Re: Shimomura on TV?

At 10:08 PM 1/10/96 -0500, John Young wrote:
>Someone just said that NBC's Dateline showed a snippet of 
>Shimomura on an upcoming show about rampant cyber-crime and 
>that he was the best hope against it, or something to that 
>effect. Did anyone see it and get the time and date?
>
>
>Anyone attend the Shimomura-Markoff lecture at Stanford today?
>
>
>Is this the media blitz for their pot-boiler? Can't wait to 
>slurp it.
>
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Has anyone heard anything else about this? I am getting real sick of the
media's portrayal of the internet. They never say anything good about it. If
they were to mention C2's system they would say how it is a no-rules server
to hide thugs and pornos from the police. I am getting sick of watching this
trash. The whole realm of the internet and computers and their associated
areas are very dear to me I am sick of the media bludgeoning them to death.
 
--
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Douglas F. Elznic writes:
 > I am getting real sick of the media's portrayal of the
 > internet. They never say anything good about it.

The local news here in Austin, which in general seems to have a
terrible time filling up a 30-minute news presentation, had a big
story the other morning about how an Internet pedophile had been
caught.  It seems that some dude in Oregon was running a sting (I
think it was a reporter, not police, but I'm not sure) and some loser
in Austin took the bait and actually flew out there to meet the boy of
his dreams.  (Like I've said many times, it's a Real Good Thing most
criminals are so incredibly stupid.)

It turns out this guy worked at a school for handicapped children up
in Round Rock (the heart of Williamson County, the place hard-core
"old Austin" liberals like to think of as a portal to Redneck Hell).
So they start asking questions and they find some kids who say the guy
abused them (or whatever).  (The whole story might turn out to be
bogus, for all I know; it's disappeared from my sphere of awareness.)

My wife pointed out that though the "news" people made heavy (though
generally absurd) use of the Internet connection in the story, it left
her thinking that the Internet is a damn good tool for trolling out
undesirables like pedophiles (at least the stupid ones).  It makes it
a *hell* of a lot easier to sting people when *they'll pay for the
plane tickets*!  And of course, they can't do any actual damage over
the wire while you string 'em along.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) |
| stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX    |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>Has anyone heard anything else about this? I am getting real sick of the
>media's portrayal of the internet. They never say anything good about it.

At the last World Wide Web consortium meeting I said that the media were
pumping up the bubble and their favourite game is to see if they can 
destroy what they have the arrogance to imagine they created.

That is why we have to replace the press. Consider this in the next 
election voters on the Internet will be able to read the press releases
of the candidates without the press filtering them. There is the potential
for the internet citizens to participate in shaping the political agenda 
- another role the press likes to usurp for itself.

I recently held a workshop on political use of the Web which was attended
by Republican and Democrat party workers and political activists from
6 other countries. One thing that suprized me was the consensus amongst the
politicians that the differences between them were smaller than their 
differences with the press.

To take one example. A collumnist in the New York Times recently received
much coverage for calling the First Lady "a congenital liar". Yet little 
mention is made of the fact that said collumnist worked for both Nixon and
Spiro Agnew and has never condemned either for their actions. 


	Phill