In your JULY 13, 2000 Pulpit column you speculate on the true nature of the Carnivore program.
"But I have my own theory about Carnivore. From a network architecture standpoint, the best location for Carnivore is right after the ISP's router. This puts Carnivore in the path of every packet entering or leaving the ISP. It's also a major reason why ISPs might not want to install Carnivore boxes -- it's the network's point of greatest vulnerability. In this position, Carnivore can act as a listening and recording device, OR IT CAN ACT AS A SWITCH. If we ever hear a proposal from the FBI in which it plans to install Carnivores at all 6000 ISPs in the U.S., we'll be giving the government the power to do something it can't do right now." "Shut the Internet down."
You really shook me up with that one. Have you received any comments or feedback on your theory.
After watching coverage of the WTO protests at indymedia.org I can no longer watch broadcast news in the same way. The patterned speech, the hypnotic and emotionally-charged images differed in an eerie way from the raw video footage that I viewed from the Independent Media Center in Seattle.
In contrasting these two types of coverage I have inoculated myself from the propaganda techniques of mainstream broadcasting. Mainstream broadcasts come with a specific agenda, a determined spin that filters the information down to sound bites and images. These impressions are targeted to leave an emotional charge. The goal of this emotional charge is to impress upon the viewer viewpoint of right/wrong.
A most interesting contrast was the "60-Minutes" shmear job of the independent media at the WTO. They aired raw "indie" footage of the protests sandwiched between discussions with skinheads and images of previous Oregon violence, and they labeled the whole episode "The New Anarchists." Anyone paying attention would quickly get the sickening message that the WTO protesters were terrorists-to-be. It was cleverly crafted and it's emotional impact was further heightened by following with a horrific story on the atrocities in Khmer Rouge.
When discerning media messages I ask myself "What is the goal of this communication?" and "How does this make me feel?" We can fine tune our internal lie detectors, but we must first turn them on.
I don't pretend that the Indymedia reporters were not holding the point of view of the person on the street. My point is that the coverage was authentic. It felt real. Open media/closed media: I'm not sure this is especially critical when compared to authentic media.
The following resource page contains instructions for blocking most ads: Web Ad Blocking Under Linux/Unix, BeOS, MacOS and Windows. It's relatively simple to install and customizable. (So powerful that when I posted a similar comment to a ZDNet forum, the URL was censored^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H removed!)
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In contrasting these two types of coverage I have inoculated myself from the propaganda techniques of mainstream broadcasting. Mainstream broadcasts come with a specific agenda, a determined spin that filters the information down to sound bites and images. These impressions are targeted to leave an emotional charge. The goal of this emotional charge is to impress upon the viewer viewpoint of right/wrong.
A most interesting contrast was the "60-Minutes" shmear job of the independent media at the WTO. They aired raw "indie" footage of the protests sandwiched between discussions with skinheads and images of previous Oregon violence, and they labeled the whole episode "The New Anarchists." Anyone paying attention would quickly get the sickening message that the WTO protesters were terrorists-to-be. It was cleverly crafted and it's emotional impact was further heightened by following with a horrific story on the atrocities in Khmer Rouge.
When discerning media messages I ask myself "What is the goal of this communication?" and "How does this make me feel?" We can fine tune our internal lie detectors, but we must first turn them on.
I don't pretend that the Indymedia reporters were not holding the point of view of the person on the street. My point is that the coverage was authentic. It felt real. Open media/closed media: I'm not sure this is especially critical when compared to authentic media.
The following resource page contains instructions for blocking most ads: Web Ad Blocking Under Linux/Unix, BeOS, MacOS and Windows . It's relatively simple to install and customizable. (So powerful that when I posted a similar comment to a ZDNet forum, the URL was censored^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H removed!)