There's
some interesting commentary on Slashdot about the administration use of phone records to track ABC News' sources. Not that this is any huge deal; a lot of people are talking about it (and they should). However, after looking through some of the posts there, I think there are things to be learned. What makes it interesting is that they reach the same conclusion as the Daily Kos community from a slightly different angle. More after the fold...
First off, the tags that have been assigned (so far) "bigbrother, privacy, wiretapping, media, evil". Not exactly the words of anyone who is part of the mythical "63%" who think this sort of thing is no big deal. Yes, there's lots of good snark, like
this thread ("I (heart) Big Brother!").
Since we all reflexively think of this stuff as bad, it's good to see what people come up with when they aren't sure they are surrounded by kindred spirits. For example, in this comment from "drooling-dog": "What makes you think that people inside the government won't misuse their power and access to information for purely private purposes? For example: If you run a business and one of your competitors has an inside track to the gatekeepers of this information, I'd say it's time to start worrying..." It's nice to see people thinking through how to explain why this is bad.
The comment "I got $20 that says Fox News won't be checked" generated quite a stir. Nothing really insightful here...it's all rehashing Clinton/Lewinsky and debating the "liberal press" meme, but it's proof that this forum isn't a liberal echo chamber. If you're feeling argumentative, this is a good place to jump in.
However, among the highly rated comments (which are generally the only ones worth reading on Slashdot if you're going to read any) that seems an abberation. By and large, people are pretty pissed off.
This comment is a fabulous rebuttal of some guy who tried to play the "I had a relative who died on September 11, you all are overreacting".
I'm not going to get to it all, but I would like to say this. In the effort to build a bigger tent without compromising our values, it seems that appealing to the sort of technolibertarian "don't tread on me" crowd (which is heavily represented on Slashdot) is doable in the given environment. Granted, we're not going to agree with them (us? I admittedly have a foot in that camp, but I'm not all the way there). However, it seems this is a golden opportunity to pick up that batch of voters.