Re: Attack on CS research by Chronicle for Higher Education

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dave Wilson <dave () wilson net>
Date: January 23, 2007 7:31:07 AM EST
To: dave () farber net, notable () mindspring com, neumann () csl sri com,  
felten () cs princeton edu, Spafford Gene <spaf () cerias purdue edu>
Subject: Re: [IP] Attack on CS research by Chronicle for Higher  
Education

Can I weigh in as the guy who established the Chronicle's information  
technology section way back in 1991?

This story is not an attack by the Chronicle on anything. It's a  
"balanced" story that gives equal weight to arguments from people who  
are opposed to the use of electronic voting systems and people who  
think they're fine. I don't know the author but this is a classic  
journalistic "on the one hand, on the other hand" story (I left CHE  
ten years ago and left journalism five years after that in no small  
measure because of the limitations of this format; putting the  
"official statement" in your story, even if you know it's BS, can  
seriously erode your self-respect)..

It pretty much goes without saying that any computer security  
undergrad who thinks Ed Felten is an idiot is, well, an idiot, and it  
certainly would have been nice if the author had let people know that  
most people in the computer security community think that all Dr.  
Felten needs is a cape to be admitted to the Justice League, but the  
story isn't really about Dr. Felten, it's about this weird  
arrangement that has an institution of higher learning running  
elections for an entire state. I had no idea.

-dave


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