Dowd in trouble?

[luckydevil]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/87255p-79552c.html

The Times also has

a columnist problem

In the town where I live, you can turn in a criminal by calling (800) 898-TIPS. The New York Times now offers a similar service to its readers. They can finger crooked stories by sending an E-mail to The Times at retrace@nytimes.com.

Jayson Blair is the proximate cause of this humiliating hotline. But some of the TIPS coming into The Times aren't about Blair.

Nobody knows exactly who's under investigation. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Rick Bragg was suspended last week for letting an uncredited intern do his reporting. He's quitting.

And at least one other internal review is taking place. It concerns Pulitzer Prize columnist Maureen Dowd.

I'm not a certified Timesologist, but I can't say I'm shocked by what's happening at the Newspaper of Record. I've been expecting a blowup since August, when The Times ran a front-page story misrepresenting Henry Kissinger's views on war with Iraq. A newspaper willing to lie so boldly in pursuit of its editorial agenda is a newspaper out of control.

In fact, after the Kissinger incident, I stopped reading The Times' news section. But because I'm in the column-writing business, I continued looking at the editorial and op-ed pages. It was there, this month, that I came across an article by Dowd titled "Osama's Offspring."

Dowd famously dislikes President Bush. She often calls him names and says mean things about him. This time, she accused him of flimflamming the country. Two bombs had just gone off in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, presumably detonated by Al Qaeda. According to Dowd, this gave the lie to the President's assertion, delivered in a speech in Little Rock, Ark., that Al Qaeda was "spent."

Here's what she wrote:

"'Al Qaeda is on the run,' President Bush said last week. 'That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly but surely being decimated ... they're not a problem anymore.'"

Here's what Bush actually said:

"Al Qaeda is on the run. That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly but surely being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore."

The words in italics were replaced in Dowd's column by three little dots. Those dots say to the reader: Trust me, I'm abbreviating here, but what I'm leaving out doesn't change the meaning.

But the dots did change the meaning. In fact, they turned it upside down.

Far from declaring Al Qaeda "spent," Bush was warning the country against complacency. The only terrorists the President declared "no longer a problem" were the ones already jailed or dead.

New York Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis says the paper is "looking into" the column.

If Dowd intentionally misrepresented the President's words, she is guilty of a journalistic offense much worse than Bragg's intern problem, or even Blair's fantasies.

Blair is a kid, after all, who made things up for fun and profit. Dowd is a major figure at The Times, a role model. A syndicated role model.

Other journalists, including Andrew Sullivan and Greg Pierce of The Washington Times, have noted Dowd's dot trick.

But as far as I know, I'm the first to turn her in to the TIPS hotline.

If The Times finds her guilty, it can send my reward money to the Home for Wayward Columnists.

And it should send Dowd there, too.

Originally published on May 28, 2003

[fansince62]

thanks lucky....dowd is excessively disagreeable......

[The Evil Genius]

I guess it all depends on what your definition of they're is. :laugh:

[Kilmer17]

Maureen Dowd lied to try and make the GOP look bad? Why is this news? I thought it was an accpeted practice for her. One we all knew existed.

I really dont understand why people are pissed about this. She is who she is.

[Riggo-toni]

That can't be true! The whole thing about "liberal media bias" is all a fantasy fabricated by some vast right-wing conspiracy....:dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

[redman]

It's funny that a woman who wrote so many tirades about Enron's funny accounting practices has as much in common with them as her journalism career allows her to. She even tried to make a feminist point about how women were all the whistle blowers on the mens' transgressions there. Unfortunately, all she managed to fit into her mouth was her foot.

Run a Google search of "Maureen Dowd" Enron and read a few of her articles. And laugh . . . and laugh.

[The Evil Genius]

This reminds me of the infamous Gore invented the Internet quote.

Problem is, Gore never said he invented the Internet.

[Kilmer17]

How is this even close to that?

In a March 1999 interview with Wolf Blitzer, Gore said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

I don't have any stake in this Maureen Dowd business, mainly because she's always struck me as a fairly mediocre journalist and nothing to get excited about (pro or con).

But I will add her name to the list of people (journalists, politicians, Hollywood figures, other public figures) who are being publicly flogged for opposing Bush or not cheerleading the war against Iraq.

It's getting a bit creepy, frankly. Essentially any American I've noticed who opposes Bush or the war is shortly met with some sort of public smear or ridicule, sometimes completely unrelated (such as Robert Byrd's suddenly relevant KKK past).

Maureen Dowd isn't worth championing, but this trend is truly disturbing me. It's like there's a blacklist operation being run, in a very coordinated fashion, through the American media, to silence and discredit any opposition.

