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February 07, 2006
The difference Technology makes
One of the (few) disadvantages of living in an advanced technological society is you tend to take some things for granted. The Cartoon controversy is an excellent example of the difference a society with general access to the net and technology vs. a society that doesn't.
First a history lesson:
In the 1800's when it actually took days to find out what was said and things were not recorded it was common during presidential campaigns to send out people to different states to conflicting statements to different areas to win support. Since reports were usually delayed by several days and newspapers were openly partisan these contradictions were rarely exposed.
Today of course this isn't possible due to video tape. Even on the net the Caching feature of sites like Google means that you can't even edit a page on the net without the old version available. That is why a person who edits a web page (except for spelling) better fess up about errors because if not they will be nailed.
We've already mentioned that there is evidence that the outrage was manufactured, it appears that some of the cartoons that produced the reaction were as well.
Some have asked out loud how so many people had access to Danish flags 
to burn all of a sudden (I don't know where in town I'd find one myself). The is also the time delay, the cartoons were released in September and things started happening just last week. Why? Read on
Gateway Pundit takes up the story from here:
Imam Ahmad Abu Laban, the leader of the Islamic Society of Denmark toured the Middle-East to "create awareness" about 12 cartoons that were published in Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, on September 30, 2005.However, the truth is that Imam Ahmad Abu Laban, brought at least 3 additional images, which HAD NEVER been published in any media source. They included a cartoon of Muhammad as a pedophile demon, Muhammed with a pig snout, and a praying Muslim being raped by a dog. The drawings in Jyllands-Posten were harmless compared to these (posted below)
When asked about these additional cartoons, Imam Ahmad Abu Laban said they were from threatening letters but promising to give us copies of those letters to FOX News, among other news services, he never did.
Well apparently the reason why he didn't was because he was lying through his teeth as blogger Dennis Nixon explains:
Do these two photos look similiar?
They should because they are the same! No, not a satire of Mohammed nor any other sacred Islamic figure but a photo of Jacques Barrot, a pig squealing contestant at the French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise’s annual festival. NeanderNews discovered this photo, taken by Bob Edme of AP, posted on an August 15, 2005 AP story seen here on MSNBC’s website.
This means that the deaths and the carnage that has followed was produced by a knowing and deliberate misrepresentation of facts. As this is the company blog and not my blog I won't give my unprintable opinion of Imam Ahmad Abu Laban, however consider this:
I had never heard of Dennis Nixon and it is likely that you haven't either, but this person saw the image above and recognized it. He was able on the net to dig up what it actually was. He published it on his web site, it was picked up by Gateway Pundit which was picked up by Instapundit and Michelle Malkin and will eventually be picked up by the media as a whole. Tens of thousands of people now are informed who were not. If and when this gets out in the areas of the riots it will (hopefully) make a difference.
The point is 20 years ago this would not have ever come out, it is highly unlikely that we would ever know this. It is only possible due to the technology (computers and the internet) and its availability to the average person who took the time to find things out. This is the empowering of the everyman to make a difference.
On a related theme Glenn Reynolds has a new book An Army of Davids : How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths that deals with this very subject. I plan on buying it when it is released next month and may post a review here.
So remember the next time you are behind your keyboard the power you have that the kings of old did not and remember as Uncle Ben said: "With great power comes great responsibility."
Posted by Peter at February 7, 2006 07:42 AM