A truly rotten Web site

by Dan Kennedy

The radical democratization of the media made possible by the Internet has led to thousands of experiments -- some good, but many bad and even downright ugly. In a popular culture shaped by glamorized images of sex and violence, and by a profoundly alienating social environment, how could the Net be otherwise?

Which brings us to Rotten dot com (http://www.rotten.com). I considered not even reporting its name and address, but its proprietor, in an online plea for contributions, claims that his costs rise with increased traffic. So by all means let's have a look on Mr. Rotten's dime.

Rotten dot com is devoted to bringing Web surfers "the soft white underbelly of the Net, eviscerated for all to see." Among the site's lowlights: death and autopsy photos of celebrities such as Nicole Brown Simpson and Marilyn Monroe; graphic depictions of sexual torture; photos of horribly deformed babies; John Wayne Bobbitt's severed penis; and -- this just in! -- a special section devoted to Princess Diana, including a brand-new photo of what appears to be the dying princess, tended to by rescue workers. But who knows? Rotten dot com makes no claim of authenticity.

Rotten claims some 30,000 visitors a day, which, if true, makes it almost as well-perused as big-budget Web 'zines such as Slate and Salon. It even has, God help us, intellectual pretentions. "We cannot dumb the Internet down to the level of playground [sic]," the site's welcoming message intones. "Rotten dot com serves as a beacon to demonstrate that censorship of the Internet is impractical, unethical, and wrong."

Not quite what Milton had in mind in Areopagitica, perhaps, but the First Amendment protects Mr. Rotten just as it does Mr. Sulzberger. Still, you can't help but feel nostalgic for the days when one had to go well out of one's way to be exposed to such perversity. The gatekeeper role once played by Old Media was stultifying and at times censorious, but it had its purposes -- not the least of which was defining such odious, desensitizing fare as near-contraband, rather than as merely a cheap thrill just a few mouse clicks away.