Do you ever think of where we would be had Al Gore not invented the internets?

[BuyingThyme]

Where would we be were the mass media still controlling what we used to call the news?

Would we have doubts about electronic voting?

Would we know that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11?

Would we know about torture, renditioning, domestic spying, the various other attacks on the Constitution, traitors in the Vice President's office...?

While it seems at times that we are helpless victims as compared to previous generations, it seems at the same time that we're better armed to deal with all this.

We're very fortunate victims.

I wonder if Al Gore's invention of the internets is the primary reason that the Pukes are so compelled to destroy the foundations of our country all at once.

Maybe they see this as their last opportunity.

Just got to thinking for a moment. Carry on.

[CC]

1. No, but I do dream of where we

would be had Al Gore been able to take his rightful place as President in 2001.

[racaulk]

4. Ditto.

:hi:

[baldguy]

2. .

[BuyingThyme]

8. I'd never seen that before.

Makes you think.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. Where do you get the idea that Al Gore "invented" the internet?

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

[Perry Logan]

6. On the other hand...

I came across this:

"I am one of the people who 'invented the Internet.' When we were writing the Internet Gopher programs, back prior to the World wide Web in 1991, we were visited by ONE U.S. Senator. It was this guy up from Tennessee who wanted to learn about the latest developments in technology. Al Gore visited the U of Mn campus to learn about the Internet while most of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists were still having their noses wiped by their moms.

Gore didn't claim to have "invented the Internet," but if he had the claim would have been no more of an aggrandizement than claiming Reagan 'won' the Cold War."
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/crooks/100115533#1603664

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. I don't deny for one second he was instrumental in making it happen

he was certainly a driving force behind taking it from a small collection of connected college computers to what we have today but the idea that he "invented" the internet is, I'm sorry to say, RW spin. That silliness has been used over and over again to mock Gore.

I am sure the OP is not mocking him, I'm just pointing out that it is inaccurate to suggest such a thing.

[Perry Logan]

11. We're on the same page about this. It was just an interesting comment I wanted to share.

[BuyingThyme]

7. He made them out of an old black and white TV set in the garage

of his Silicon Valley home in 1992.

[Perry Logan]

5. Or if the Republican Congress had had time to screw it up?

[madokie]

9. thats pretty easy one, we'd be up shit creek without a paddle is where we would be

and I'll say it right up front. And until we fix our m$m problems we have about as much chance of getting things right as a snowball has in hell. And thats coming from someone who doesn't believe in hell. ;-)

[BuyingThyme]

12. But are our mass media problems any worse than, say,

during the Vietnam era?

[madokie]

13. No I think we had some good reporters with sharp pencils in the Vietnam era

whereas today you can count 'em on one hand, KO and Bill Moyers, well we of also have Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, thats all I can think of at the moment

[whistle]

14. I think "facilitated" would be the more correct term

:kick:

[Uncle Joe]

15. Al Gore might be President today if he hadn't worked so hard to empower us, that's my view.

I believe it was precisely because Al Gore took the political lead in giving the people a voice around, over and through the corporate media by opening up the Internet, that in turn fueled their hatred or disdain of him. I call it the Prometheus effect.

As the Internet grew in power and influence taking some of the corporate media's power and influence away from them and giving it to the people, they couldn't help but resent him. I believe this is the primary emotional basis for their near two year continuous slander and libel against his credibility or integrity, while they gave Bush a free pass to the White House.

The Al Gore claimed to have Invented the Internet was just one of many such lies, the corporate media perpetuated.

For the religious people out there, "They bore false witness against him" and the nation not to mention the planet has paid a heavy price ever since.

[damntexdem]

16. Still trying to connect up all those tubes?

Of course humans used to have this thing called community whereby they actually talked to each other face to face, even talking politics; but thank goodness text messaging has replaced that. ;-)

[Uncle Joe]

17. I believe they both have their place but the message

you just posted can be viewed by the entire world, almost instantaneously, I also view D.U. as a community of sorts, people who would otherwise probably never know each other.

[L. Coyote]

18. Example of the Day: TPM brought us the USA Firings Scandal by digging into Lam's canning

They were following the Cunningham bribery trial in her district, and understood the correlation of events, then looked at other USAs!

We would be in the Dark Age still without the WWW. And,

The roads would be cluttered with dump trucks of information, were it not for the electronic series of tubes. :rofl:

[Spike89]

19. Not much difference in some ways

What too many media critics ignore/forget/never learned are two critical facts: a) The MSM is a myth--comparing television to newspapers to radio is silly, lumping them all together is just as silly in most cases. b) The media is and always has been a profit center and almost everyone of these media outlets has ferocious competition (or at least the threat of it).

Take those two facts into account and the Internet simply fits into the void left by the end of most effective "alternative" newspapers. Kill the Internet today, and in a few months you'll find a Huffinton Post-analog (probably a Freeper version too)available in most metro areas.

