roundtable: Re: Content is the cargo of truth

roundtable: Re: Content is the cargo of truth

Re: Content is the cargo of truth

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Tue, 21 Mar 1995 04:39:42 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 04:39:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: Content is the cargo of truth
In-Reply-To: <199503201731.JAA01651@video.hidden.videomaker.com>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950321042344.28141C-100000@access1.digex.net>


On Mon, 20 Mar 1995, Matt York wrote:
> 
> On St. Patrick's day Vigdor Schreibman wrote:
> >"Ultimately, however, betterment of content is the only thing that matters.
> >That is one important reason why I have suggested that reliance upon the 
> >market system is so foolhardy, when profit pressures can be depended 
> >upon distorting the content of all content and communications.  Content
> >and communications to serve the public good is simply disregarded by 
> >the market, for example, requiring an independent infrastructure to serve
> >the paramount social and environmental needs and interests of a mature
> >democratic nation.
> > 
> > The literature on this subject, while sparse, is not entirely absent.  
> >I discussed the subject in my book "The Marketplace of Broadcasters' 
> >Ideas," citing the insight of professor Zacharia Chaffee, Jr., 
> > 
> >      The mere absence of governmental restrictions will
> >  not make newspapers and other instrumentalities play
> > their proper part in the kind of society we desire.  In
> > addition, affirmative action must be taken either by
> >  the government or by other persons with power to
> > influence methods and content
> 
....

> In a democracy the marketplace for ideas dictates "who is heard saying 
> what". In a socialist system, the government takes money from its 
> citizens to make sure the "right people are heard saying what they think 
> should be". In a communist system the government starts out itself 
> "being the right people to be heard" but then degenerates into 
> "manufacturing who is heard and it is them". Then we have little red 
> books and rewritten history.
> 
> The marketplace may be imperfect but its the best we can hope for. As far 
> as the value of content goes, I think its really who is heard as well as 
> what is heard. 

  Matt York is voicing the despicable rhetoric of the times, equating 
the ability of free citizens in a democratic nation to improve upon 
their lot, as some kind of "communist conspiracy."  The truth is we 
Americans are not stuck with the worst of the marketplace ethic and 
the extremism of the emerging Capitalist Robber Barons.  The 
Internet/NREN were excellent examples of voluntary global actions to 
foster collaborative communications, and we should preserve and expand 
upon that success. 

  The mean spirited "conservative" popularism that says we must obey 
the dictates of attle gang of fascist crooks, is all wrong.  It must be 
utterly rejected.  We must look for better ways to serve the "public 
goods" that are essential in a mature democratic nation.


  Vigdor Schreibman 
  <fins@access.digex.net>

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