apropos list talk and our culture

[Tim May]

At 5:38 AM -0700 10/29/97, Brad Dolan wrote:
>"Michael Hays" is a new CBS series about a U.S. District Attorney.  Last
>night's episode was about how a radio talk-show host incited a listener
>to kill a BATF agent and was brought to justice.  DA convinced a jury
>that some things were "more important" than the first amendment.
>

I was just about to mention this show, in connection with the Waco incident.

I was truly disgusted by the show. None of the relative balance and realism
that "Law and Order" has, by comparison. For starters, very unrealistic.
Even Freeh and Company understand the role of the First (to give them their
due). Just plain bad writers.

Some of the slimy stuff:  (all quotes are rough paraphrases)

* references to Waco followers as crazies: "they seem to show up everywhere"

* a black assistant to Hayes talks about the chat rooms and online
discussion groups that the "extreme right wing" people are in: "And this
stuff is completely unregulated!"

* the First Amendment is seen as a minor obstacle to prosecution. Hayes
congratulates his assistant at the end for finding a way around the First
as a defense.

* the talk show host has apparently done nothing more than many of us have
done on this list

* he is convicted because he claimed not to have ever met the murderer, but
a tearful witness (girlfriend of the murderer) says they did meet, briefly.

(No evidence is presented that the talk show host participated, supplied
weapons, encouraged the murderer, etc.)

* Oh, and to add to the sliminess, the DA's office promises the tearful
girlfriend that her boyfriend will get a life sentence instead of death if
she testifies, but "whoops."

After the assistant to Hayes talks about the Net being "completely
unregulated!," and after finding the "Pentium II with 48 megs of memory," I
was expecting some mention of encryption. As a way to further show how evil
the online community is. But I saw no mention.

I will admit to a guilty pleasure: the opening scene, where the BATF agent
gets shot in the face, was delicious.

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."