Re: Net and Terrorism.

At 2:37 AM 7/5/96, vinnie moscaritolo wrote:

>>There is no cure for the "revolutionary" terrorists ..
>> If we do not even print their obit, there is no glory!
>
>Tim, you are asking for the liberal media to act responsibly.. what were
>you thinking?

I did not write that.

However, I wouldn't think that "not printing their obit" is acting
responsibly. As far as I'm concerned, I want the full news, or at least
some reasonable approximation of it, not propaganda.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

On Fri, 5 Jul 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:

> At 2:37 AM 7/5/96, vinnie moscaritolo wrote:
> 
> >>There is no cure for the "revolutionary" terrorists ..
> >> If we do not even print their obit, there is no glory!
> >
> >Tim, you are asking for the liberal media to act responsibly.. what were
> >you thinking?
> 
> I did not write that.
> 
> However, I wouldn't think that "not printing their obit" is acting
> responsibly. As far as I'm concerned, I want the full news, or at least
> some reasonable approximation of it, not propaganda.

The issue here is that terroristic actions *are* propaganda. Does every
idiot with a bomb deserve to be really big news? 

Anyway, I don't think Vinnie was suggesting that the news be censored --
just that the press doesn't have an obligation to print the obituary the
"martyrs" want. There's a spectrum from "the popular front for the
liberation of kooks, which believed blah blah blah because blah blah blah,
just blew up a building" to "some kook just blew up a building." The latter
is usually sufficient. If I care about the kooks, I can look them up, but
I don't think the fact that they blew up a building gives them the right to
propagandize the front page of my newspaper.

-rich