Text 13271, 92 rader
Skriven 2005-06-03 15:20:42 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JOHN MASSEY
Ärende: Gore and the internet
=============================

->  BS> You know, a verifiable cite.
-> 
->  "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative
in
-> creating the Internet"  

Why not tell the rest of the story John?

Via Snopes:

Internet of Lies

Claim:   Vice-President Al Gore claimed that he "invented" the Internet.

Status:   False.

Origins:   Despite the derisive references that continue even today, Al
Gore did not claim he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that
could reasonably be interpreted that way. The "Al Gore said he 'invented'
the Internet" put-downs were misleading, out-of-context distortions of
something he said during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "Late
Edition" program on 9 March 1999. When asked to describe what distinguished
him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator
Bill Bradley of New Jersey, Gore replied (in part):
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.

Clearly, although Gore's phrasing was clumsy (and perhaps self-serving), he
was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having
designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible, in an economic
and legislative sense, for fostering the development the I also invented
the microphone technology that we now know as the Internet. To claim that
Gore was seriously trying to take credit for the "invention" of the
Internet is, frankly, just silly political posturing that arose out of a
close presidential campaign. Gore never used the word "invent," and the
words "create" and "invent" have distinctly different meanings — the former
is used in the sense of "to bring about" or "to bring into existence" while
the latter is generally used to signify the first instance of someone's
thinking up or implementing an idea. (To those who say the words "create"
and "invent" mean exactly the same thing, we have to ask why, then, the
media overwhelmingly and consistently cited Gore as having claimed he
"invented" the Internet, even though he never used that word, and
transcripts of what he actually said were readily available.)

If President Eisenhower had said in the mid-1960s that he, while President,
"created" the Interstate Highway System, we would not have seen dozens and
dozens of editorials lampooning him for claiming he "invented" the concept
of highways or implying that he personally went out and dug ditches across
the country to help build the roadway. Everyone would have understood that
Ike meant he was a driving force behind the legislation that created the
highway system, and this was the very same concept Al Gore was expressing
about himself with his Internet statement.

Whether Gore's statement that he "took the initiative in creating the
Internet" is justified is a subject of debate. Any statement about the
"creation" or "beginning" of the Internet is difficult to evaluate, because
the Internet is not a homogenous entity (it's a collection of computers,
networks, protocols, standards, and application programs), nor did it all
spring into being at once (the components that comprise the Internet were
developed in various places at different times and are continuously being
modified, improved, and expanded). Despite a spirited defense of Gore's
claim by Vint Cerf (often referred to as the "father of the Internet") in
which he stated "that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made
it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that
surround it," many of the components of today's Internet came into being
well before Gore's first term in Congress began in 1977.

It is true, though, that Gore was popularizing the term "information
superhighway" in the early 1990s (although he did not, as is often claimed
by others, coin the phrase himself) when few people outside academia or the
computer/defense industries had heard of the Internet, and he sponsored the
1988 National High-Performance Computer Act (which established a national
computing plan and helped link universities and libraries via a shared
network) and cosponsored the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act
of 1992 (which opened the Internet to commercial traffic).

In May 2005, the organizers of the Webby Awards for online achievements
honored Al Gore with a lifetime achievement award for three decades of
contributions to the Internet. "He is indeed due some thanks and
consideration for his early contributions," said Vint Cerf.


A lie of omission is still a lie John but then that is a way of life with
the extremist right, isn't it?


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