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U p F r o n t
By Karl Keating
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 12
 December 1994 
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YOU may remember that in last month's
"Dragnet" we quoted from an invitation printed in The
National Catholic Reporter. That weekly's editor, Tom C.
Fox, urged his readers to sign up with certain "lists"
(online discussion groups) on the Internet.
From his description of the recommended lists, it seemed to
us that they all had a decided, well, list--to the far
left. Fair enough. NCR is a left-wing paper, and one
wouldn't expect it to recommend that its readers sign up
with conservative lists.
For our part, we thought it fair to make
these same lists known to our readers, most of whom would
not describe themselves as left-wing, and to urge them to
sign up. They thereby could inject a small bit of orthodoxy
into cyberspace. You'd have thought we were urging them take
to the streets in order to force a repeal of the First
Amendment, so heated were some of the messages written to me
by members of Sister-L, one of the lists recommended by
Fox.
For the details you will have to read the
article. As you do so, please keep this question in mind: On
which side, the orthodox or the heterodox, do we see, in
practice and not just in theory, an openness to real
discussion and not just to a party line?
The orthodox are supposed to be
closed-minded, while the heterodox praise themselves for
their willingness to consider all sides--but all this strikes
me as special pleading. What do you think?
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