Globe watch

It's the pipeline, stupid; Jacoby trips up

by Dan Kennedy

You'll not find a more confusing -- or confused -- account of the battle between AT&T and America Online than the one that appeared in the Boston Globe's editorial last Sunday. Even the headline, A POOR PORTAL FOR THE INTERNET, managed to mangle completely what the dispute is all about.

The issue is complex. Cable companies -- the most dominant of which will be Ma Bell herself, AT&T, after she finishes gobbling up MediaOne -- are at the forefront of offering high-speed access to the Internet. But the cable companies are not content with merely building the fastest pipeline; they also want to be the sole providers of access to that pipeline. Thus, if you upgrade to a cable modem, your cable company becomes your Internet-service provider (ISP). By contrast, when you jack your old-fashioned modem into a phone line, you can choose from hundreds of ISPs, from giant AOL to Localgeeks.com.

The Globe, though, seems to think that the fuss is about whose home page will appear when you first fire up your Web browser. It blasts the home page that MediaOne imposes upon its customers, Roadrunner, as "an inadequate service," and laments the technical difficulty of changing the default to something that might be more to the average user's liking. (Hint: choose "Preferences," an option with both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.)

At one point, the editorial actually seems to get it, noting that AOL "wants to force the cable companies to offer a variety of ISPs." But alas, the home-page issue keeps returning, like a greasy meal eaten in haste. Thus: "Massachusetts communities served by MediaOne ought to complain about the special status of Roadrunner"; "An ISP, even if it produces the starkest, most uninformative start-up page possible, should be able to reach customers"; and the conclusion, "Stronger steps will be necessary if AT&T refuses to give up its chokehold on an important portal to the information riches of the Internet."

But it's not the portal, it's the pipeline. Designating Roadrunner as the default home page is small change compared to what MediaOne/AT&T really wants: a vertically integrated monopoly that eliminates consumers' right to choose their ISP. It's as if the Mass Turnpike Authority made you rent one of its cars in order to travel on the Pike.

Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the Internet knows that ISPs do not compete based on the quality of their home pages; indeed, most use their home pages merely to troll for new customers and to provide some contact information. Rather, ISPs compete -- and compete hard -- on price, reliability, and customer service.

One suspects that the cable companies would gladly make AOL's portal site, www.aol.com, their default home page in exchange for a guarantee that AOL and others would be blocked from competing with them in the far more lucrative ISP business. Too bad the Globe didn't do its homework before weighing in on such an important and contentious issue.

Feet don't fail me now

Globe op-ed-page columnist Jeff Jacoby provided some sick, though unintentional, humor in his Monday column, in which he attempted to expose gun-lovin', gay-rights-dissin', anti-choice Republican presidential candidate John McCain as a closet moderate.

Jacoby acknowledged McCain's heroism as a POW in Vietnam, but wondered why the media are so much more taken with McCain's war record than with the records of others who demonstrated equal valor.

Then came this unfortunate passage: "Other senators have paid a high price in service to their country -- Max Cleland of Georgia, for instance, left two legs and an arm in Vietnam -- and nobody writes that they walk on water."

"Of course it was completely unintended," says Jacoby, who adds that, in an earlier draft, he had mentioned other war heroes as well -- including Bob Kerrey. Who lost a foot in Vietnam.