ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609100027
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
AS IF the morality tale of the political consultant and the prostitute weren't enough of a metaphor for what's wrong with politics today, here's another sex scandal on the campaign trail to ponder - ripped not from tabloid headlines but from an obscure item in Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Congress:
"Freshman Rep. Jon Christensen's (R-Neb.) World Wide Web site, charges his opponent, is just five clicks away from gay porn."
Can you believe it? It's as if a topless bar were discovered within five miles of Christensen's congressional office. How sordid can you get?
Like more than 200 other members of Congress, the Republican had set up what's called a home page on the Internet. There, Christensen's office had posted information about his congressional business, constituent queries and public issues - such as family values - about which today's politicians are so concerned.
Sound innocent? Well, the incumbent's Democratic challenger, Omaha lawyer James Martin Davis, held a news conference and issued a press packet the other day, describing how a computer user cruising the Internet could get from Christensen's congressional Web page to a home page set up by a Washington, D.C., gay bar, La Cage a Follies. That site contains pictures of nude male dancers.
Only five clicks away.
So, was this revelation by the Davis campaign more stupid than repulsive, or vice versa? It's hard to say.
In any case, the congressman was compelled to insist on his ignorance of the five-click proximity to lewd pictures, and he hurriedly removed his home page from the World Wide Web. Never mind that, as an Internet expert interviewed by Roll Call pointed out, the Web is an "exponential tree" on which any home page on the planet is "a few clicks from another."
Davis' ploy points to the future, in that it reflects the emergence of cyberspace as a political battleground. But it also shows an utter misunderstanding of, or cynical disregard for, facts of life in the Information Age. Though he exploited the peculiar nature of the new communications, Davis did so to tar his opponent by association with sexual impropriety - not exactly a newfangled technique.
By insulting not just the incumbent congressman but gays, network browsers, the interests of free speech and the intelligence of Nebraska voters, Davis' press conference exemplified the unrestrained character of political expression nowadays. But it also simultaneously added to the chill on, and underscored the absurdity of trying to regulate, speech on the Internet.
The world's fanciest information technology can't absolve citizens of their duty to recognize a big lie or a political smear when they see one glowing on their screens.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB