Mr. Geimann, look at this as a professional journalist for a moment. I think Daniel is exactly right, that one of the things that we re learning about this new technology is it puts people in a lot of places very quickly. It allows us to go places we could not get to on our feet, or could not get to by a phone call. We now can read what other people think. We can share information instantaneously, no matter where we are at any given time of the day or night, and that has led some people to believe that everything they read because it s in print is true, is truthful.
Journalists too have to make that determination.
When we go about reporting stories and we use the Internet as a supplemental tool to the standard shoe leather and phone calls, and checking records, we have to ask ourselves, what s the source of the information, why is this information being presented to me as a journalist. There s no difference in the way a reporter goes about responsibly, professionally asking questions, making sure that the information he gets is accurate, is fair, and it s balanced. But you said you can t really say that to the Internet. Explain what you meant by that. Well, what I meant is that there will inevitably be a level of irresponsibility on the Internet, so long as it is free, indeed, so long as it is as free as we would like it to be, so long as it s as free as the Supreme Court has indicated it will be.