One of the few articles which really caught my attention today pertains to conservatives conceding much of the internet infrastructure to left wing extremist of this nation. How far will it go? What is the strategy? What is the impact?

According to Robert Cox, many of these extremist are looking to control central points of information dissimination.

At various blogging conferences since, I have had the opportunity to observe many of these bright minds strategizing on how to best leverage the emerging world of blogs and other “social networking” services known as “Web 2.0” to advance their liberal political agenda and win elections.

Their common refrain: “We need to own the Internet the way the right owns talk radio.”

So what does this mean? It doesnt mean creating superior content beating the other side by discussion of ideas, it means control and suppression of information. Perfect examples are of YouTube’s banning of a Michelle Malkin video, classifying a Republican advertisement as objectionable material (the same level as pornography) and hiding it from the user list. Even fellow blogger Gateway Pundit is a victim.

Rober Cox points out that this same group of people also own many of the core blogging, blog and internet search engines.

But it’s not just Google’s media and financial muscle that benefits the left. Liberals run the leading blog search engine — Technorati. They run the leading blog software manufacturer — Six Apart. They invented two of the most important blogging technologies — Podcasting and RSS. The list goes on and on.

It may not matter who manufacturers your radio since all points on the dial are equally accessible and the choice is tiny compared to the number of Web sites, but on the Internet, where popularity is often directly proportional to technological acumen and popularity, once achieved, breeds more popularity, who builds what means everything.

Pherhaps what is most distrubing is the rhetoric used by many of these people. They talk about the need for freedom of speach and expression. However, if you dare to speak in opposition with a different point of view or challenge them, you are silenced. Maybe this goes toward their own twisted belief in the “fairness doctrine.”

With the previous examples of censorship I wonder if Congress should intervene though these “nodes” are privately held. I wonder if conservatives should we fight against net neutrality?

I dont know. I do know it greatly disturbs me to see people who have no qualms to censor voices who oppose their points of view be in charge.

I would prefer for our best minds to gear up and provide market based solutions to these companies and whip these people. However I, like Mr. Cox, do not know if the understanding of what is at stake is there. Never mind asking the question if the fight is there on our side of the isle.

Posted by Paul Seale on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 9:23 pm. Filed under Media, Missouri Politics, National Politics, Web Development.