Letter: Monitoring the Internet or the media?

Lisa Cohen’s letter ("Next assault on capitalism,” May 17) claimed that President Obama received a pass from the "mainstream media” after a speech at the Hampton Institute in which he said he did not know how to work an iPod. In her view, if a conservative had said the same thing, this undefined mainstream media would have responded with a "bloody feeding frenzy” in Cohen’s words. Cohen further claims, without any substantiation, that "the Internet is in Obama’s regulatory crosshairs” and "is regulating high-tech next?” First, this drivel is a regurgitation of the lies currently being spread by Rush Limbaugh that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan supports net neutrality, which is the so-called internet control that Cohen assails. In fact nominee Kagan has taken no such position. And of course Limbaugh completely misrepresents what net neutrality is and the benefits it provides. Second, Obama’s speech at Hampton Institute was about use of technology to empower young people, rather than merely entertain. And the reasons he got a pass from the media is that he is entirely computer literate, and that the media, unlike Cohen, read the entire passage from the speech, not just a partial extract distorted beyond recognition by extremist right wingers. Another Obama quote from that same speech: "You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter.” No wonder Cohen was so hostile to Obama’s speech, he must have had her media heroes in mind.

Dave White

San Mateo