“A year ago, few would have predicted that a simple software application written by a college Freshman would capture the international media main-stage. Fewer still would have anticipated that this modest computer-science project would quickly swell to grotesque proportions, terrifying the mighty Titans of Hollywood’s entertainment industry, taxing the best wits of US judges and high-priced legal teams. But all this, and more, it has managed to do.

Stunning performance for a Freshman project to be sure; but a perverse complex of acrimonious and absurdly convoluted political contests in Washington, in which a conservative Senator has aligned himself against his own legislation, and of which Napster forms the raw core, has outshone even these considerable achievements.”

“Corporate executives can talk until they’re blue in the face about wireless Web strategies, and they can point to all manner of sophisticated technologies used in building a wireless Web infrastructure. There might even be promising applications on the horizon: wireless IP-based radio, perhaps, or less-expensive global positioning systems for your car. But so far, the wireless Web looks like a giant sinkhole, with a lot of money and talent pouring in to solve problems that don’t really exist. Right now, there’s not much evidence that “the Web on your phone” is anything but dead on arrival, just another tech bubble getting ready to burst.”

“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.”