Study Confirms: News Networks Owned By SOPA Supporters... Are Ignoring SOPA/PIPA

from the but,-of-course dept

Mon, Jan 9th 2012 2:10pm — Mike Masnick

While the debates about SOPA/PIPA have been raging all over the internet, and appearing regularly in all sorts of mainstream newspapers, they still have been almost entirely absent from TV news. We've discussed this in the past, noting that the major TV news players are all owned by media conglomerates who have been major backers of SOPA/PIPA. There was some indication that cable news was starting to pay attention... but things have gone quiet since then (perhaps upper management sent out a memo...).

The folks over at Media Matters decided to check in on this and have confirmed that the big TV news players have almost entirely ignored it, despite the widespread controversy found elsewhere in the mainstream press:

As the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) makes its way through Congress, most major television news outlets -- MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have ignored the bill during their evening broadcasts. One network, CNN, devoted a single evening segment to it.

The report does note that there have been articles online... but very few TV segments. It also discusses how much attention SOPA/PIPA is getting, concerning all the companies who have come out against it, the media coverage in the NY Times among other places, and the big GoDaddy flip-flop -- to highlight that this is a big story making waves.

Despite all of this, the response from American television news outlets has been to almost completely ignore the story during their evening programming. The lone exception was a segment on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer in December, during which CNN parent company Time Warner's support for the legislation was not disclosed. (Though Fox News Channel has apparently not touched the story during evening programming, conservative/libertarian host Andrew Napolitano has run several segments vocally opposing SOPA on his program, which runs on the separate Fox Business Network.)

It's postulated that perhaps the issue is the fact that SOPA/PIPA don't fall along easily scripted left vs. right lines:

The fight over SOPA does not fit into the usual left vs. right narrative that occupies so much of the political horserace coverage with which TV news outlets fill their schedules. The cosponsors of SOPA come from both sides of the aisle. Likewise, the most vocal opponents of SOPA in Congress are an ideologically diverse bunch, including Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX) and Darrel Issa (R-CA).

Either that... or the corporate folks upstairs don't want to allow this to become an even bigger story.

Of course, as I was writing this up, Tim Cushing was writing up the same story (coordination, people, coordination!), with an alternate theory -- which makes sense too. So, everything below the line is his read on the situation:

Tim Cushing's analysis: Gray areas seldom make compelling news, especially when there's no political angle to take. Beyond that, I think the mainstream media silence is also explained by the outdated thought process that still believes that the Internet Is Not Real.

First and foremost, the evening news is generally a broad overview of the days' happenings. Not only do they not have the time to delve into an issue that mainly affects an "ethereal" service like the web, but they also (ignoring any corporate bias for the sake of argument) have no interest in doing so. The cliche that "if it bleeds, it leads" likely eliminates a war that involves a bloodless dismantling of the internet. The internet is generally trotted out only as an example of how things are bad (online bullying, etc.) or how things are cute/weird (any crossover meme that can be easily brought up, discussed and dismissed forever in less than 60 seconds).

Even though many news teams invite you to follow them on Twitter or Facebook, the connection seems to go no further than that. The percentage of the population that still relies on the evening news to get them caught up on the world is unlikely to care about legislation that affects the internet.

In essence, the internet is still treated like some sort of fad infested with tech-y nerds and thus can be safely ignored when dealing with Real Issues on the nightly news. This attitude is pervasive, both within content companies and among our representatives. The gatekeepers pushing the legislation need the internet as much as it claims it needs them, but they want their own internet, one closer in spirit to The Village than the Wild West.

Our legislators are still amused by their own lack of internet prowess, indicating that they still believe the web to be some sort of "outlier" whose opinions can be easily dismissed. It's a cognitive gap, but it explains why the mainstream TV news so willingly ignores SOPA and the building momentum of its opposition: it's just the internet. It can be either humored or feared, but never respected.

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Filed Under: copyright, coverage, journalism, networks, pipa, protect ip, sopa, tv

62 Comments

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:Lobo Santo (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:19pm

Alternate Explanation
I like your "incompetence rather than malice" explanation (paraphrasing Napoleon) but it does seem more likely this one really is due to malice.

Controlling peoples' thoughts can be as simple as controlling what they know. Religion has been used in this way be governments for millenia, and it has only recently been supplanted by mass-media outlets.
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Suja (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:23pm

In essence, the internet is still treated like some sort of fad infested with tech-y nerds and thus can be safely ignored when dealing with Real Issues on the nightly news.

well, it doesn't help that most of the internet is troll infested forums full of flames & drama, youtube poops, porn, memes & stupid cat pictures
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Suja (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:25pm

Re:
& weird shit that doesn't fit any of those categories yet still manages to occupy every "i'm bored" list ever made
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jupiterkansas (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:31pm

All this does is explain why I don't watch news on television and haven't for many years, and I wish more people would follow suit.

