Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the uncensorable (?) Internet [fs]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: <seesaw8 () hotmail com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: This news story was sent to you by request
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 09:33:49 -0400

A news story has been electronically sent to you at the request of the
sender listed below.  The story originally appeared in post-gazette.com,
the web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The sender supplied the following information.  A reply to this message
will be directed to the e-mail address supplied by the sender.

Name:  A Politech Reader
E-mail:  seesaw8 () hotmail com
Message:  Simply points out something many on the Net have known for
sometime, namely it is difficult to keep digitized information under
wraps.

The website Ogrish.com., is cited, which has of course been mentioned in
the past on Politech.


Click here to access the story:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03271/226452.stm

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News media may withhold gruesome images, but Internet sets them free


Sunday, September 28, 2003
By Lillian Thomas, Post-Gazette Staff Writer


They die over and over on continuous loop, the journalist's throat slashed 
again and again, the bank robber blown up by the bomb locked to his body 
time after time.

The graphic video and still images of dead and dying people that mainstream 
news organizations choose not to display inevitably find their way to the 
Internet, where they can't be killed. Some can be legally challenged, but 
even if a site is shut down, the image rarely goes away.

And there's a vigorous argument over whether instant access to such images 
is good or bad: Are they examples of stomach-turning excess or honest 
depictions of a disturbing world?

There's little disagreement, however, over the Internet's role in eroding 
the mainstream media's reign as gatekeeper -- the media's decisions to 
withhold images from their viewers no longer mean viewers won't see those 
images

[...]

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