[Kilmer17]

She's being flogged for shoddy reporting and journalism. Dont mistake the two.

[The Evil Genius]

Originally posted by Kilmer17

How is this even close to that?

Kilmer,

Being a person for words, I am sure that you can tell the difference between...

"I invented the internet" and "I took the initiative in creating the Internet".

What Gore said, in reference to his interview with Wolf Blitzer was this..

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

What Gore was saying, albeit clumsily was that he was responsible for creating an environment that advanced the Internet. Now, how did he do that? He claims through legislation.

Don't believe me? Vint Cerf (one of the Father's of the internet - and co creater of the TCP/IP protocol) backed Gore's claim up.

Now, to get back on topic - this looks like Dowd took the same liberties with Bush's quotes that others have taken with Gore's internet quote. Deliberatly changing what was said to belittle.

Make sense now?

[fansince62]

ASF...if these folks had something credible to bring to the debate you would see a different reaction...but they don't...they are practicing the very same villification - and have been for a long time - that you find so disturbing (but are incidently well practiced at as well)....

[luckydevil]

EG is right.

[Kilmer17]

TEG< I misunderstood what you were implying. I get it now. You are referring to HER actions, I thought you were referring to the reaction to her actions.

My bad.

[fansince62]

please show us further evidence...the Internet grew out of DoD's ARPANET and subsequent NSF infrastructures....please present examples of legislation sponsored by Gore that would attest to his having contributed to "creating" the Internet......

[JimboDaMan]

Vint Cerf says Gore is correct. fan disputes it. Not a tough choice here.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 17:43:58 -0400

From: vinton g. cerf <vcerf@MCI.NET>

To: Declan McCullaugh <declan@well.com>, farber@cis.upenn.edu

Cc: rkahn@cnri.reston.va.us

Subject: Al Gore and the Internet

Dave and Declan,

I am taking the liberty of sending to you both a brief

summary of Al Gore's Internet involvement, prepared by

Bob Kahn and me. As you know, there have been a seemingly

unending series of jokes chiding the vice president for

his assertion that he "took the initiative in creating

the Internet."

Bob and I believe that the vice president deserves significant

credit for his early recognition of the importance of what has

become the Internet.

I thought you might find this short summary of sufficient

interest to share it with Politech and the IP lists, respectively.

==============================================================

Al Gore and the Internet

By Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf

Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.

No one person or even small group of persons exclusively “invented” the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community. But as the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore’s contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time.

Last year the Vice President made a straightforward statement on his role. He said: “During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” We don’t think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he “invented” the Internet. Moreover, there is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore’s initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet. The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening. We feel it is timely to offer our perspective.

As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship. Though easily forgotten, now, at the time this was an unproven and controversial concept. Our work on the Internet started in 1973 and was based on even earlier work that took place in the mid-late 1960s. But the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to !

!

!

natu

ral disasters and other crises.

As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks into an “Interagency Network.” Working in a bi-partisan manner with officials in Ronald Reagan and George Bush’s administrations, Gore secured the passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in 1991. This “Gore Act” supported the National Research and Education Network (NREN) initiative that became one of the major vehicles for the spread of the Internet beyond the field of computer science.

As Vice President Gore promoted building the Internet both up and out, as well as releasing the Internet from the control of the government agencies that spawned it. He served as the major administration proponent for continued investment in advanced computing and networking and private sector initiatives such as Net Day. He was and is a strong proponent of extending access to the network to schools and libraries. Today, approximately 95% of our nation’s schools are on the Internet. Gore provided much-needed political support for the speedy privatization of the Internet when the time arrived for it to become a commercially-driven operation.

There are many factors that have contributed to the Internet’s rapid growth since the later 1980s, not the least of which has been political support for its privatization and continued support for research in advanced networking technology. No one in public life has been more intellectually engaged in helping to create the climate for a thriving Internet than the Vice President. Gore has been a clear champion of this effort, both in the councils of government and with the public at large.

The Vice President deserves credit for his early recognition of the value of high speed computing and communication and for his long-term and consistent articulation of the potential value of the Internet to American citizens and industry and, indeed, to the rest of the world.

[aREDSKIN]

JimboDaMan Vint Cerf says Gore is correct. fan disputes it. Not a tough choice here.

Read it agin Jimbo. Your assertion is incorrect.

We don’t think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he “invented” the Internet.

Well what did Mr. Gore intend to claim?

[JimboDaMan]

aREDSKIN, is that a joke?

Find me the quote where Al Gore claimed he invented the internet.

Find it.

[aREDSKIN]

Gore-“During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet.”

