Today in Bad Reporting
So reserachers are exploring the idea of scrapping the internet… Could the reporter for the AP have come up with a stupider title? How slow is the news cycle today? Isn’t there some talk show host saying something mildly racist somewhere? White girl missing on an island? D-list celebrity dying of prescription drug overdose with five guys claiming to be her father?
In all seriousness, though, have a look at this paragraph:
Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government’s blessing want to scrap all that and start over.
Unlike the headline, this actually makes sense. Researchers are of course looking at alternatives to the current Internet protocol. But the headline makes it seem they want to do away with the net altogether. Also, the idea that they academic and corporate researchers need the blessing of the federal government to tinker with new ideas for connecting computers in better ways just makes me cringe.
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