cannabisnews.com: The Year Zero -- Analysis By Richard Cowan 





The Year Zero -- Analysis By Richard Cowan 
Posted by FoM on December 25, 1999 at 08:32:01 PT
Richard Cowan, Editor and Publisher
Source: Marijuana News
The coming year will hold the imagination in many ways, but there are several points which are real and not symbolic.2000 will see the first DEAland Presidential election in which the Internet plays an important part, and the last Presidential election in which the Internet is not the decisive medium.
One of the purposes of elections is to raise issues, and this will be the first DEAland Presidential election in which medical marijuana is an issue. It will be unavoidable for the candidates and the media, and the Internet will be the dominant medium for this debate. This will require that the candidates actually inform themselves and take and maintain coherent and consistent positions. The old mass media will use the Internet as reference sources for the issue. We must use this leverage to force them to start using the term "marijuana prohibition" and call it what it is.Mapinc. http://www.mapinc.org/ will increasingly be recognized as being more than just "anti-prohibitionist" and will be seen as a model for future social change in the Internet age. It and other anti-prohibitionist sites will also be seen as models for ways to disseminate news about -- and without -- the conventional media.The Hatch-Feinstein Internet censorship bill will help bring attention to the marijuana issue, and it will also bring the Internet industries and communities into the struggle for freedom. Click the link to read Richard Cowan's excellent analysis!http://marijuananews.com/year_zero_.htm
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Comment #3 posted by Richard Lake on December 26, 1999
 at 20:54:37 PT:
ISPs are going to remove websites?
If the law passes, and it is not blocked by the courts within days, then perhaps some sites will have problems.However this site, and all the following, are located on the MAP/DrugSense server in B.C. Canada, safely out of reach of the U.S. govt.MAP/DrugSense websites:http://drugsense.org/http://mapinc.org/http://pdfa.org/Websites MAP/DrugSense supports on it's servers:http://cannabisnews.com/http://csdp.org/http://familywatch.org/http://marijuananews.com/http://november.org/http://pdxnorml.org/
MAP
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Comment #2 posted by Mari on December 26, 1999
 at 10:50:27 PT
YK2000/Internet Law
 With all due respect to Richard Cowan (whose site is a daily MUST read); there is one point I feel he has glossed over.The law states that the Internet Provider will be libel for Criminal Sanctions(arrest) if they do not remove your site! How do we fight against that with civil disobedence?
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on December 25, 1999
 at 12:08:04 PT
It'll work... but only if you vote, and *loudly*
The problem with the above analysis is that it forgets several things, one of which is crucial: how many people are on the Net, and how many of *those* actually vote? Up to now, the conventional (transaltion: corporately controlled) news media have for the most part treated the Net as a sideshow, populated by fringe elements, nerds and geeks. The very fact that this Website is easily available to anyone will not guarantee it being read by reporters seeking alternative sources of information. They certainly have the opportunity; they just don't have the motivation. Because most of what is printed nowadays is predigested drivel from the centralized newsources, complete with pre-packaged 'spin'. As the old saying goes, 'you can lead a horse to water...So, despite the enormous and very real commercial impact that this population on the Web has had on daily life, when it comes to news, those who read these words are a minority. And we, here, are a minority within a minority. And minorities are traditionally relegated to silence. If we are to have the desired effect of positively changing the environment of reporting on MMJ in particular and the WoSD in general, then *we* are the ones who have to reach out to the traditional newsources. And that means being vocal. Being at news events to ask hard questions the rest of the media *won't* ask for fear of angering a source they are 'cultivating'.I know, a lot of this sounds distasteful. It means getting down and dirty with systems and institutions most of us wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. But, sadly, unless we do become more active and vocal, we will lose this chance as we did in the 70's. And we won't get a third chance, the way this country is sliding towards a DrugWar fueled totalitarianism.IMHO what's needed here are a new hybrid of journalist
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