Open Letter to Phil Elmer-DeWitt and TIME's Responsible Editors

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

Date: Sat, 8 Jul 1995 12:24:52 -0700
To: farber () central cis upenn edu (Dave Farber), jthomas () well com, mech () eff org
From: jwarren () well com (Jim Warren)






An Open Letter to Phil Elmer-DeWitt and TIME's Responsible Editors (& T. Koppel)


Hi Phil -


It was sad and frustrating to see - and vigorously participate in - the
net's flames that poured over you after you honchoed the cyberporn
"report."  I know you, and I know you are much, much better than that
illustrates.


You and Time earned the flaming that you got, because you and your editors
were the ones with the power to impact public and political opinion, and
thus the responsibility to do it *very* carefully.  Even under the insane
pressure of a weekly deadline in the cutthroat newsweekly racket.


What's done's done.  I'm writing about the immediate future - hopefully in
time to make a difference.  I know you and Time are planning a follow-up -
which may be no more than the usual wee-tiny, "Opps, we made a few little
errors," quiblette, buried in some obscure corner of a week's prose.


I urge you:  Please - don't do it that way.  Such an approach - the press'
usual approach to admitting errors - is simply not acceptable.  Be assured
that it will simply provoke another round of equally earned net-wide
flames.


YOU, PHIL, AND TIME *CAN* RECEIVE WELL-EARNED APPLAUSE:


1.  Do a second major article on cyberporn and its much more important
issue, cybercensorship by government as opposed as to censorship via the
delete button.


2.  Bluntly, fully and in detail, rip apart the Rimm study with the same
zeal that you or Time would put into a secret, unrefereed pro-cigarette
tobacco study by an undergraduate student - if it had received the
cover-story prominance and immediately been quoted on the floor of
Congress.


3.  Bluntly report and criticize your and Time's failings.


4.  But most of all, present the other side of the censorship case -
including emphasis on the alternatives that net-illiterate, now-frightened,
justifiably-concerned parents, teachers and librarians can use to protect
their children from doing what kids have always done ... going where
they're told not to go.


5.  And have your p.r. department promote *this* - too - to Ted Koppel.
Although Nightline's set-up piece was appalling, Ted himself - operating
from unfortunate personal ignorance - *tried* to do an even-handed job of
drawing out some of the issues ... to the extent that he understood them.
I am convinced that he will do a better job, with better research
beforehand, if he takes the time to cover cybercensorship excused by the
minority of *global* cyberporn that exists.


Soon, more and more print journalists will be doing their work online.  The
clear and present danger is that, by the time they and their publishers
arrive online, the government will have established a long string of
precedents for government-imposed content control.




Phil, over and over, we have seen that the net and the public have a great
capacity for forgiveness - when national leaders have screwed up and
promptly, bluntly and without excuses admitted it.  Janet Reno after Waco
is an example.


If you or your barricaded editors try to gloss this over, or give excuses,
or whine forth with, "We were imperfect, but ..." scenarios, you will
guarantee extensive, continuing, *earned* criticism.


If you - yourselves - rip the hell out of your own story, and present the
other side as provocatively as you presented the Rimmtrash, (1) you will be
doing a MUCH-needed service to the nation and the political process, and
(2) you and Time will *earn* praise for correcting a mistake in an equally
prominent, *responsible* manner.


Please Phil ... do it.  You are good enough and honorable enough to do so.


Your friend (believe it or not),
--jim
Jim Warren, GovAccess list-owner/editor (jwarren () well com)
Advocate & columnist, MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc.
345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075