From ld231782 Fri Nov 19 19:05:25 1993 Return-Path: Received: from parry.lance.colostate.edu by longs.lance.colostate.edu (5.65/lance.1.5) id AA27629; Fri, 19 Nov 93 19:05:17 -0700 Message-Id: <9311200205.AA27629@longs.lance.colostate.edu> To: cypherpunks@toad.com Cc: ld231782 Subject: War of the Worlds Date: Fri, 19 Nov 93 19:05:16 -0700 From: "L. Detweiler" X-Mts: smtp Apparently, many Cypherpunks hold the Wells' program `War of the Worlds' up as a masterpiece of public deception. `The problem was that people trusted their radios.' Actually, I think the problem was that their radios betrayed them. The radio had been built up as a medium of trust -- with news reports by anchormen that were among some of the most admired and respected public people. They were betrayed by Wells. Wells had the sense to apologize, and many new safeguards and taboos evolved from the fiasco. War of the Worlds, on the radio, is similar to Medusa building up trust with tentacles in cyberspace, and then betraying trust by unplugging them when the going gets tough. Except, however, that Wells and other officials apologized for their lapse in judgement. With Medusa, there is no concept of `plugging away' to resolve an unpleasant situation. Medusa just severs a snake and runs away like a coward or a criminal. There is nothing but disreputable shame in this. When CBS (?) broadcast `the day after', a simulation of a nuclear holocaust, there was a great hullaballoo about all the care they had taken to ensure that no one took the dramatization seriously. Also, NBC ran into intensely unpleasant repercussions for their `fake exploding pickup' piece (didn't someone resign over this)? The point is that the media takes Truth very seriously. They go to the greatest lengths to achieve it. Psychopunks love to cynically talk about how the entire media is just another disinformation outlet. *You're* just another grotesque disinformation outlet, deceiving honest reporters and infecting respectable outlets like Wired and NYT with your soothing lies about `privacy' and `Big Brother' when really talking about `rights and protections for criminals'. The King is Dead. Long Live the King.