Thursday, 6 January 2011

The propaganda goes on

I know I shouldn’t but I do get irritated by the amount of disinformation on evolving Net Neutrality policies, particularly in the US.. Whatever else it is, Net Neutrality is a complex challenge, requiring a lot of very careful negotiation between all sides of the argument.  What it doesn’t need is the sort of rabble-rousing rhetoric evidenced this week by Boulder Weekly, a free-paper with some lofty ambitions, e.g.

“As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing”. 

It was disappointing, therefore, that this champion of impartial journalism should allow the following nonsense to appear in its pages today:

“On Dec. 21, the FCC passed new rules — written by corporations — that will end net neutrality.  For the first time in history, the U.S. government approved corporate censorship of the Internet, putting the future of online free speech at risk….”

Tha author, Jason Rosenbaum, is evidently a fan of Senator Al Franken – whose views on Net Neutrality I have criticised previously.  Sadly, the debate remains ill-informed: I must try harder!

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