Re: <nettime> Re: TBTF: eToys pays in market cap for bullying etoy

[Declan McCullagh <declan@wired.com>]

At 20:41 12/13/1999 -0500, Guy Yasko wrote:
>i know it's standard journalistic practice these days to set oneself
>up as a conduit between supposedly authoritative sources of
>information and the public, but i don't buy it.  this style of

This is a fair criticism. But sometimes those sources are in fact
authoratative, and the case for the etoys boycott affecting the stock
price is anything but persuasive. 

>underneath the rhetoric of "empowerment," today's media constantly
>tells us to cast out the rebelliousness in our hearts and admit our
>powerless before "market forces" and "progress.."  i know that's what

Agreed, though I suspect that I'm not as skeptical of "market forces" as
you. Boycotts and activism are part of the market -- in other words,
people making voluntary choices about what to buy and what to do. 

Don't get me wrong: I'm not a fan of what etoys.com did, and I forwarded
the slashdot.org article criticial of them to a list I maintain. I think
that they are in the wrong. But critics of them should try to be accurate,
too. 

-Declan



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