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Ear to the Ground

Defenders of Ted ‘Series of Tubes’ Stevens: He’s Really Tech-Savvy

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Posted on Jul 14, 2006
Sen. Ted Stevens

Sen. Ted Stevens’ near-incoherent speech before Congress last week about Internet fundamentals ("It’s a series of tubes") quickly made him a national laughingstock. But his defenders say Stevens simply used imprecise language, and that he really knows his Net stuff. You decide:

  • Defenders speak out
  • Jon Stewart clip
  • Techno remix of Stevens’ speech

  • Mercury News:

    ... Communications lobbyists - particularly those who side with him on “net neutrality,” but also some who don’t - say Stevens is getting a bad rap. They say he was employing analogy in the tubes statement. He understands communications-technology issues just fine, they say, however inarticulate he may have sounded at one particular moment. Stevens, many attest, is a BlackBerry junkie whose thumbs sometimes are flying over the device during meetings.

    “Senator Stevens chaired 26 hearings and sat through a half-dozen listening sessions (on communications issues), some that lasted an entire day,” Sutherland said. “I can tell you from personal conversations with him almost daily on these topics that he understands the technical, the legal and the economic aspects of new technologies and how they will be deployed ... throughout the nation.”

    At the heart of the barbs is Stevens’ stance on “net neutrality.” It’s a polarizing, complicated issue that has, on one side, the corporations that bring the Internet into homes and offices - such as AT&T, BellSouth and cable companies - and on the other, the companies that provide the services that people use on the Internet - most prominently Google, craigslist, eBay and Microsoft.

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    By Liz, July 16, 2006 at 1:23 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    so the likes of dumb paris hilton, and britney spears are blackberry junkies. So does that make them technological wizards? No. So what does being a blackberry junkie prove your technical knowledge? Nothing.

    Report this

    By Andrew Myers, July 16, 2006 at 11:36 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    It’s not the tubes statement that made his ignorance of the subject so obvious. It’s not even the fact that he refered to “an email” as “an internet"…

    The protocols used to relay email and to allow IP transmissions make it IMPOSSIBLE for his analogy, using whatever terminology you favor, to ever take place.

    I think it is hilarious to say that he AUTHORED the bill. Having read it’s text I have concluded there is no way he could have written half of it!

    This guy is a crazy old man. Is it true that he is 3rd in line for the presidency!?!?

    Report this

    By Joe, July 16, 2006 at 5:54 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Poor senile old fool! He must have been thinking about his bridge to nowhere which is really a long tube, similar to the Internet.

    Report this

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