My colleagues at the Berkman Center, Rebecca MacKinnon and John Palfrey, have penned an op-ed piece for Newsweek’s international edition called “Censorship Inc.” Takeaway: If we’re not careful, we may wake up one day to discover that what a person can see and do on the Web will be radically different depending on which country […]
Posts under ‘Ethics’
Anonymity, Attacks and Credibility
Terry Heaton: A blogging pioneer calls it quits. And so extortion has won a victory, and the blogosphere has lost a pioneering voice. Peggy is brusk and competitive and has made her share of enemies, but nobody deserves the kind of personal attacks this site apparently distributed. Were the attacks libelous? Or merely insulting? I […]
Google's Dual View of World
From Dave Farber’s Interesting People mail list: Here’s what censorship does. Compare Google China: http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen Google the rest of the world: http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen
A Publisher's Deceptions, Money Trumping Honor
Timothy Noah (Slate): Did Nan Talese Lie To Oprah? – What did James Frey’s publisher know and when did she know it? Yes, Talese learned about the particular fabrications exposed by The Smoking Gun (there were more than two) “at the same time” that Winfrey did. But Talese had reason to believe Frey hadn’t told […]
Bloggers' Junket
Beltway Blogroll: A Luxurious Junket For Bloggers. Bloggers no doubt will justify the trip by highlighting the transparency of the junket. For one year, they must link to the Bloggers in Amsterdam disclosure statement, which itself notes the transparency “mantra.” But curiously, the bloggers just started talking about the trip yesterday — and not all […]
Oprah's Wise Reconsideration
NY Times: Oprah Calls Defense of Author ‘a Mistake’. In an extraordinary reversal of her strident and angry defense of the author whose book she catapulted to the top of the best-seller list, Oprah Winfrey said today she believed that the author James Frey “betrayed millions of people” by making up elements of his life […]
Author Channeling George Orwell
Australian Broadcasting: Frey, Oprah stand by controversial memoir. James Frey says he stands by the “essential truth” of his memoir, A Million Little Pieces, after accusations were levelled that significant parts of the Oprah-approved best-seller were fabricated. Frey chose CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ show to defend his memoir and at the end of the show, […]