Return-path: Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 11:47:23 -0800 From: "Steve Freedkin--Your Attention, Please! communication services" Subject: TV Guide, Good Housekeeping, Parenting & Your Product Sender: sfreedkin@igc.org Sender: sfreedkin@igc.org X-Sender: sfreedkin@pop.igc.apc.org To: bmilburn@solidoak.com Cc: akrause@igc.apc.org, info@peacefire.org Dear Mr. Milburn: I am asking my contacts at a variety of parents' and family magazines to look into the matter of your treatment of Bennet Haselton, founder of the Peacefire youth Web site. I am providing contact information for you, Mr. Haselton, and <>, the organization whose newsletter first brought this issue to my attention, to _Good Housekeeping_, _TV Guide_, and similar publications, as well as _Dateline NBC_ and _NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. I believe a negative recommendation on your product from these media would be undesirable for you, so I hope my contacts with their reporters and editors will prompt you to treat Mr. Haselton and other youth (and by implication, their parents) with the respect implied by the purpose of your product. I was astonished and dismayed to learn of your company's treatment of Bennett Haselton and his Peacefire Web site in response to his inquiries about your software's blocking of the Institute for Global Communications site and other political sites. Regardless of the merits of these blocking decisions, responding to him that he should "get a life" and "hang out at the mall" illustrates an attitude that has nothing whatsoever to do with respecting the dignity and emotional needs of youth. It might be appropriate for you to include in your product a block against communications of this sort from *you*, which would in my judgment be well classified as political and psychological pornography. I hope with the passage of time and the coming of the holidays, you have taken a cooler look at this issue, reversed your decision to blcok the Peacefire site, and apologized to Mr. Haselton. A good opportunity for you to return to a pro-child, pro-family stance will come in the near future. I am asking the editors at a variety of parents' and family magazines to look into this situation, and am providing them with contact information for you, Mr. Haselton, and <>, the organization whose newsletter first brought this issue to my attention. I believe a negative recommendation against your product from _Family Circle_, _Parenting_, _Good Housekeeping_, _TV Guide_, and similar publications would be undesirable for you, so I hope my contacts with their reporters and editors will prompt you to treat Mr. Haselton and other youth (and by implication, their parents) with the respect implied by the purpose of your product. Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and *reasonable* new year. Yours, Steve Freedkin Your Attention, Please! communication services Media Relations, Fundraising, Internet 225 Clifton Street, Suite 116 Oakland, CA 94816-1477 Direct Line (510) 655-2778 cc: Mr. Bennet Haselton Ms. Audrie Krause