legitimate criticism?

[Andrew I. Mutch]

I'm sure that most list members are tired of this little thread but one of
Mr. Burt's comments really struck a nerve with me.  Specifically:
 
"With 20 million daily listeners, this is great. The American
people are finally starting to hear about ALA's porn pushing to children."

If Mr. Burt is going to equate providing a link to an educational
resource, of which one sub-section includes discussion of a wide-variety
of sexual activities, with "porn pushing to children", he has crossed the
line of legitimate criticism and has become reckless and irresponsible
with his comments.  By this kind of reasoning, a library that owns "The
Joy of Sex" - as Mr. Burt's library does - is pushing pornography in the
community as it also provides both written and visual depictions of a wide
variety of sexual activities.  

I also wonder now if the web site that I host, which is also a TeenHoopla
link will be the next to join Mr. Burt's "enemies" list.  The site which
is a series of book reviews of Young Adult books includes book lists which
deal with drug use and other teen issues(homosexuality, etc.).  The titles
on these lists often discuss drug use, sexual behavior, etc. in a
realistic way from a teen's viewpoint.  Will we be the next site accused
of advocating [fill-in-the-blank] because it acknowledges that these
issues are issues that young adults are dealing with??  Maybe it would be
better that the lists are "sanitized" so that young adults never learn of
any books that might "offend" their tender minds....

Andrew Mutch




On Fri, 30 Apr 1999, David Burt wrote:

> The exact URL is http://www.drlaura.com/letters/index.html?tool=monologue&fcn=view&id=139  Dr. Laura has been on a tear all week about ALA, and shows no signs of letting up.   The main focus of her anger has been the link from the "Great Sites for Teens" to the disgusting and lurid "Go Ask Alice" site, which instructs children about bestiality, fisting, and other nice things.  ALA feels this site is appropriate for 12-year-olds.  With 20 million daily listeners, this is great. The American people are finally starting to hear about ALA's porn pushing to children.
> 
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> David Burt, President
> Filtering Facts
> www.filteringfacts.org
> phone/fax 503 635-0392
> 210 S State Street, Suite 7
> Lake Oswego, OR 97034
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	K Nayyer [SMTP:knayyer at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca]
> Sent:	Friday, April 30, 1999 5:31 PM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	[WEB4LIB] Re: Censorship Sites
> 
> Matthew, in addition to the sites others have mentioned, you may also want
> (or not) to see what Dr. Laura (!) has to say. She's got a posting dated
> today (Apr 30) that lists a number of pro-censorship sites (including, of
> course, filteringfacts.org). This posting and one from April 23 also contain 
> writings criticizing ALA's position and actions on the issue.
> 
> Never thought I'd be a referrer for Dr. Laura's site, but here goes:
> 
> http://www.drlaura.com/
> 
> Kim Nayyer
> MLIS Student
> University of Alberta
> 
> 
> > Matthew M. Benzing (benzim at rpi.edu)
> > Thu, 29 Apr 1999 11:15:55 -0700 (PDT) 
> 
> > In the interest of fairness, does anyone know of any sites that make a
> > case FOR censorship? This isn't in jest; it's just that when I see a
> > multitude of sites all making the same case I begin to want to see the
> > 'enemy' that they are inveighing against, rather than the straw men that
> > they erect for rhetorical
> > purposes.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> David Burt, President
> Filtering Facts
> www.filteringfacts.org
> phone/fax 503 635-0392
> 210 S State Street, Suite 7
> Lake Oswego, OR 97034
>