Word Cloud Internet Neutrality
This week I was called a tool, a flying monkey, a quintessential Liberal moron, a fascist and–I think–a communist. Not by different people, but by the same person in a ranting email worthy of framing.
Journalists everywhere know of these emails. We’ve each received them, loved them, and shared them over and over again.
I can’t identify this person because he or she didn’t give me a name or phone number to continue this conversation. Anonymity is a general commonality among the writers of these types of emails or letters (remember letters?).
What made this person angry enough to send me a 600-plus-word tirade via email was my posting of a story: Obama comes out strong for net neutrality. President Obama said he wants to classify the internet as a utility and is asking the Federal Communications Commission to revisit an attempt to come up with rules to protect net neutrality.
The subject of net neutrality has at the same time been hotly debated and a hot mess of misunderstanding. Ironically, it’s one of those topics the internet has incubated into blind outrage. ‘For’ or ‘against’ doesn’t matter as much as the outrage, and in the meantime the actual crux of the issue is lost.
Truth is, every user of the Internet does not connect to the internet in the same way. But this debate continues to be about protecting this misconception rather than looking into increasing internet service providers.
Mr. or Mrs. Email-Writer assumed my posting of a story on Obama’s statement was a ringing endorsement rather than what it was–an emotionless, unslanted retelling of something our president said.
But to clear up any misconceptions–and because I posted Obama’s video–it may be balanced to post another video. I warn you, this video contains language our mothers stuck soap in our mouths for using (do mothers still do that?). The man you see is John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. You may not have heard of him but plenty of people have–enough people to crash the FCC’s website following this commentary.
EDUCATION: What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality
Chad Hemenway is Managing Editor of Advisen News. He has more than 15 years of journalist experience at a variety of online, daily, and weekly publications. He has covered P&C insurance news since 2007, and he has experience writing about all P&C lines as well as regulation and litigation. Chad won a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Single Article in 2014 for his coverage of the insurance implications of traumatic brain injuries and Best News Coverage in 2013 for coverage of Superstorm Sandy. Contact Chad at 212.897.4824 or [email protected].
