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TCS Columnist attacks blogs: blogs may soon make many Americans afraid to speak their minds

TCS Columnist attacks blogs: blogs may soon make many Americans afraid to speak their minds

James D. Miller, Assistant Professor of Economics at Smith College and contributor to online tech-site Tech Central Station (TCS) has joined the recently spate of blog bashing, with a post at TCS that warns that blogs may soon make many Americans afraid to speak their minds.

Miller, who famously predicted in 2002 that web users would “undoubtedly prefer” the “bells and tassels of sexy high tech sites” to “static text-based blogging pages”, and that popular bloggers will either have to sell out to old media companies or “wither in importance”, based his scaremongering on the cases of Eason Jordan, the CNN Executive who resigned Friday after alleging that the US Army targets Journalists on the battlefield, Trent Lott and Larry Summers.

Whilst providing an reasonably indepth justification for his conclusions, a change from the recent spate of blog-bashing on the web, he none the less ignores the validity of the three examples referenced as news fit for reporting, and seemingly seeks to justify the comments of Jordan, Trott and Summers as fair and reasonable based on the context that everyone has bad thoughts, and therefore they should be forgiven.

Indeed he pleads “for a new social order under which a few offensive spoken remarks, even if highly odious and taken in context, are forgiven. Most everyone has some fairly nasty thoughts and occasionally these thoughts turn into speech. If we allow a few obnoxious comments to destroy someone’s career, many will avoid engaging in free-wielding discussions.”

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Given his quoting of people who have upset the right, the left and women (in that order), he now runs the risk of attack himself on all three fronts.

If those who hold positions of power, influence or celebrity do say offensive things, they should be held to account. The alternative is communism, fascism or male domination (depending on your own political views).

View Comments (4)
  • In the first couple lines, you’re trying to attack the messenger instead of
    the message. Doesn’t sit well with me. Who cares about Miller’s
    three-year-old predictions? Everybody makes predictions, and history
    inevitably proves most of them wrong. Irrelevant. And “scaremongering” is
    an empty soundbite.

    The way I read it, he asks for more tolerance and less hate-mongering.
    What’s wrong with that? It has nothing whatsoever to do with your
    cliché-dropped communism, fascism, and macho-ism.

    In fact, Miller’s text is a fairly traditional “critique of the critique”
    piece. Your aggressive attack just serves to illustrates his point.

    Granted: If people royally fuck up, hold them accountable. But try to keep
    things in perspective, and try to apply some common sense, too. By your
    extreme rules, every public figure (and the not-so-public-ones too) who
    speaks his/her mind should rot in hell. That just doesn’t make sense. Not in
    a society where free speech is so valued.

  • I wish someone would spell out our beloved US Constitution and remind us all that we are “The” Nation that has “The” Constitution that if followed would free the human race from destruction and misery!
    Having said that, I wish we are able to rise up to occasions and learn to understand and forgive, rather than point fingers towards others blaming them for miseries we end up in, due to our own wrong choices and decisions.
    Fellow nationals and citizens! Our Constitution is as perfect as it can be, but we are just human! We can only try!
    Mistakes are made by everyone, and no one person’s decision matters. No one can dictate Americans! So let us not give this wrong impression that any “One”person or “Group” is responsible for trying to take our rights and freedoms from us!
    The Constitution does not just mention rights and freedom. Along with that it also very clearly states our responsibilities as citizens !
    There are always two sides to a story! Enough of the common blame ” The captain is wrong!” It is time for us to ask of our selves, “Where did we as a society go wrong?”
    I say, that we all should give back the confidence and trust to our Captain that we took away from him!
    The American dream “is the US Constitution” and folks it still exists! The question is, “Has this dream been most precious to us all? More precious than a few more bucks adding to our profits?”
    Little House on the Prairie is a TV series based on the American dream ! The American way! Does the story show all it’s characters as perfect women and men? No. They are shown as simple human beings at times making wrong decisions, but these simple humans are actually “Great Men and women”! Mistakes are made because they are human! Greatness in them is realizing their faults and overcoming them! Trying as best as they possibly can to do what is right, is what makes them great women and men!
    So where did we go wrong, and why is “Little House on the Prairie” just a TV show and no longer a true replica of our own lives anymore?
    I say, let us all unite and stand firm behind our Captain that we have chosen with our votes. Make him feel that we have full confidence and trust in him to serve the people of the greatest nation towards success! Our Captain too is our fellow citizen, have the same dream !
    He stands alone today against demons in human disguise that hate what America stands for!
    As Americans we have a right to defend our families, our freedom from bastards that hate our existence!
    As a true american our Captain did what he was called to do! and now all we have to do is stop this bitching and blaming. This is exactly what the enemies that hate us want!
    Remember that in the past, nations fell because they started blaming each other, rather than unite.
    God Bless our Pesident ! God Bless America !
    Respectfully,
    Esquire.

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