Part of why television news seems so useless today is that it simply CAN'T deliver what most critics demand. There is still money in television news, if you can be middle-of-the-road enough (try and avoid any controversy, or at least controversy that will anger many viewers). Alternately, you can appeal strongly to one side or the other (Fox, KO/John Stewart) and make money. Network television is not suited for true news delivery, never really has been, but did it fairly well when there were no alternatives. The Internet, cable proliferation, and the demand of the public for "custom" news have left the networks and even most of the cable sources as irrelevant, except as live video sources.

Without the Internets, I think we'd have more newspapers, maybe slightly better television news, and certainly stronger radio news (there would be demand and money to be made). Word would get to us a bit slower, but we'd have pretty much the same news stew we get with the Internet.

[Uncle Joe]

20. I believe you're selling the Internet short.

Television, radio and newspapers do have one major thing in common, they're all one way dominated communication. The very few at the top control the message, even alternative newspapers adhere to that principle to a large degree, furthermore alternative newspapers by their very nature are usually limited in size and scope. Even writing a letter to the editor is a crap shoot of sorts for publication competing with many other letters and no doubt the Editor's political point of view has some if not major influence on which letters are published and their placement.

Television and radio networks are only mainstream in that just about every home has these as their primary source of information, however only major corporations or the mega-wealthy can own such institutions. Also this very form of one way communication by just a handful of powerful owners creates a bubble or Matrix, of created reality for the public.

On the other hand, the Internet democratizes information like nothing else. Virtually every home with a computer has convenient access to the Internet, and it's not just the quality of the news or information being put out there for public consumption that matters, but the very public open for the world to see instantaneous two or more way dissemination of that news, idea or information.

I suppose even the Internet is a profit center of sorts as D.U., among other sites has their fund drives and advertising, but the major difference is that the Internet is the most democratically people driven Institution since the birth of democracy during Golden Age of Greece, even more so with the Internet because there are no limitations due to race, age, religious belief, nationality or gender.

[Spike89]

21. I agree that the Internet is special

But in context of the OP, especially the part about how we might not have uncovered much of the corruption of the present admin, I can't buy it. The Internet is incredibly democratic...but people creating communities, sharing opinions, flaming, spamming, etc. does not break stories. Investigative journalists do (OK, really, whistle blowers calling journalists are more typical) and then the journalists verify (or too often don't), then report. I really haven't seen the Internet as being unique or really changing (other than speeding up the process) basic news gathering and reporting.
We've been here before. Nixon certainly wasn't the most open president, but somehow news about his admin made it into the news without the Internets.

[Uncle Joe]

22. I believe the reason, Nixon's corruption made it in to the open,

is because he and his men blatantly undermined the Democratic Party through their wiretapping. The Democratic Party being a major power broker, I can't help but wonder had he illegally wiretapped the American People as a whole, whether that would've made the news when it counted?

While I agree regarding the need for investigative journalism, the current structure of the corporate media seems to stifle much of that as opposed to encouraging or promoting it. I believe today, the whistle blowers are becoming more likely to make their views known through the Internet, and one whistle blower site was just shut down by a judge regarding a bank in the Cayman Islands, I doubt the corporate media will pick that ball up.

One other point about the Internet, I believe it creates a higher IQ or consciousness through a synergistic pooling of minds, and I find the analysis far superior to that which is telecast by the same players, who receive paychecks for their simple opinions from the corporate media, you just have to work to separate the wheat from the chaff in the Internet. Television has come to resemble the movie Groundhog Day to me with the same inane blather and little to no other options or choice, remaining in their self-imposed box while trying to keep the American People there as well. Their opinions and analysis depend on corporate approval, in one form or another, ours doesn't they can only push the envelope so far.

[lpbk2713]

23. There's a lot of folks in Nigeria who wouldn't be able to redeem their inheritance checks.

Thanks to the internets I can now hear from them all the time.

:eyes: :eyes:

[orleans]

24. we would not be together, having that picnic we had last weekend

sharing the holidays and special occasions together
chatting it up (and down)
dissecting life as we know it, philosophizing,
sharing good times and bad

(i would not be here--about to turn my profile back on. i turned it off last night to see if it would make a difference as to how people posted back to me. it didn't. they still pretty much ignored me. HEY GUYS! I BROUGHT THE POTATO SALAD! DID YOU ALL FORGET?)

[Uncle Joe]

26. I heard through the grape vine, you made killer potato salad.

:party: :toast:

[orleans]

28. (it was the green olives--that always gives it a ZING)

zzzzZZZZIIINNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

(wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. Before Gore:

[dchill]

27. Get this straight: Gore only invented the FIRST internet.

All the other internets were invented by George W. Bush!