Friday, December 23, 2005
Jews for Jesus sues Google over blog | CNET News.com
Jews for Jesus sues Google over blog | CNET News.com"Christian evangelical group Jews for Jesus is suing Google, saying a Web log hosted through the Internet search leader's Blogspot service infringes its trademark."
I'm not going to get into the validity of the lawsuit, or lack thereof. Personally, I think JFJ is probably in the right in that it
is their name. At the same time, you can't expect Google/Blogger to filter out every proper name from their domain search. Meh...let the lawyers hash it out.
What I'm going to briefly discuss here, and what I find interesting in a mildly distressing kind of way, is that this guy would choose to make his point this way. From what I can gather, the guy was trying to expose the dark underbelly of JFJ. Whatever. Every organized religion has a dark underbelly. However, when you go about the process of exposing dark underbellies, you really do need to start and operate from a higher level of credibility than everyone else.
- Taking the name Whistle Blower, implies that he is someone operating from within the organization with access to exclusive, legitimate information.
I can see taking an annonymous screen name if you were outing the President for tapping the Democratic National Convention, or turning over memos from A Large Tobacco Company about their knowledge of nicotine's actual chemical effects on people. Either one of these situations could see you mysteriously disappearing one day never to be heard from again. Or at the very least fired from your job and blackballed from your industry of choice. But JFJ? Meh, I would lend more credence if he used an actual name, even if it wasn't his real one.
- Using the name Jews For Jesus in his domain name is duplicitous and obviously meant to blindside anyone who initially visits the site.
Anyone who sees that domain name is going to assume it is in some way associated with JFJ, or is run by a branch of it, or someone who belongs to the organization. They would visit in good faith expecting to find information about the organziation or a representation of the organization from their own perspective. If this guy wanted to legitimately expose the wrongdoing of JFJ, which as I say, I don't have a problem with, he should choose a domain that reflects that position. Like JFJisbad.blogspot.com or something.
I haven't been "active" in the blogosphere that long. I started blogging in '01, best as I can tell going back through my archives on my main blog. But it wasn't until around the time The Idiot in Cheif started talking War in Iraq that I started connecting with other bloggers in a significant way. It's come a long way. In fact, the phrase blogosphere itself tells you that it's not just a bunch of teenagers spewing angst all over the internet anymore. I guess the point I am trying to find my way to is that people take these things more seriously now. Some blogs are actually used as sources of information nowadays. Hell, they hired people to blog from the Democratic National Convention in Boston this last go round.
This guy reminds me of the knucklehead professor I blogged about earlier. He has a good idea, but his execution SUCKS! And I fear that others will look at these people and, because of the assumed "legitimacy" of their positions; University Professor, and apparent inside source blogger they will paint us all with the same "Idiot" brush. The sad but true fact of life is we are the minority. Anyone who is a pacifist, environmentalist, supporter of human rights, non-christian or any combination thereof is working from a deficit position before they even open their mouths. It's like the old saying goes, we have to work twice as hard as everyone else to gain the same amount of ground. And I'm not even talking about with the extremist, neo-con, facist bigots here, I'm just talking about your everyday, average human being. We have to be HYPER-sensitive to our tone, attitude and personal credibility because people generally look for reasons to think of us as tree-huggin', pot-smokin', Mother Jones readin' wackos with no concept of reality. On this blog, here in my own little corner of the blogosphere, I can be as far over the edge of the left wing liberal precipice as I please, because it's mine. But if I were to go into a public forum such as a message board or egroup, I would need to make very sure my tone was respectful and my facts were well documented before I stated my opinion/arguement.
This standard doesn't apply to the majority speakers:
Remember the infamous Pat Robertson quote about feminism. Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
Jerry Fallwell after 9/11: "I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians, ... the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this [terrorist attack] happen." Jerry Falwell, 700 Club, 2001-SEP-13. 2
These people can say this kind of thing on national television every day and twice on Sundays and not only get away with it, but have millions of average americans agreeing with them, because they are "Men of the Cloth". We don't have that luxury.
So, here's my exhortation to all y'all who go forth to represent any portion of the minority. Be careful out there and try not to make the rest of us look bad, eh?
Peace.
posted by Unknown
at 10:12 AM ::
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(6) comments
6 Comments:
I like the style you took with this subject. It is not often that you find a subject so to the point and informative.
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