[LINK] Tasmanians to be forced to connect to NBN under new laws

[Stilgherrian]

On 08/10/2010, at 6:42 AM, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> 3. What will Tasmanians be "forced" to buy? Nothing at all.

Exactly. The Meedjuh dutifully repeated Malcolm Turnbull's scaremongering in what NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen would call lazy he-said she-said journalism. Just report what people say, never mind whether it's obviously false.

    http://archive.pressthink.org/2009/04/12/hesaid_shesaid.html

The Fairfax headline, "Tasmanians to be forced to connect to NBN under new laws", is particularly egregious because it's basically a lie.

I repeat that word: a lie.

No-one is "forced" to do anything if they can opt out simply by signing a form. And certainly "connecting to the network" is not required of anyone, merely the installation of a link to the property should anyone wish to take up the services on offer. Or not. As they wish.

I wrote a chunk about this (non)-drama for Crikey yesterday, including the point that being "forced" to connect to the NBN to get a fixed-line voice phone is no different from being "forced" to the Testra-owned copper customer access network (CAN) today. The CAN is the infrastructure. The rest are the services which are delivered upon it.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/10/07/coalition-objection-to-nbn-opt-out-is-just-scaremongering/

Stil


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