Memory Holes and the Internet (updated)

blamanj writes "As reporters and researchers depend more and more heavily on the Internet as a research tool, manipulation of the net becomes a serious problem. A recent Slashdot article discussed this in regard to the White House. Now, The Memory Hole has noticed that Time magazine has pulled an article by Bush, Sr. on why it was a bad idea to try and overthrow Saddam. How can we keep corporate America honest?" Update: 11/11 22:16 GMT by T : Declan McCullagh (former Time, Inc. employee, among other things) writes in with the non-conspiracy explanation for the change, below.

Declan writes "It is silly to claim that Bush Sr. and Scowcroft would strong-arm Time Inc. into removing an article from time.com -- when that article was an excerpt from their book that you can buy today from Amazon.com for $21.

Another explanation is more likely. And, yes, a quick search turns up a May 2003 article from Slate that debunks this rumor. It turns out that Time Inc. only had permission from the publisher to post the content for a limited time."

Nothing like

[Gortbusters.org]

selected memory loss.

Wishes

[handy_vandal]

How can we keep corporate America honest?

Wish as hard as you can. Maybe click your heels three times, for luck.

WMD

[Anonymous Coward]

Website Missing Document?

The only way

[Boomhauer]

Everybody memorize a webpage. Instead of names we will be known as URLs. Before you die, you have to make someone else memorize your webpage so that none of the great literature on the web can ever be destroyed.

=C=

Re:easy

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

By Google-caching everything!

Including the google cache itself then I suppose. Sounds like a good idea, nothing beats an infintely recursive archiving solution for not losing data.

Keep Corporate America Honest?

[dwm]

"Corporate America" is every bit as honest as the rest of America. And the rest of the world, for that matter.

Think about it.

Re:Do they sell tin-foil hats at Thinkgeek?

[Walterk]

Unfortunatly, thinkgeek doesn't sell tinfoil hats. However I was able to find instructions on how to make one yourself.

Instructions are here [zapatopi.net].

BEWARE OF COMMERCIAL AFDBS: Since you should trust no one, always construct your AFDB yourself to avoid the risk of subversion and mental enslavement. Sometimes, AFDBs will be sold on places like eBay. Do not purchase these pre-made AFDBs, even if the seller seems trustworthy. They may contain backdoors, pinholes, integrated psychotronic circuitry or other methods that actually promote mind control.

Re:lexis nexis

[jason0000042]

What would cause for concern is lexis nexis removing stuff.

btw. I is grammar stupid. It caused coffee not having.

Question!

[metalhed77]

How can we keep corporate America honest?"


Bush or Time magazine?

Re:The Excerpt

[Anonymous Coward]

At that time, yeah, an invasion and occupation would probably have pissed off all the other Coalition members.

As opposed to now, right? When you had all that support from the UN and all of those Arab countries.

Re:Hey

[SoSueMe]

Now there is a conversation I love to hear:

G.B Jr.: Dad, what should I do about Eyerak?

G.B Sr.: Whatever you do, don't try to remove Saddam.

G.B Jr.: Why not?

G.B Sr.: Why not what?

G.B Jr.: Why not try to remove Saddam?

G.B Sr.: Try to remove Saddam? What a good idea!

G.B Jr.: Thanks, Dad.

Re:How can we keep corporate america honest?

[orthogonal]

Corporate America is always honest!

I keep trying to post this comment, but everytime I hit "Submit", I get an ad for Belkin's Parental Notification. [slashdot.org]

I don't see what the big deal is

[jayhawk88]

Clearly this article was ++ungood, and needed to be edited by one of the historians at the Ministry of Truth...err, Department of Homeland Security. I'm sure that this article will re-appear shortly in it's correct form, proving George Bush Sr. desperately wanted to invade Iraq and capture Sadaam during the first Gulf War, but was thwarted by the evil schemings of Eastasia...err, the Liberals.

Re:Archive.org

[ReelOddeeo]

Believing that you read things that never happened and were never printed is the sign of a sick mind. You are detached from reality and are clearly in need of help.

You are providing broken links to non-existant text that you claim are "still" provided by other subversive sources. Only a troll would provide broken links to non-existant articles claiming that they once existed. It is all a paranoid delusion.

Nothing Orwellian is going on here. The Ministry of Truth is simply working hard to keep the Internet, Google and other sources accurate and free from your kind of misinformation.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

[dontbgay]

Sure wish i knew mexican :T

Re:Archive.org

[mcpkaaos]

I'm still looking for these links the grandparent supposedly provided. No such luck. Unless.. unless they were removed, too! Oh, sweet Jesus, it's all real!

Re:Archive.org

[drakaan]

The only thing I have to say to this is related to this statement: Governments cannot, at least not until this administration, hide what they do for very long.

How do you know that? I have a different idea about the state of information and government (although I have no proof). I think that the patriot act (shudder), and a lot of the other civil-liberty restrictive legislation and activity we're seeing lately is a direct result of the recent wide availability of information on the internet (specifically, on the web).

20 years ago, you relied on printed media for information...out of date, not easily searchable or cross-checkable, and simple to control. What is different is that now everyone with access to the internet can publish information, rumour, speculation, documentation, evidence, or opinion in moments, and anyone else on earth can potentially see it, use it, and gain insight on things through it.

This makes traditional government impossible (a good thing, IMHO), since there is now a degree of transparency that the government is unprepared to operate with. The backlash of this is for restrictions to be placed on the freedoms of US citizens. The obvious remedy is to vote everyone out of office...and I mean EVERYONE. If we manage to get a fresh set of senators, representatives, executives, and judges in place (judges are a tough nut, here), maybe we stand a chance of bringing equity to citizens and government again.

Maybe what we're seeing now is that things have ALWAYS been hidden from us. Maybe so much has been swept under the rug that a big lump is starting to show.

Re:Tinfoil Argument

[antiMStroll]

Perhaps they pulled it to spark conversations like this one?

Time, a 'liberal' news outlet, pulled without announcement from their archive something critical of the Bush administration, at the expense of the public's perception of their journalistic integrity, on the hope somebody would stumble across its absence and post on a Slashdot-type forum and generate publicity for Time's..hmmmmm, lack of integrity? The discussion has come full circle, please pass a Tin Foil Hat.

Re:The Excerpt

[thatguywhoiam]

No we don't need to pick either because while Bush is a complete retard, his handlers (Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc) are criminally evil. Bush just stands up there and repeats what's being fed into his ear. I don't even think Bush himself is so much malicious as he is just a plain old asshole.

William Rivers Pitt of truthout had a great quote about that particular subject... I'm paraphrasing...

"Blaming George Bush for this administration's missteps is like blaming Mickey Mouse when Disney does something evil. He's just not in charge."

On another note, truthout.org is one of the best sites on the net for political commentary of the non-Fox variety. Check it out.