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Re: Toledo Blade editorial



A newspaper column I read (in the Blade, of all places!) raised some very troubling issues about CBS's attitude toward this tampering. The gist of it was whether or not their news coverage in general could be trusted, given their willingness to present a visual record that had been altered to suit their interests. The reason given for the alteration was that, in so many words, it wasn't anything that had to do with the event being covered, so it didn't matter. Nonetheless, it did happen. As a former retailer, I can understand their concern about giving their competition free advertising; but this solution smacks of dishonesty.

This whole idea is very disconcerting, especially when one considers the myriad areas of our lives that depend on the truthfulness of records. That truthfulness has suddenly become only as strong as the integrity of the person(s) wielding the technology that creates, manipulates or reproduces the record. In this time of identity thieves, bent facts and manipulated thoughts, I have to wonder whether or not humanity has the wisdom and the moral character to rightly use such technology as this. I know that it's a moot question, since this particular genie is a long ways gone from the bottle, but it's something to think about.

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
Bowling Green, Ohio

Kurilecz, Peter wrote:

The network in question was CBS and they saw nothing wrong with what they did. Recently there was story on one of the network newsmags concerning new identities and it showed how with a simple scanner an individual could create a new identity for themselves after scanning in a birth certificate.

Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Woodside Summit Group, Inc
Richmond, Virginia
Tel: 804-744-1247 extension 23
Fax: 804-744-4947
mailto:peter.kurilecz@woodsidesummitgroup.com