From leander@xmission.comTue Apr 11 04:21:57 1995
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 17:09:53 -0600
From: "Leander H. Pearson" 
Reply to: ACT@bolis.sf-bay.org
To: act@bolis.sf-bay.org
Subject: The John Birch Society Replies

The following is an answer I got from the JBS regarding their material on
the net, and their position:

---Begin Reply---

Dear Mr. Pearson, 
 
You asked in a recent e-mail message about whether a message from the Birch
Society requesting removal of our articles from the Patriot web page was
genuine. It was. The purposes of the letter, which I confess was tersely
worded, were mainly two-fold. First, we did not authorize the posting of
the material and do need to protect our copyright.  Secondly, and more
importantly, we are concerned about the format in which our materials are
presented. We currently have an approval process in place for JBS-approved
web and BBS sites. One of the requirements for approval is that our
materials not appear on the same site as unrealiable or hateful material.
We have no desire to give the major media cause to link us with Linda
Thompson's insurrectionist message, Mark Koernke's wacky paranoia, or book
lists which hawk Henry Ford's hate tract "The International Jew."  
 
Incidentally, we are not removing JBS material from the net, nor are we
cutting back on web access. One JBS-approved web site is up and running.
The sysop is Todd Evans and the address is:
"http://www.primenet.com:80/`tevans/jbs.hmtl" We are interested in getting
the word out and getting more web sites to offer selected TNA and JBS
materials at no cost, but we are not interested in having our message muted
by its conmingling with fictional tales of the income tax being voluntary
and UN troop movements in Montana. 
 
Our position is simply this. We believe that the power of our message is
stronger when presented within the context of strictly factual information,
rather than having internet surfers read looney tales and then wonder if
"birds of a feather flock together" when reading "The New American." 
 
I hope that this clears up any misunderstanding. 
 
 
Sincerely, 
-- 
Tom Eddlem 
Research Department 
The John Birch Society 
birch@athenet.net 

---End Reply---

Cheers!
Leander H. Pearson
leander@xmission.com
Compuserve: 73003,35

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