They have always pretended the internet is not real. I've got news for them: They aren't real. The news is on the internet, and the internet is the news.
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el_segfaulto (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:34pm

Re:
I've been wondering why Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been ignoring SOPA, when you realize that they are owned by Viacom it all makes sense. It's a bit of a pity, the supporters of this bill and their logic would make for easy comedic fodder.
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Violated (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:36pm

Added Heat
Well the situation in the UK is not much better. TV news is a total void from what I have seen. The BBC have mentioned SOPA about 3 times on their news website but usually as a minor addition to a bigger story.

I don't think they act with malice or negligence. The BBC is usually happy to mainstream news anything that reaches number one most read story on their website.

What I think is happening is that they are waiting for something to blow up. So much for politics, or even the future of the Internet, if you can get some nasty riots, shootings or other bloodthirsty events. So should things get more visual and heavy then we may get there.
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Nick Taylor, 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:38pm

@Suja

So why are you even here then? Won't anyone else talk to you?
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Suja (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:40pm

Re:
i'm here cause i enjoy that stuff, otherwise i wouldn't have noticed how it's practically taken over the net in recent years

Won't anyone else talk to you?

...what?
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Richard (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:45pm

Re: Added Heat
Well it is a US law - but then again they didn't cover the DEA that much either.
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Machin Shin (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:46pm

Re:
Well we all know that really the internet is just an invention by those sneaky cats in their plans for world domination!
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anonymous, 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:51pm

i think it's more a case of the media companies doing their best to keep the public from learning exactly what is going on and how they will be affected if/when SOPA/PIPA or something similar becomes law.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:54pm

Plus 2 million for working a Prisoner reference in.

"I am not a number! I am a free man!"

"Hah hah hah hah hah!"
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Suja (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:54pm

Re: Re:
& they doing a good job of it

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/10/26/816896fa-b878-4964-a91c-984f644473b6.jp g
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Suja (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:54pm

Re: Re: Re:
**they are

jeeze i have this thing with leaving words out
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jupiterkansas (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:55pm

Re: Re:
Colbert actually did cover it in one episode.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/403465/december-01-2011/stop-online -piracy-act
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:55pm

Re: Re:
I can has world domination!
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:57pm

Re: Re: Re:
el_segfaulto, you must have been on vacation that day. Mike even wrote a post here.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111202/09361816954/colbert-takes-sopa.shtml
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jupiterkansas (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 2:58pm

Re:
and television is better?
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JEDIDIAH, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:08pm

Not paying for the classics...
I need to get with watching the first two BD discs of that so I can send them back to Netflix and get the other two.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:09pm

and they say you have free speech but the fact is that these news networks get their monopoly power from the government and they are abusing that monopoly power to censor and discuss topics mostly based on their own self interested agenda. The government is effectively being used to censor speech.
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Larry, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:10pm

I'm surprised anyone needed a "study" to validate this.

I've seen nothing from anyone but CNN (and that was small coverage too).

The News arm of the Disney corporation won't say anything about it at all anywhere, anytime. .

This is an important point for anyone(!) that gets their "news" from very few sources. Bias exists. Sometimes, that bias is financially motivated.
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Blaine (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:11pm

TV News still exists?
I know my parents used to watch it, but I thought it died years ago.

Every once in a while I see a short 15 second commercial that looks like those old news shows and they will say something like "Can the food you're eating kill you?!?!?!!? News at 6." This is usually followed by me pulling out my smart phone typing in a quick search and thinking, "no, I guess not, but I'm glad that someone was worried enough about me to pay for a commercial encouraging me to go to the net."
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:11pm

Re:
With people like you I agree.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:12pm

Re: Re:
(or, rather, thanks to people like you, I agree).
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:16pm

When is Google or Wikipedia going to finally protest SOPA/PIPA on their search page for all to see? Something like that will have a good shot at stopping these bills.
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rubberpants, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:29pm

Re:
At exactly the right time.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:29pm

Re: Alternate Explanation
"Controlling peoples' thoughts can be as simple as controlling what they know. Religion has been used in this way be governments for millenia, and it has only recently been supplanted by mass-media outlets."

and the internet is the one thing that breaks through it

funny how this is all working out huh?
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ken (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:35pm

Just Like the Righthaven News Black-Out
Just like we saw with the near total news blackout of the entire Righthaven affair, the so called main stream media will not report negative stories that effect their industry.
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:36pm

Re: Plus 2 million for working a Prisoner reference in.
+6
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bjupton (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:36pm

Re:
Maiden still rocks too.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 3:58pm

Re: Re: Plus 2 million for working a Prisoner reference in.
"Be seeing you."
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 4:00pm

It's sad, I was having dinner with my parents this evening when I brought up SOPA/PIPA. My dad, who represents the typical blue-collar worker that gets all his daily news from TV or the newspaper, had no idea what I was talking about.

