The Freedom Tower

This is an interesting idea from Pascal Lardeller of Le Monde diplomatique. “The net is the perfect medium for counter-information, analyzing available data on the 11 September attacks, challenging official findings on the events and exploiting conspiracy theories.
“Media coverage of the events of 11 September 2001 (and the rise of the Freedom Tower and the other buildings going up at Ground Zero) had to deal with an unexpected newcomer: the internet,” Lardellier said. “But is the net a new medium or is it a counter-medium? We have to ask that question because the internet has encouraged circulation of a different type of information, while the conventional media relayed the standard version of the events as gospel, repeatedly showing nightmare images accompanied by a familiar institutional commentary, given by cohorts of pontificating experts.
“Now, information highways are a spaghetti junction of alternative routes easily accessible to anyone who wants to get away from the main routes of the politically correct and ethnocentric, and that egress is often a good thing. Yet the digital counter-information saturating the net seems to be produced by some new version of the old socialist International organizations: internet users who want to spread the word about their findings or feelings, perhaps about 9/11. Their output spreads wide and loud, as the internet’s characteristic viral circulation has amplified the old word of mouth into unprecedented resonance. Electronic mail circulates files continuously, and can reach hundreds of contacts with a single mouse click.”