a month, do you
        have any idea what he'll see and read?
           Maybe you've read the stories about the information
        highway, and about how the Internet connects 2.2 million
        computers around the world, from the world's major
        corporations to the finest universities.  Each day, the
        Internet users type out the equivalent of 53,000 new pages
        of text.
           So you're thinking, that's great!  Little Johnny now
        can tap into the library at Oxford and absorb all this
        wonderful knowledge.
           I'm LOLing at your naivety.  That's Internet lingo for
        Laughing Out Loud.  On the info highway, we like to compress
        information.  LOLing.  Isn't that cute?
           I'm LOLing because here are the kinds of choices your
        14-year-old has.
           Should he "surf" through an innocuous newsgroup devoted,
        say, scouting youth activities, or one called "alt.sex.pictures.-
        female."?  Or how about "alt.sex.bondage."?  Which do you think
        your little Johnny would choose?
           It's all out there on the net.  The other day, I stopped by the
        home of Kirk Moore, who runs Connected Inc. out of a basement
        full of electronic gizmos.  It's through a service such as Moore's
        that you get on the Internet.
           Moore won't sell his service to minors, but he can't control
        what your kid does at home.  Moore typed a few commands on his
        terminal, and the hardcore porno pictures began appearing.  Who's
        doing this?  "Perverts," Moore said.
           Electronic pictures, and messages such as the following (this
        is the tamer stuff) are just as accessable to kids as adults:
           "If you like the good old-fashioned spanking over the knee,
        the type of spanking with hair brush, paddle, hand, ruler, etc.,
        let's explore them together. ..." "Bad little girls, tell Daddy
        what you have done bad."
           "Moore estimated that 40 percent of the electronic traffic he
        handles isn't from buisnesses or academics doing buisness,
        but individuals using it for personal communications.  That ranges
        from porn to e-mail to electronically chatting with people
        around the world.
           It is, for the most part, interminably boring conversation.  You
        can converse on something called Internet Relay Chat.  Just get
        on a channel and start typing.  It's CB radio craze all over again:
           "Hi tory." "games! make me fell bad why don't you??" "hey tory"
        "hehehe." "zamboni has joined channel seattle." "what youall
        talking 'bout?" "hey zamboni." "well, i'm sorry ... now you've
        made feel guilty." "carrar pats kellie on back says it's going
        to be just OK."
           Is this how you want to spend your hours, in boring conversation
        with somebody anonymous, probably a high
                                        see Internet, Page 6


[continued on Page 5.  That's right, 5, not 6]


        Internet
        Continued From Page 1


        school or college student?  The anonymity allows them to play all
        kinds of games.  On the Internet, men pose as women, women as
        men, kids as adults, adults as kids.
           There's something else you detect on the Internet.  The anonymi-
        ty gives a lot of jerks a chance to be mean.  If there is a crude
        remark aimed at women, it's been on the Internet.  It seems
        populated with men who never grew up.
           Sometimes it trancends mere words.  A couple of individuals
        I met on the Internet Relay Chat did phone me.  What a change,
        chatting to a real person.
           A 25-year-old woman told me about a man on the IRC figuring
        out what restaurant she was talking about going to, and showing up
        to meet her.  His whole demeanor made her scared.
           As I was writing this column, she e-mailed me an electronic letter
        she had just recieved.  It was, of course, from somebody using an
        alias.  "I've been cross dressing since I was about 10," said
        a portion.
           The woman deleted the letter from her computer.  It was, she
        said, tame in comparison to other anonymous e-mail she has recieved.
        But you can't delete the knowledge that somebody would pick you out
        for that kind of junk.
           I realize that the info highway is in its infancy, and that
        eventually we'll be able to fitler out the crud.  Meanwhile, I'm
        talking a little vacation from surfing the Internet.
           By the way, I do have an e-mail address. It's elak_news () -times com.
           But do include your street address and daytime and evening
        phone numbers.  Call it a quirk, but I do want to deal only with
        people who actually are who they say they are.
           Erik Lacitis is a lifestyle columnist for The Seattle Times.
           [The above was in italics]


Except for the two lines that I put in []'s (those were necessary to make the
article coherent in this medium)  All other information was accurate
according to the article in the (once again) Monday, July 4th, 1994 issue
of the Chicago Tribune on pages 1 and 5 of the Tempo section.  If you were
to obtain a copy of said newspaper, every character is reproduced, including
the errors.  (Look at his e-mail address.  I assume that the hyphen, which
was used to show line wrap in this case, should not be there.)


Now, why did I take the half hour that I just spent, to type in this article,
in it's full glorious entirety?  Because it fills me with outrage that we,
as internet users, are being misrepresented by this slop.  I am upset and
disappointed that this type of drivel is printed in what used to be my
favorite newspaper, and that this sort of uninformed and propagandized
writing gets contributed to newspapers.  It upsets me to think that this
article may be the only connection with the 'net that some people may have,
and that those same people may never look into what the 'net _really_ has
to offer.  If you had no experiences with the 'net and were to read this
article, you would think that it was completely packed with pornographers
and people who want to spank their sexual partners.  THIS IS NOT AN ACCURATE
PORTRAYAL OF THE INTERNET.  I am going to write a letter to the editor of
the Chicago Tribune, and I will ask for a full detraction of the above
article, but I have the feeling that I will be ignored.  I ask that any of
you who have read the above article who feel the way that I do, please do
the same.  According to the Trib's second page of the main section, one
person that can be contacted is the Public Editor, George Langford.
It states that "The public editor is commited to accuracy, honesty, fair play
and the well-being of the community.  Those are the standards to which we hold
ourselves and by which we ask you to judge us.  If you think that we have
failed to meet them, we want you to tell us.  Please address your concerns
to the Public Editor, Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611."
You may also call (312) 222-3348 to reach Mr. Langford.


This post is in no way malicious or spiteful, and I don't intend to harm the
name or corporation of the Chicago Tribune, the name of Erik Lacitis, or
any other person involved in the production or writing of this article.  I
simply feel that it is wrong for this article to be printed, and I feel
that a detraction is a reasonable thing to ask for.  I do not condone anyone
using this information to harass either Mr. Langford, the Chicago Tribune, or
Mr. Lacitis.  This was not the purpose of this post, and I ask you, as
mature adults, not to do so.  It is illegal, and I would be greatly disappointed
if that were to happen.  I wish only to make this article and information
available to every person on the 'net, so that they may defend themselves
and the Internet from ignorance and what I feel to be a great mis-representation
of the Internet.


I seriously hope that no one will use the above information in any other
way but to comment to the Public Editor of the Tribune and to Mr. Lacitis
as they have offered their addresses/phone numbers/e-mail addresses in a public
newspaper.