My point was that your assertation that Gore is correct via Cerf was incorrect. Gore was at least, in Cerf's view, a part of the internet momentum community. Cerf's contribution was built upon many others contributions and efforts of which he rightly admits.

Gore's claim of "creating the internet" is just an example of a politicians' exaggerated claim of something that wasn't. How does Cerf know what Gore intened when he (Gore) made that famous claim (gaffe)?

Cerf's interpetation of Gore statement. "We don’t think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he “invented” the Internet."

[JimboDaMan]

I dearly hope this obtuseness is really a joke and does not reflect on conservative "thought".

BLITZER: I want to get to some of the substance of domestic and international issues in a minute, but let's just wrap up a little bit of the politics right now.

Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley, a friend of yours, a former colleague in the Senate? What do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process?

GORE: Well, I will be offering - I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And it will be comprehensive and sweeping. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be.

But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

During a quarter century of public service, including most of it long before I came into my current job, I have worked to try to improve the quality of life in our country and in our world. And what I've seen during that experience is an emerging future that's very exciting, about which I'm very optimistic, and toward which I want to lead.

Cerf: When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication.

There's no ambiguity here. None. Gore was speaking in terms of his political accomplishments and Cerf proved his point. Gore was, far and away, the major proponent of the internet in the Congress and in the US government.

[fansince62]

Jimbodaman...whether you believe or not what I say is immaterial.....

1) what core legislation did Gore propose that actually moved ARPANET into its NSF incarnations and on into its current shape?

2) Many folks talked about and professed support for the telecommunications age we were embarking on - that one's a freebee.

3) The Internet actually "took off" mostly through the advent of the world wide web - by far the dominating technology/protocol in terms of the growth and "democratization" of networking. and that core technology came from a non-American, Tim Berners Lee (if I recall correctly). Al Gore had nothing to do with that.

4) If you're going to reach for seed concepts, the initial conceptual impetus came from a RAND study considering alternatives for creating a robust command & control structure for nuclear systems.

5) Gore very likely was a proponent in a very general way. Obviously, so were other politicians who receive no mention. Someone secured the funding/political consensus to build ARPANET; support the division of ARPANET into Milnet and a public component; developed intellectual property legislation as it applies to information on the Internet; kept his/her hands in the murky waters of privacy; paid attention to Title 10/50 distinctions on who could do what with in terms of network activity; participated in AT&T deliberations and its impact on IXC and LEC influence on networking; followed public satellite funding/legal restrictions as these impacted the development of WANS; understood the technical implications of differing standards between Europe and the US; had a hand in command line versus GUI technologies; followed the morass of chaotic but progressive proposals from organizations as varied as IANA/IETF/CERT/ITU and on; worked with NIST and NSA on cryptographic standards; paid attention to the security implications of the evolving architectures.....in short....show me the damn evidence that he was a seminal player in all or most or some of these or other issues before making the claim that he was a "Father of the Internet". Once again, shoddy reconstructionism may be appealing to many....but that doesn't make it so. The claim that he was a key political advocate, that he was a key cog in the evolution of the Internet, that he even understood the shape it was taking has not been established.

[JimboDaMan]

Al Gore, Congressional testimony, 1986:

MR. PRESIDENT, IT GIVES ME GREAT PLEASURE TO SUPPORT THE PROPOSED NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AUTHORIZATION ACT.

WITHIN THIS BILL I HAVE TWO AMENDMENTS, THE COMPUTER NETWORK STUDY AND THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT REPORT. THE FIRST AMENDMENT WAS ORIGINALLY INTRODUCED WITH SENATOR GORTON AS S. 2594. IT CALLS FOR A 2-YEAR STUDY OF THE CRITICAL PROBLEMS AND CURRENT AND FUTURE OPTIONS REGARDING COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS FOR RESEARCH COMPUTERS. THE SECOND AMENDMENT REQUIRES THE PRESIDENT TO SUBMIT A REPORT TO CONGRESS ON THE ACTIONS TAKEN TO ESTABLISH AN INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT.

BOTH OF THESE AMENDMENTS SEEK NEW INFORMATION ON CRITICAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY. THE COMPUTER NETWORK STUDY ACT IS DESIGNED TO ANSWER CRITICAL QUESTIONS ON THE NEEDS OF COMPUTER TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS OVER THE NEXT 15 YEARS. FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT ARE THE FUTURE REQUIREMENTS FOR COMPUTERS IN TERMS OF QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF DATA TRANSMISSION, DATA SECURITY, AND SOFTWEAR [sic] COMPATIBILITY? WHAT EQUIPMENT MUST BE DEVELOPED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HIGH TRANSMISSION RATES OFFERED BY FIBER OPTIC SYSTEMS?

