Grandstanding Coverage
From Techdirt’s “Banging Your Head on the Virtual Wall Department” :
The grandstanding of some Attorneys General never ceases — even when they created the “problem” they’re now grandstanding against. Case in point: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and his crusade against Craigslist.
Blumenthal acted irresponsibly when he put bogus grandstanding pressure on Craigslist to put in place the tollbooth in the first place. At what point does he recognize that Craigslist isn’t the target here. It’s the people using Cragslist to break the law — and that Craigslist is more than willing to help law enforcement track down those law breakers
As always, the Techdirt user comments are worth reading as well.
Speaking of which, if you can get past the gross inaccuracies and apparent absence of fact-checking in Brad Stone’s NYTimes piece, there are some interesting user comments there as well:
Citizens would be better served if law enforcement stopped wasting our money fighting against the very laws they are paid to enforce - the Communications Decency Act and the first amendment to the Constitution - and went after the real criminals who are committing crimes.
Law enforcement - from the attorneys general of the several states down to the local law enforcement agencies - are out to look like they are doing something by pandering to their perceived constituencies. They attack Craiglist, while ignoring others, because such attacks garner them a huge amount of publicity.
Why is Craigslist always singled out for this garbage? Craigslist provides one of the best and most valuable services on the internet. If newspapers wouldn’t have abused their customers for years by overcharging for simple ads, Craigslist wouldn’t be the success it is today. Organizations like the NYT and AIM Group won’t be happy until Craigslist is jacking people like the newsprint industry used to.
May 9th, 2010 at 7:34 am
Why would the NYT assist an AG in a public attack on CL? What would the NYT have against CL that would make it’s articles subject to question (without even addressing the fact checking issue)? It’s simple, really –
What service does CL provide for free that the papers sell?
May 21st, 2010 at 9:46 am
Having served 30 years in the public sector, I have seen the obscene amounts the local newspaper charges for ads. If you are required by State or Local laws to place an ad in the Legal Announcements column, you will pay blood out your nose for it. It IS obscene, truly.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:14 am
The grandstanding of some Attorneys General never ceases — even when they created the “problem” they’re now grandstanding against.