[LINK] Web filter debate descends into slanging match at Kickstart Forum 2009

[Jan Whitaker]

At 09:09 AM 25/02/2009, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>Yet Ms McMenamin cried foul on similar name-calling from the filter
>critics. "I think it's really incredibly arrogant to call people and
>those who support internet filtering stupid and the scheme stupid, and
>it's a very simplistic approach to something that is in discussion by a
>lot of different people," she said, later adding that critics seemed to
>be focused on the business, not human, impact. In all the debates,
>you're not thinking about the children, you're thinking about the
>internet, you're thinking about the profits, you're thinking about the
>slowdown, you're thinking about technology ­ so, yes, it is up to some
>of us to think about the children."

At least she's there to engage. When I called her 
on it in the newspaper, I received an email from 
some non-name in her office (?) who asked me to 
call. I did. She didn't take the call and never 
returned it. I guess I just found out why she 
didn't call me back. Maybe she thought I was male 
from my letter? Maybe she won't debate a female? 
Maybe she didn't expect to be contacted directly 
despite the request? Who knows.

She is ignorant. That's all. She has an 
ill-informed hysterical bias that is going to 
harm more than it helps the situation, as many of 
us have argued till we're blue in the face for 
the past 10 years. I'm sure she wouldn't like to 
be called ignorant either. But she obviously is.

Way to go, Mark.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing 
the silver for guests. - JW, May, 2007
_ __________________ _