Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu!karl From: karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Is the news media really that stupid? Summary: I most certainly do think so Message-ID:Date: 9 Dec 88 22:41:37 GMT References: <33065@bbn.COM> <4355@pbhyf.PacBell.COM> <5999@hoptoad.uucp> <1942@sigma.UUCP> <6023@hoptoad.uucp> <885@hdr.UUCP> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Organization: OSU Lines: 41 In-reply-to: eric@hdr.UUCP's message of 9 Dec 88 15:33:25 GMT eric@hdr.UUCP (Eric J. Johnson) writes: Allegedly the mass media is disseminating incorrect information about various electronic communications media (USENET and bulletin boards included.) Let's sit back a moment and think of potential reasons why they would do such a thing... One: Ignorance. News professionals do not know about USENET and bulletin boards, and if they did, they couldn't understand them anyway. Computer professionals often flatter themselves into thinking that they hold some special 'magical' ability to understand the uses of their computers that 'mere mortals' could not possible achieve. When the Internet worm was making the rounds in the first week of November (we were not infected, but stayed very much on top of things just in case), people on our staff were interviewed numerous times by various media entities. With a lone exception, every single one was badly, horribly done. The technical content, even reduced to what Joe SubAverage Computer-NonUser can cope with, was a semantic null. A particularly objectionable flaw to me was that the Columbus Dispatch printed a front-page, half-page story w/photograph...of CompuServe. CompuServe is not on the Internet, never has been. CompuServe runs DEC-[12]0's, which were not susceptible to the worm. They run TOPS, which was not susceptible to the worm. The photo was of their machine room. The article dealt with passive Macintosh viruses. Completely missed the point of an active, aggressive worm such as the Internet was suffering. They (CompuServe) went to great pains to describe just how "safe" they were from anything of the style of the Internet worm. The temptation to create such a worm and unleash on it CompuServe itself is extremely strong. The only things preventing me from actually doing so are ethics and a certain fear of legal consequences. More of the former than the latter; I am confident that I could hide my malevolence sufficiently well that I could not be traced. What a load of crap. The media are consummately ignorant, stupid, and irresponsible in that they positively flaunt their ignorance and stupidity. --Karl