[SIGCIS-Members] Why is HuffPost publishing another "invention of email" series?

[Andrew Russell]

Hi folks - 

To be clear, I agree with Jonathan (and others) who pointed out Gore’s important role in networking history.  I think we can also blame Gore a little bit for using a clumsy turn of phrase in his CNN interview, which gave an opportunity to his political opponents who wanted to portray Gore as a liar. 

I found one article that Jonathan mentioned - “But Al Gore Did Help” - at  http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2000-10-26/news/0010250556_1_patron-new-technologies-internet.  In it, Jonathan gave us a clear, fair, high-level summary: "Gore's early initiatives helped shape the Internet into a more open and universal system with more access to federal and university databases than it would have otherwise.”  

In addition to Jonathan’s piece, anyone teaching about this topic should know about Seth Finkelstein’s page of articles and resources: http://www.sethf.com/gore/

The point I was trying to make in my earlier note is that this “invention of email” controversy (if we can call it that) resembles the Gore/invention “controversy” in that the consensus opinion of subject experts is dismissed, or deemed part of a conspiracy!  The facts and evidence are well-known; yet journalists and others with opaque or questionable motives ignore them, or twist them.  

I’m reminded of the way that climate skeptics and creationists “teach the controversy,” which is a strategy to destabilize the overwhelming consensus of specialists and experts.  That topic gives me the same irritated sensation I felt when I read the new HuffPost/email series, which is the same type of irritation I feel when I tell people that I write about Internet history and they say “you mean how Al Gore invented it? heh heh.”  

I hope somebody writes a biography of poor Al Gore that explains how Gore did such earnest and productive work with his advocacy of networking and climate change research, but found himself at the butt of jokes and public ridicule. 

Cheers,

Andy


On Sep 3, 2014, at 4:26 PM, Coopersmith, Jonathan <j-coopersmith at tamu.edu> wrote:

> Let me add my own Al Gore pieces, both no longer easily accessible on line:
> 
> "The Politician as the Patron," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 22,4 (October-December 2000), 88-89.
> 
> "But Al Gore Did Help Invent the Internet," History News Service, October 24, 2000  www.h-net.org/~hns/articles/2000/102400a.html
> 
>  Jonathan
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Dave Walden
> Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2014 1:26 PM
> To: Andrew Russell; sigcis
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Why is HuffPost publishing another "invention of email" series?
> 
> Not so significant to the Al Gore story as he actually did have significant impact on the evolution of the Internet, unless your point is the nonsense the journalists published ridiculing Al Gore (who only deserved a little bit of laughter, not massive ridicule, for his overstatement):
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_and_information_technology
> 
> 
> At 10:57 AM 9/3/2014, Andrew Russell wrote:
>> At the risk of (or in hopes of) provoking Tom Haigh and others, I 
>> thought I would share the following:
>> 
>> https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140901/07280928386/huffpo-publishes
>> -bizarre-misleading-factually-incorrect-multi-part-series-pretending-gu
>> y-invented-email-even-though-he-didnt.shtml
>> 
>> I'm sure many of you noticed the recent round of HuffPo stories, 
>> promoting the claims of the guy who claimed to invent email in 1978.  
>> Similar to the "Al Gore invented the Internet" story from several years 
>> ago, this particular "invention of email" story seems to be more 
>> compelling through a media studies lens (i.e., why do media outlets 
>> keep publishing nonsense?), and not at all a case of uncertainty or 
>> debate amongst serious historians or networking engineers.
>> 
>> Andy
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> --
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