BOTH SYSTEMS DESIGNED TO HANDLE THE SPECIAL NEEDS OF SUPERCOMPUTERS AND SYSTEMS DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF SMALLER RESEARCH COMPUTERS WILL BE EVALUATED. THE EMPHASIS IS ON RESEARCH COMPUTERS, BUT THE USERS OF ALL COMPUTERS WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS STUDY. TODAY, WE CAN BANK BY COMPUTER, SHOP BY COMPUTER, AND SEND LETTERS BY COMPUTER. ONLY A FEW COMPANIES AND INDIVIDUALS USE THESE SERVICES, BUT THE NUMBER IS GROWING AND EXISTING CAPABILITIES ARE LIMITED.

IN ORDER TO COPE WITH THE EXPLOSION OF COMPUTER USE IN THE COUNTRY, WE MUST LOOK TO NEW WAYS TO ADVANCE THE STATE-OF-THE-ART IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS -- NEW WAYS TO INCREASE THE SPEED AND QUALITY OF THE DATA TRANSMISSION. WITHOUT THESE IMPROVEMENTS, THE TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS FACE DATA BOTTLENECKS LIKE THOSE WE FACE EVERY DAY ON OUR CROWDED HIGHWAYS.

THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS ALREADY AWARE OF THE NEED TO EVALUATE AND ADOPT NEW TECHNOLOGIES. ONE PROMISING TECHNOLOGY IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF FIBER OPTIC SYSTEMS FOR VOICE AND DATA TRANSMISSION. EVENTUALLY WE WILL SEE A SYSTEM OF FIBER OPTIC SYSTEMS BEING INSTALLED NATIONWIDE.

AMERICA'S HIGHWAYS TRANSPORT PEOPLE AND MATERIALS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. FEDERAL FREEWAYS CONNECT WITH STATE HIGHWAYS WHICH CONNECT IN TURN WITH COUNTY ROADS AND CITY STREETS. TO TRANSPORT DATA AND IDEAS, WE WILL NEED A TELECOMMUNICATIONS HIGHWAY CONNECTING USERS COAST TO COAST, STATE TO STATE, CITY TO CITY. THE STUDY REQUIRED IN THIS AMENDMENT WILL IDENTIFY THE PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES THE NATION WILL FACE IN ESTABLISHING THAT HIGHWAY.

[upper case shown, indicating a contemporaneous insertion into the Congressional Record at the time of corresponding floor debate.]

Fansince says:

2) Many folks talked about and professeed support for the telecommunications age we were embarking on - that one's a freebee.

Gore made the above speech when the IBM PC was 4 years old. Virtually nobody in the political arena was talking about the internet at that time, and absolutely nobody understood its potential power or did as much to facilitate it as did Al Gore.

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

I'll toss in two cents here, because I've worked in the computer industry since 1985 and have authored a number of long-term strategic studies during that time, with a particular focus on the Internet.

In his Senate days, Gore believed he had inherited a mantle from his father, who was apparently instrumental in building the U.S. interstate superhighway system. Gore more than anyone else popularized the connection between the "information superhighway" and the physical interstate highway system, and he saw it as his personal role to be the key elected official to make this "information superhighway" a reality. This was long before the World Wide Web was a gleam in the eye of Tim Berners-Lee.

Gore "invented" nothing, in terms of technology. But he understood the technical capabilities and potential of the Internet, was a fierce advocate for funding in the early days (when no one in Congress understood the Internet), and was later a key player restraining regulation and taxation of the Internet once it developed.

He's gotten a raw deal on this, mainly because of lazy reporters and comedians who would rather distort the record by laughing at Gore.

[fansince62]

that is general stuff any staff hack could write - heck it's still grist in most funding proposals one reads. btw, the technologies were being investigated in the military well before Gore got involved. again...that Gore was on the right side isn't at issue...I accept that he was a player. but the aserrtion that he was the "Father of the Internet"...or helped "create the Internet" implies more than being on the right side of a train that had alreaady left the station. and proof for the claimed seminal role has not been establisheed. If you're going to get down to the nitty gritty.....as NREN took shape...there was no concept at all for a democratized Internet. as one can discern from the shape the protocls took, that system was intended as a closed conduit for a imitted group of scientists to share short messages. on the public side of the house, the initial "WAN" connected 5 supercomputing centers. there was no greater vision at that time. again, the Internet as it exists today really took off with the invention of HTTP, HTML and allied protocols. What did Al Gore have to do with this from a technical, policy or funding pov?

[Kilmer17]

My question was when did he have time to do it? What with being the lead in "Love Story" and all. Or having his mom sing "Wearing the Union Label" as she rocked him.