Current Affairs & Politics & Weblogs 29 Oct 2005 07:39 pm
The more things change …
Last week, there was a silly article in Forbes magazine, which I didn’t blog about because it was so silly. The title of the article "Attack of the Blogs" and the first line, "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo" pretty much tells you everything you need to know about it. Basically, it’s why business should worry about bloggers.
The reason I’m blogging about it now is that Kurt Opsahl from EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has written a brilliant response. A snippet:
"Printing presses are the prized platform of a public lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Ben Franklin and John Hancock.
…
Printing presses started being used a few years ago as a simple way for people to publish bibles. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for insulting His Majesty, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. It’s not easy to fight back: Often a bashing victim can’t even figure out who his attacker is. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory. King George has been hammered by pamphleteers; …"
Worth a read. But scan the silly Forbes article first for full effect.