PIML 96050509 / Forwarded to Patriot Information Mailing List: [Maybe this e-mail mailing list stuff does some good after all.] PIML ================================================================== From: "Mark E. Howerter" Organization: http://www.cris.com/~dhathaw/otherside To: c-news@world.std.com Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 07:35:29 -0600 Subject: C-NEWS: That Darn Internet Reply-To: "Mark E. Howerter" THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET! OR MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS ROADKILL ON INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY The internet has come under fire a lot lately, but not for pornography or the like. It has been lambasted for spreading information! Imagine that. The mainstream media is in a tizzy because they can no longer control the flow of information. Boo Hoo Hoo. I know I for one feel awfully sorry for them. For nearly two months the Associated Press ignored the story about the East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania School District conducting gynecological exams on 11 year old 6th grade girls against the girls' wills and without parental permission. The story would have never been told if not for THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET. You should have heard them. It was awesome. They whined like a bunch of babies who lost their rattles. I love it! This one was especially good: "Alternative Media Keeps Story in News." by Michael A. Giarrusso (AP) from the "Centre Daily Times" May 20, 1996* "EAST STROUDSBURG -- Long after the story of a female doctor performing genital exams on 59 sixth-grade girls had lost steam in the mainstream media, thousands of people were still complaining about it on talk radio and the Internet."* The funny part is that the Associated Press and the mainstream media totally ignored the story. So how did it lose steam? It never had any steam in the mainstream media, so how could it lose any? Go figure. "The two mediums (the internet and talk radio) gave the story a second wind, although some of the facts were muddied."* The only wind the story had for the first two months after it happened was on the Internet and talk radio. The facts were muddied?...HMMM, in other words somebody other than the mainstream media covered the story and slanted it to the right instead of to the left. That's not supposed to happen, you see. The "mainstream media" (which has never been mainstream, but closer to a channel leading off to the left from the mainstream of society) doesn't like it now that somebody else can get news out without their slant. They are fit to be tied, and I am as happy as a hog in mud about it! "'With the growth of the Internet and talk radio, you are going to hear interpretations of events that reflect the worries or anxieties people already have,' said John Harwood, an English professor and the associate director of Penn State University's center for academic computing."* This is so awesome. Let me rephrase what he said a bit...Now that talk radio and the Internet are out there, the news is being slanted to fit the worries and anxieties of the people in the streets instead of those in the media, and I don't like it! Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Waaaaa! "Those involved in alternative media said that this case is an example of the future of news. A story can now reach millions of people without receiving major coverage by the traditional media."* (Can't you just about hear them whining as they typed this?) Hallelujah! "Vahanvaty feels the story would have died if people had not posted mistruths on the Internet and repeated them on talk radio."* What mistruths? That's what I'd like to know. Every account of the story I have read that includes statements made by any of the 59 girls who were violated or their parents verifies the facts that went out over the net and talk radio. It was the parents and the girls who were interviewed on talk radio for goodness sake! What she should have said is, "If not for THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET I would not be in hot water right now." The story couldn't have died, because, if not for talk radio and the Internet, it would have never been born in the first place. The end result would have been that nobody would have ever heard about what happened in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, absolutely nothing would have been done about it, and Goals 2000 would still be marching on unimpeded. Wouldn't Dr. Vahanvaty and the N.E.A. have loved that? "'(The Internet) has a life of its own and there's no way to control it,' she (Vahanvaty) said."* Yes, and praise God for it. Finally we don't have to depend on the leftstream media for the news, which either we never get at all or we get a version of it slanted to the far left. "'Local media quickly accepted the explanations of school officials, and parents wouldn't have gotten their say without talk radio and the Internet,' Tucker said."* (Mrs. Tucker is the mother of one of the 59 girls who were violated). Isn't it amazing the slant that the AP story did have once it came out? They quickly came to the defense of the doctor, the school, the state and on and on. In almost every paper that eventually carried the story (once it could no longer be hidden) they whined about THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET. I love it! Yesssss! "'The Internet has changed forever how information is disseminated, and consumers of that information must be more careful of what they believe,' said Harwood, the Penn State professor."