FC: WorldTechTribune claims I want new federal "cybersecurity" laws

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

An excerpt from an article that appeared on the worldtechtribune.com site:

http://www.worldtechtribune.com/worldtechtribune/asparticles/buzz/bz09232002.asp
   So why did McCullagh quote nothing but activists critical of the Bush
   Administrations policy of taking a hands-off approach to cybersecurity
   in his article with Robert Lemos for News.com?  Why would journalists
   who so value Internet privacy and consider the government to be too
   intrusive suddenly complain that the government should be spending
   millions of taxpayer dollars and enacting legislation that forces
   companies and individuals to conform to government-mandated security
   controls?

My reply to the article's author follows. (I neglected to mention that 
their commentary appears to be mistaken on the source of the August draft, 
see http://www.politechbot.com/p-03994.html).

-Declan

---

> Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 15:02:14 -0400
> To: scott () worldtechtribune com
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan.mccullagh () cnet com>
> Subject: Response to your article titled "Bush cyberstrategy and the 
> 'libertarian' call for more Government intrusion"
> Cc: publisherrjm () worldtechtribune com,bob () worldtechtribune com
>
> Scott,
> I read with interest your provocative, if mistaken, article. You wrote 
> (http://www.worldtechtribune.com/worldtechtribune/asparticles/buzz/bz09232002.asp): 
> "Journalists and activists claiming to be staunch, limited government 
> cyber-libertarians but then moan that the government isn't doing enough to 
> protect cyberspace are obviously not real libertarians."
>
> Your article is mistaken on two points. First, a news article -- as 
> opposed to a column -- is not typically the place where reporters should 
> be spouting off with their opinions. In the case of the White House report 
> released last week, there was plenty of criticism of it, and our News.com 
> article accurately reflected it. Second, I did not write the article alone 
> -- a colleague wrote probably the majority of it, which is why his name 
> was listed first. Jointly-authored pieces are always a mix of two 
> reporters' views and writing styles.
>
> If you had wanted my own personal views, you could have asked me. Or you 
> could have spent a few moments reading a column -- as opposed to a news 
> article -- I wrote that appeared on News.com a few days before. It 
> included my personal opinion on the topic, with which you might even agree:
>
> http://news.com.com/2010-1074-957970.html
> > I don't even think it's such a fabulous idea for the White House to be 
> > preparing these kind of grand Internet security reports. The federal 
> > government's tech-cluelessness is embarrassingly obvious, and it needs to 
> > solve its own problems first. The Internet is run by technology firms, 
> > which are in turn run by people smart and motivated enough to do the 
> > right thing without nagging by Uncle Sam. Sure, it doesn't always happen 
> > immediately, but market forces are better in the long run at figuring out 
> > the right approach than bureaucrats are.
>
> Good luck with your website.
>
> Best,
> Declan





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