I told him that was because media companies are the ones who started these bills, and it didn't surprise me to see that he had no knowledge of them.

He laughed and said "only Congress can start a bill, son." Like I was a complete idiot. Its sad, really. Mass media is a powerful thing, it will take a large force to overcome the brainwashing they have inflicted on the less-open minded citizens in this nation.
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AG Wright (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 4:03pm

Television use of the internet
The thing is that no TV news broadcast gets by without at least two or three references to "if you need more information go to our web site..."
They push their own web properties constantly. I really wonder if they care about anything else.
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el_segfaulto (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 4:22pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Ha! As a matter of fact I was en route to Seattle on vacation that day. I stand corrected, however. I just watched the dueling interview and must say that they both held their own pretty well. The pro-SOPA guy came off as kinda sleazy but that may be my own preconception.

Now to make me look even dumber I'm sure both hosts will cover the bill on tonight's episodes.
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el_segfaulto (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 4:24pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
And to make matters worse, I actually commented on the damned story! I turn 30 and suddenly have early onset Alzheimer's.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 5:01pm

Re:
That force will be the death of a lot of old people. The internet is destined to replace mass communications. The question is will the internet remain as free and open as it is by then. It may take 20-30 years, and the internet will become quaint.
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gorehound (profile), 9 Jan 2012 @ 5:17pm

There have been no News on SOPA/PIPA in all of Southern Maine whether TV or the Newspapers.I have even written to the Portland Press Herald a few times to ask them nicely to report on this but no they think they can ignore Censorship.
Just wait and watch the fallout if these bozos pass SOPA/PIPA.

SOPA/PIPA = WAR
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 9:26pm

Ohh ohh,... can I quote techdirt?

and surprise, surprise: there are a lot of widely-cited studies that are poorly designed.

Need I say more? Didn't think so.
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arentol, 9 Jan 2012 @ 9:35pm

Simple fix...
If SOPA/PIPA passes the fix is simple. A bunch of major corporation that are against this should produced one copyrighted song, story, and video each. Then every individual and company who is against this should seed the entire internet with this stuff the day the law goes live, and send links to a central site for each corporation. Then the corporation that has the copyright should have that site set to automatically record, verify, and file a lawsuit to shut down every site reported to it.

The courts would be inundated with millions of cases, and if they do what the law tells them to the entire internet would be effectively dead in a few weeks... At which point the congress would have to reverse the law if they hadn't done so already.

Believe me, it would be trivial to get copyright violations onto almost every site in the world. If users have ANY form of input on the site then they can make it a violator.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Jan 2012 @ 10:23pm

Re: Re:
Cats enslaved hamsters to power the internet.
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PaulT (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:24am

Re: TV News still exists?
Save yourself the effort. If a commercial for a "news" show asks you a scary question then urges you to tune in later for the answer, the real answer to that question is always "no".
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:59am

Re:
Funny, seems to me that Masnick is trying to keep people from knowing what is going on.

SOPA only blocks foreign pirate sites. How often do you hear that truth here?
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btrussell (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 3:48am

Re: Re:
"Native pirate" sites are a-okay?
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Hephaestus (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 7:18am

Re: Re: Re:
Free the hamsters!!
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jan 2012 @ 8:34am

I would have to disagree with Tim Cushing's perspective.

In my own new market -- Chicago -- the five local television news broadcasts are now increasingly citing and showing, during the broadcast, Facebook use. At least one station has taken to segments with the anchors sitting around a large monitor, pointing out items on Facebook.

These news broadcasts have been "engaging" with the Internet for some time -- prominently promoting their web sites, soliciting pictures and other email from viewers, etc. If anything, what is interesting in this past year is the transition from traditional web sites to Facebook. For these broadcasters, for advertisers running commercials, for nearly everything on the screen, Facebook has become "the Internet". The web site address is no longer first; rather, it's the organization's Facebook ID.

These broadcasters "get the Internet". They hope, in their silence on SOPA/PIPA, to further co-opt it to their commercial interests.

(And while Facebook may officially oppose SOPA/PIPA, I think that position in ancillary to the activity and positioning I describe above. Further, they know that as one of the already cooperative, "900 pound gorilla" in the room of entrenched media interests, they have, in a word, the "moxie" to survive any pending legislation.

Not to disparage their opposition to SOPA/PIPA. But, restated, I think their opposition will have zero meaning to and affect upon these broadcasters and similar, SOPA/PIPA supporting interests -- regardless of these business relationships.)
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Ninja (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 9:07am

Re: Re:
Keep repeating it, it's almost becoming true for you. Then you can go live happily ever after in your private SOPAland.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 9:20am

Re:
News stations and newspapers are happy to talk about their own websites, and it's okay to mention facebook and twitter because they're "mainstream" (i.e. the people at the station use it and the marketing people love it), but as for the rest of the world wide web, it's pretty much non-existent unless it's some dumb viral video.

