i’ve been seeing and hearing alot regarding the ‘al-gore-invented-the-internet’ fiasco [including a story on this american life that i can’t find right now]. but, until reading this, i didn’t realize the role that wired played in the whole mess:
“The overall assessment of Wired News’ performance on this story
must be negative. Its original article was harshly polemical and
misleading on several counts. Its second, short article was part
of the emerging and misleading media consensus. Its third, much
longer article was also harshly polemical, falsely asserts that Al
Gore claimed to have invented the Internet, and wraps up this false
assertion with two additional false assertions about Gore that it
recycled from the conservative press. None of these articles was
remotely balanced or fair, and none of them reported a single scrap
of positive information about Gore’s contribution, except to portray
it in a negative light. Finally, Wired News’ most recent article
is misleading about the contents of the earlier articles and grossly
disingenuous in the way that it supplies positive evaluations that
were entirely missing from the earlier articles.Wired News’ articles about Al Gore and the Internet did not simply
contribute an urban myth to American culture. They were part and
parcel of a hysterical campaign of character assassination against
an innocent man based on lies and distortions. This campaign should
bring disgrace to Wired News and all of the other media organizations
that were part of it. It should also cause sober reflection on the
corrupt state of public discourse in this country.”
i just understand how this misunderstanding could have been perpetuated to such a degree – al is, after all, the early adopter
[ via rc3 ]