Badpuppy Gay Today

Monday, 07 April, 1997

Fearing the immanent loss of ad revenue should the Internet survive the onslaught of a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision, major advertising-supported U.S. newspapers are, from coast to coast, declaring war on the very kind of free expression they no longer enjoy but which the Internet does enjoy.

In its April 4 edition The New York Times published two separate-but-negative news articles, each bemoaning the dangers, financial ruin and personal privacy losses wrought, because of computer use, in the lives of Internet users and non-users. "Now that You're On Line, Check for the Bottom Line," said the lead front-page "scare" headline.

The Times article is only one of many that have celebrated "a series of difficulties that (A.O.L.) and the on-line industry in general have had in managing the entry of millions of people into cyberspace." It begins by telling of "months of frustrating busy signals," and warns parents they may receive an unexpected $541.65 bill from their on-line provider if their children play mysteriously and too vigorously in some of the lesser- known cyberspace backyards.

A second article tells of the startling re-appearance of personal medical files, spilling private information about 2,000 pharmacy patients. These files were discovered by a young Nevada woman after she attended an auction-sale of aging computers. "The reality is that this information that people believe is private, even when its in the pharmacy, is actually being shared widely and used for commercial gain," according to a spokesperson for the National Coalition for Patient Rights, a privacy rights advocacy organization in Lexington, Massachusetts.

GayToday's staff believes that print media's concerted attack on the Internet is part of a strategy meant to sour public opinion on Internet use while a forthcoming Supreme Court decision about the Communications Decency Act (CDA) is scheduled for late spring or early summer.

Responding to this pending legal threat, Representative Jerrold Nadler, from the 8th Congressional District in New York, announced his support of free speech. "I rise to support the efforts of citizens everywhere to protect free speech on the Internet," he said, "...the Supreme Court heard arguments to determine the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which criminalizes certain speech on the Internet.

"It is because of the hard work and dedication to free speech by netizens everywhere that this issue has gained the attention of the public and now, our nation's highest court.

"I have maintained from the very beginning that the CDA is unconstitutional, and I eagerly await the Supreme Court's decision on this case....I pledged to join with concerned citizens all across the country to fight the CDA in Congress, in the courts, and in the chat rooms and on-line forums of the Internet itself....I applaud everyone who has taken action to support the First Amendment....I believe they (the Supreme Court) will recognize what the lower courts have already determined, that 'as the most participatory form of mass speech yet developed, the Internet deserves the highest protection from governmental intrusion.' "

In newspapers and magazines elsewhere, parents and "guardians of order" are being warned they must fear the Internet. A major new book, written to reply to such fears, and considered by two GayToday contributors as ranking among the most important statements made on behalf of free speech and/or unhampered Internet access, is titled "VIRTUOUS REALITY: How America surrendered discussion of moral values to opportunists, nitwits & blockheads like William Bennett," by Jon Katz. (Random House). "This book is not only a great tribute to the Internet, but it makes solid arguments about how current print media has lost its way," says Corrine Hicks, a GayToday staff writer.