My newspaper's website is so print-oriented that they often don't include live links for URLs. You have to copy and paste the URL from the article to go to a website (and then they sneakily attach all this "read more at..." that ruins the URL." They also run a bunch of articles together, because that's how they do it in print.

At the TV station website you can watch their newscasts, but their players are all low res with messed up aspect ratios even though their broadcasts are hi-def.

I can honestly say that of all the local content websites, the big newspaper and the TV stations are the worst. I think at one time they ignored the internet because they thought not everyone was online, and they wanted to be universal.

Now I think they view the internet is competition. Ignore it and it might go away, except for their own websites of course.

They'd be very happy to have an internet where only big companies that could afford to create or license all of its content got to publish stuff online. After all, they don't get to publish anything online without a license - why should anyone else get to?

That said, I don't think they're ignoring SOPA because of their owners. I think it's just not interesting enough for TV news. When was the last time free speech made headlines?
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Almost Anonymous (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 10:12am

Re: Re:
"""SOPA only blocks foreign pirate sites. How often do you hear that truth here?"""

With truths like that, who needs lies?
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sb123, 10 Jan 2012 @ 11:28am

Re: Re:
They haven't. Colbert did a segment on it. http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/403465/december-01-2011/stop-online-piracy-ac t
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jan 2012 @ 12:06pm

tvmedia is a joke
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Rs, 10 Jan 2012 @ 12:18pm

Re: Re:
They haven't. Stephen Colbert has had multiple people on his show criticizing SOPA...
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au79, 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:03pm

Re: the Internet
A reflection of humanity, in other words.

When will someone clean it all up?
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gary (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:20pm

Re: Re: Alternate Explanation
yeah we finally get actually free news and what does the gov wanna do to that.
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gary (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:27pm

Re: Re:
get a grip jerkoff
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Michael, 10 Jan 2012 @ 1:39pm

Re: Re:
Yup, totally ignoring it: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/403465/december-01-2011/stop-online-piracy-ac t
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seoseo (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 2:54pm

America - Land Of The Censored Home Of The Copyright Protected
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celoe, 10 Jan 2012 @ 3:37pm

I think the bigger picture is being ignored.. again.
American politics/business has always been one in the same. Much like this the cherade of political partisanship (Democrats/Republicans are one in the same). They employ the same people in the background, all answering to the same constituencies. Sorry, until you so called "democrats" or "republicans" get over yourselves and accept this truth. Anyone unable to see this distinction is part of the problem. Our government has historically used its business infrastructure to manipulate foreign and domestic policy. Period. We don't stick riflemen in Starbucks looking over your shoulder. We're a bit more 'sophsiticated'. We use our corporations to manipulate our societal structure. We think it's the 'right' way to do it. We tell other countries that dictate their mandates through other means are less than ourselves. Let's get the fuck over ourselves. Please.
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JMT (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 4:10pm

Re:
Spoken like a true Luddite. If you think that "most of the internet" is just that stuff, then either your internet experience is limited or you're just not very good at finding the good stuff. The internet experience is what you make it; if you only find crap, stop looking for crap.
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rkeez, 10 Jan 2012 @ 4:45pm

eqRelre_tesponse to: Nick Taylor on Jan 9th, 2012 @ 2:38pm
Z!zqqq3!!!az3zerx
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xenomancer (profile), 10 Jan 2012 @ 7:27pm

Re: Re:
But the internet is for porn!!!
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scott, 11 Jan 2012 @ 1:51am

SOPA
Of course the news media ignores potential censorship, they are the masters of censorship, information control, absolute fascists.
I have already stopped watching FOX news, for Gods sake, we warned by Jesus, beware of Wolfs in sheep's clothing, the fox channel is that wolf, with a watered down image, I am a republican since Reagan, who since 2005 have walked, no ...run away from the establishment republicans, they are at war with main street america, and wrap them selves in the flag, homo phobia rants, and pro life speech, when in reality they hate the freedoms of america(PATRIOT ACT/NDAA), are all a bunch of cok sucking guy men(Rick Sanatorium connections to group connected to coach loves young boys, Lanny boy lawyer), who hide and cover it up, and once elected don't do a thing for families and there well being to curb abortions. They are frauds.
And SPOA is another feather on the breaking back of patient Americans preparing for war with the government and the elite they do the bidding for.
Keep your Powder Dry.
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stompsfrogs, 11 Jan 2012 @ 10:21am

Re: Re:
Foreign pirate sites like Google?
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