From the Los Angeles Times
Bloggers to Stevens: Put a Tube Sock in It
By Jim Puzzanghera
Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tubes15jul15,0,2789265.story?coll=la-home-headlines
6:15 PM PDT, July 14, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ted Stevens picked a bad time to go tubular.
The Alaska Republican is being hammered by bloggers for describing the Internet as "a series of tubes" in a rambling speech last month defending a telecommunications bill that could influence how information flows online.
As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Stevens is one of Washington's main players on technology policy. But his disjointed description of how the Internet works -- digitally recorded and spreading like wild on the Web -- has led opponents of the legislation to portray him as a Luddite doing the bidding of phone and cable companies that want to charge Web sites for faster content delivery.
"Stevens has amplified for the country the extent to which he and his colleagues don't understand the fundamental issues that are at stake," said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, a nonpartisan media-reform organization. The group, along with many others online and leading Internet companies, want to prohibit what they call "toll lanes" on the World Wide Web. The issue is known as "network neutrality."
Stevens, 82, who wrote the bill, opposes such restrictions. He defended his position at a June 28 hearing, complaining that some companies were clogging the Internet with "enormous amounts of material" -- so much that it took four days to receive an e-mail sent by his staff.
"The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck," Stevens said. "It's a series of tubes."
Experts often describe the wires and fiber that carry Internet data as pipes, pointed out a Stevens aide, who did not want to be named. But to many bloggers, Stevens' meandering monologue made him appear bewildered about the inner-workings of the Internet.
They called him "dazed and confused," "a backwoods hick" and "completely clueless." A search of "Stevens" and "series of tubes" produces more than 200,000 Web links, including a song with parts of Stevens' speech playing over a thumping techno-beat.
Jon Stewart mused on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" Wednesday that Stevens sounded like "a crazy old man in an airport bar at 3 a.m." and said there was an easy explanation why his e-mail was delayed.
"Maybe its because you don't seem to know ... about computers or the Internet," he said. "You're just the guy in charge of regulating it."
And for Jon Stewart's piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uuJh4bv-fg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtOoQFa5ug8
Bloggers to Stevens: Put a Tube Sock in It
By Jim Puzzanghera
Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tubes15jul15,0,2789265.story?coll=la-home-headlines
6:15 PM PDT, July 14, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Ted Stevens picked a bad time to go tubular.
The Alaska Republican is being hammered by bloggers for describing the Internet as "a series of tubes" in a rambling speech last month defending a telecommunications bill that could influence how information flows online.
As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Stevens is one of Washington's main players on technology policy. But his disjointed description of how the Internet works -- digitally recorded and spreading like wild on the Web -- has led opponents of the legislation to portray him as a Luddite doing the bidding of phone and cable companies that want to charge Web sites for faster content delivery.
"Stevens has amplified for the country the extent to which he and his colleagues don't understand the fundamental issues that are at stake," said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, a nonpartisan media-reform organization. The group, along with many others online and leading Internet companies, want to prohibit what they call "toll lanes" on the World Wide Web. The issue is known as "network neutrality."
Stevens, 82, who wrote the bill, opposes such restrictions. He defended his position at a June 28 hearing, complaining that some companies were clogging the Internet with "enormous amounts of material" -- so much that it took four days to receive an e-mail sent by his staff.
"The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck," Stevens said. "It's a series of tubes."
Experts often describe the wires and fiber that carry Internet data as pipes, pointed out a Stevens aide, who did not want to be named. But to many bloggers, Stevens' meandering monologue made him appear bewildered about the inner-workings of the Internet.
They called him "dazed and confused," "a backwoods hick" and "completely clueless." A search of "Stevens" and "series of tubes" produces more than 200,000 Web links, including a song with parts of Stevens' speech playing over a thumping techno-beat.
Jon Stewart mused on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" Wednesday that Stevens sounded like "a crazy old man in an airport bar at 3 a.m." and said there was an easy explanation why his e-mail was delayed.
"Maybe its because you don't seem to know ... about computers or the Internet," he said. "You're just the guy in charge of regulating it."
And for Jon Stewart's piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uuJh4bv-fg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtOoQFa5ug8
