Pandering shamelessly to their constituents, they've been stumping around the country saying that if you're poor, female, nonwhite, or rural, you're at a terrible Internet disadvantage and need to have the government step in. Gore has made this a cornerstone of his campaign. There's only one problem . It's just not true. This makes sense if you think about it .
Internet access is cheap, or even free.
It also helps if you understand English. While the Web is truly worldwide, whether you like it or not, the mainstream Internet speaks the language of Tom Brokaw, Madonna, and Bryant Gumbel. This does put certain groups of people at a disadvantage. But so do road signs, cereal boxes, and TV programs in this country, and it's hardly the class war that liberals make it out to be. OK, government officials do have their hearts in the right places.