Re: Can reporters quote your 2020 posts?

[Scott_Dredge@BayNetworks.COM (Scott Dredge)]

At 07:38 AM 6/12/98 -0700, Bill London wrote:
-- snip --
>	With 150 subscribers, including reporters from several local newspapers, I
>think we should look upon this method of communication as a community-wide
>soap box or bulletin board.  We should expect that our words will receive
>wide dissemination.
>	Any other thoughts on this???
>	BL

I would expect that reporters would quote our written comments out of
context much in the same way they routinely quote verbal comments out of
context.  Why is so much importance placed on the accuracy of what someone
says or writes in an informal forum like v2020?  I post my opinions to this
list partly in the hopes that someone might reply with information that I
have previously not been exposed to.  This may cause me to reevaluate my
positions.  Once enlightened, what sort of accountability is to be expected
for a previous logically flawed post?

It's odd to me that so much emphasis is placed on the accuracy what someone
says or writes in the course of an informal discussion.  The media is quick
to crucify someone with an erroneous opinion and yet is vauge in condemning
someone's heinous actions.  Say or write something ignorant and you too can
become the most hated person in America (the media has been ruthless
regarding statements made by Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich).  Commit some
heinous crime against humanity and the blame game changes from holding the
person accountable to suggesting that an inanimate object (i.e. gun, car,
truck) or society (i.e. he grew up in a poor neighborhood) is at fault.

I think that if you're going to hold everyone accountable for what they
post to this list, then you're going to stifle the conversation.  Not all
of us can consistently write the perfect Lou Sternberg type essay.

-Scott                 

> Truck plows into California restaurant, 12 hurt
>
> SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A pickup truck plowed
> into a crowded restaurant in Pinole, Calif.,
> injuring up to 12 people, some seriously, police
> said early Sunday.
> 
> The truck slammed into a Long John Silver
> restaurant in the city of Pinole, 15 miles
> northeast of San Francisco, at about 7:40 p.m.
> Saturday.
> 
> The truck broke through the restaurant's outer
> wall, hitting tables inside, Pinole police Sgt.
> Danny Hughes said.
> 
> No one was killed, but police said about a dozen
> people were injured, including two young children
> and the woman who was driving the truck.
> 
> ``It was very chaotic at first,'' Hughes said.
> ``There was a lot of debris scattered around.''
> 
> The injured were taken to local hospitals, where
> several were being treated, Hughes said. One of the
> injured children was admitted for abdominal pains.
> 
> Witnesses told police that the truck ``appeared to
> be out of control'' just before it hit the
> restaurant, Hughes said.
> 
> Police said they had yet to determine whether the
> driver was intoxicated.