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Date Posted: 13:21:42 04/01/03 Tue
Author: blue_hawaii
Author Host/IP: 4.65.57.25
Subject: Some thoughts by Mateo re: free speech, the den and Peter Arnett (he's calling us all drunks)

Free Speech is a wonderful right that we in the USA have. As with many of our rights we forget having them are actually a privilege. Any privilege comes with responsibilty. When we ignore the responsibility that comes with the right we should expect our privilege to exercise that right to be curtailled.

Peter Arnett is the classic example.

Free Speech comes with enormous responsibility.

For many years I was a participant on an Internet Message Board that was founded based on a common obsession. In time a community of people formed that became the established core of that message board. As people became more friendly the board became a gathering place; some referred to it as a neighborhood bar.

The topics of discussion broadened to include almost anything under the sun. Politics and sports dominated but theology, history, music, movies, sex and many, many other topics were visited and revisited over the course of the years

As with any bar, an occasional drunk stagered in. Drunks, even functional drunks, are rarely in complete charge of their faculties. When a drunk stepped out of line, the community, almost in unision, stepped forward to intervene or indeed bounce him from the bar.

Over the years, the wine that we enjoyed began to turn bitter. More and more drunks appeared with the intent of abusing their privilege to post there. The community changed addresses. Rules changed with each address change. There came a time when the drunks ran amok.

Change is inevitable and so it was that the community split. The drunks took their business to another message baord, one with no means of holding anyone accountable for what they posted. It did not take long for some of the drunks to sober up. Another change of addresses brought a message board with IP accountability for the drunks to post on.

The message board community took 8-9 years to learn what Peter Arnett has yet to learn. Free Speech comes with responsibility. Thirty some years after turning against our troops in Vietnam, Peter Arnett turned coat once again in Baghdad. It took less than 10 years for our Internet community to split and fragment into several differnt message board communities.

What Peter Arnett said was not so terrible. In fact, it was basically the same thing most of the American media has been saying for weeks, even months. The difference this time was that Peter Arnett did not sugar coat what he said and the fact that he said it on Iraqi State television. Similarly, what was said on the various message boards was not the source of contention. How the message was delivered was often the source of contention.

It is with no small bit of humor that I have watched the other talkng heads at MSNBC and NBC scramble to cover their collective ass. MSNBC is now somewhere right of FOX in their broadcast coverage of the war. Even the she-wolf of liberalism, Katie Kuric has made some attempt to be more "conservative" in her commentary of the war although it is clearly causing her great discomfort to do so.

It is with no small amount of sadness that I have watched the message board community collapse upon itself. The community has splintered in a cloud of irreconciable differences never to be whole again.

Peter Arnett's abuse of Freedom of Speech has led to the curtailment of the very same right for his former co-workers. Even the talking heads at the other networks have leaned decidedly to right the last couple of days in an attempt to avoid the guilt by association label. The end result is that the American public is receiving a decidedly different view of the war this week than they did last week.

The message board community is suffering in much the same way. The sins of a few have affected everyone. The remnants of the board are not as freely outspoken. There is a sense of political correctness that permeates the various boards. Few speak freely at this point. The content of the boards is watered down and thusly not nearly as interesting as it once was.

MSNBC and NBC have done everything possible to distract the viewer from Peter Arnett. They have repeatedly offered that FOX's Geraldo Rivera, once the prince of liberalism, has been kicked out of Iraq by the Pentagon even as Riveria continues to do live broadcasts from within 50 miles of Baghdad. It doesn't matter. The stench of Peter Arnett is upon them and will be for some time.

The participants of the message boards have sought to cast blame while distancing themselves from perceived problem posters while far too few recognize the pall of shame cast upon them by the fall of the community.

Free Speech is for responsibile people.

The media has relearned this lesson once again in a most unbecoming manner. The message board community I have referred to learned this the hard way as well. If only mankind would learn lasting lessons from their collective mistakes, what a wonderful world this would be.

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