Declan McCullagh wrote:

It was the New York Times, which had front-paged a scaremongering above-the-fold article by Christopher Wren: http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/062097drug.html

Then the Boston Globe's technology reporter, Hiawatha Bray, leaped in...

Every time a journalist writes a story about the seamier side of the Net, somebody complains that this will give outsiders the wrong idea. Nonsense. I think what really worries you is that such stories give people the RIGHT idea--that there are sex fiends, dope smokers and would-be Unabombers on-line. Well, there are. And as long as there are, journalists will write about the fact.

"And when somebody's mother gets machine-gunned in the street, we'll send some joker with a Brownie (camera) so you'll see it all complete." - Frank Zappa, "I Am the Slime" (That crawls out of your TV set) A person unfamiliar with technology might have trouble knowing if they have hit the correct button to switch from the "snuff-flick" video they were watching to the news channel. Take pity on the Times and the Globe. After all, they have to compete with headlines such as "I Cut Out My Baby's Heart and Stomped On It!" (National Enquirer) for the public's hard-earned dollars. As far as Bray's view that journalists know the RIGHT idea of how things should be viewed, I would be the last one to suggest that he is a FUCKING FASCIST JOURNA-PROPA-GANDIST who attributes RIGHT ways of viewing an issue as a divine right of journalists. Most journalists are similar to lawyers, it may be their job to take one stance/view today and another one tomorrow. If Timothy McVeigh's actions had resulted in sweeping government changes which led to the halting of all government abuses, then we might be seeing stories reflecting McVeigh's regrets about the children present. {cut to picture of Timothy playing with neighbor's child} Journalists have to maintain a facade of self-importance in order to be able to live with the fact that the eloquent expose they have worked on for a month might get thrown in the crapper if Elvis is spotted on the internet shortly before press time. TruthMonger