* I'll tell you what, my dear professor, I am a lot more worried about the news I get and the news I never get from the leftstream media than I am about what I get off the net. Only a fool believes everything he hears regardless of where he hears it and only a really stupid darned fool believes all the drivel doled out by the leftstream media. The following poll, taken by the Roper organization, among 139 Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents, gives a snapshot of the political views prevalent in the "mainstream" media. The margin of error is given as 2.8 percent. When asked how they would characterize their political orientation only 2% answered conservative. When asked what their current political affiliation was a whopping 4% said Republican and 89% admitted that they voted for Clinton in the last presidential election. No wonder these folks hate THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET huh? It doesn't much matter where you read the story that finally hit the "mainstream." The spin is the same. Here's one from The New Orleans Times-Picayune May 19, 1996 "Genital Exams Prompt Deluge Of Calls" by Walter F. Naedele. "Wildly inaccurate postings on the Internet are feeding the phone frenzy, an attorney for the district has said.... Thomas Divonas, solicitor for the East Stroudsburg Area School District, has stated that 'much of the information disseminated via the Internet has been incomplete and misleading.'" My question remains this, what was misleading? That is never mentioned. All you hear from anyone who wrote up the story for any paper in the "mainstream" is that same old line that THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET put out bad information. Bad for whom, I might ask! The "Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call" on May 20, 1996, in their story, "Internet Revives Genital Exam Fuss" by Brian Hay said. "The East Stroudsburg Area School District has discovered the dark side of the Internet, where unbridled and inaccurate whisper-down-the-alley information is being spread about genital exams conducted in a school this year." I especially liked this one... "inaccurate whisper-down-the-alley information." Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Waaaaa! The "dark side of the Internet..." Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Waaaaa! "The gloved exams of the girls' genitalia, allowed under state law, ignited outcry from parents, at least one federal lawsuit and now a flood of harassing phone calls to district offices and employees from anonymous sources -- all inspired from misleading information spread on the Internet, the district says." THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET! It would have been so much better for the liberals involved if THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET had just never come along! They had it so good for so long when they controlled all the flow of information and they are just not very happy now that they don't. "'Much of the information disseminated via the Internet has been incomplete and misleading and this brings into question the goals and motives of the groups or individuals responsible,' Dirvonas noted." (School District Solicitor, Thomas F. Dirvonas) Yes, just what are the goals of those darned Internet people anyway? Well, as one of that group, I think I could answer that for him as well as anybody. I got the story and passed it out over the internet as far and wide as I could. "The Other Side" was at least partly responsible for the story not going away like many would have liked it to, so I'll take a stab at Mr. Dirvonas' question. What we want is the TRUTH, the whole TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH. We're tired of the leftward slant to the news and stories like this being ignored. I have a much higher standard for truth than anyone in the "mainstream" media. I'll tell you that right now. Dr. Terry Giffel, a professor in East Stroudsburg University's department of media communications said, "As for the news groups on the Internet, where the false information originated, they're 'a free-for-all' -- anybody can write and say anything and people can react to it." Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Isn't that a frightening thought that, "they're 'a free-for-all' -- anybody can write and say anything and people can react to it?" Free speech is just plain scary to those in the media and the N.E.A., I guess, huh? "'Once the lie is out, some people aren't willing to believe what the truth may be. Some are willing to believe anything,' Giffel said...The Internet is so open no one can control it. It's the last frontier." How true, Mr. Giffel, the fact that some people will believe anything that Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Sam Donaldson and Peter Jennings say is the truth. What scares you, sir, is that those men no longer have a strangle hold on how information is passed. You can't control the Internet and you are just having a corporate cow. The "Some are willing to believe anything" syndrome was made into a hilarious movie called "Canadian Bacon" with John Candy. It was certainly not meant to be taken seriously, but I think there actually was a lot of truth to it. In the movie one of the president's advisors said something to the effect that the people will believe whatever we tell them to believe. It was true in the movie (that people believe whatever they hear from the media) and I fear it is more true in real life than any of us would ever want to believe. Those in the media are more powerful than those in politics--or at least they were before the advent of THAT DARNED OLD INTERNET! %*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%* Mark E. Howerter author of "The Other Side" conservative opinion on the net:http://www.cris.com/~dhathaw/otherside/ Originating from the rural cornfields of Monmouth, Illinois %*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%* Q: What's the difference between a pit bull and a social worker? A: You can get your kid back from a pit bull. ------- To unsubscribe from c-news, send the message UNSUBSCRIBE c-news to majordomo@world.std.com. 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