RE: Reporter faked the news.

["James Tobin" <RJT@gml.lib.uwm.edu>]

I hope this is not too inflammatory--because the cases are not
equivalent--but Chuck's comment reminded me of something Hannah Arendt
said in The Origins of Totalitarianism about the ability of certain
infamous regimes to expunge all official records of a purged person; in
effect bringing it about that, not only would the person no longer exist,
but that, according to the official record, the person never had existed.  
Something for a newspaper of record to reflect on, perhaps.  There is so
much lying and distortion in our public discourse that to identify and
highlight known instances of it is to perform a valuable public service.

Jim Tobin

>>> cahamake@email.uncc.edu 5/13/2003 5:41:22 AM >>>

Sure, its their "property" but they only hold that right as granted to
them for the public good. I respectfully disagree with Joe Esposito.
Having had a few "words" with him in other forums, I appreciate his
insight and knowledge. I do not believe they have the right to expunge the
public record. They may have it legally. That is a glaring deficiency in
the Supreme Court and Congressional reasoning.

As heritage it is not theirs to do with as they please.

We can lose more of our heritage in the electronic enivronment than has
ever been lost before.

Part of what we must do as a society is figure out how to preserve the
electronic heritage.

Corrupting the historical record because you own it, because you can, is
deeply destructive.

Civilization depends on the historic record. That is one of the few deeply
held beliefs I have about this profession we all take part in. It is how
our heritage is passed from one generation to the next. The whims and
vagaries of copyright ownership or license cannot be permitted to wipe the
record clean. 

Chuck Hamaker.