NY Times Warns People About The Evils Of Thomas Edison's Aerophone(NYT wants Edison lynched!)

TechDirt ^ | October 8, 2014 | Mike Masnick

[all the best]

However, the NY Times' archivist, Evan Sandhaus has an amusing example (via Mathew Ingram) concerning that time, back in 1878, when the NY Times editorialized against Thomas Edison's phonograph and aereophone, for the fact that they could destroy everyone's privacy. Here's just the beginning: The Aerophone Something ought to be done to Mr. Edison, and there is a growing conviction that it has better be done with a hemp rope.

[all the best]

Evil from the beginning. The New York Times wanted Thomas Edison LYNCHED!

[tanknetter]

Hey, they wanted to use a hemp rope. So at least they’re consistant on some things ...

[bigbob]

My first thought was of the technophobia that is often expressed on FR. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Texas Eagle]

...the NY Times editorialized against Thomas Edison's phonograph and aereophone, for the fact that they could destroy everyone's privacy.

I'm no fan of the Slimes but I do have to say that that's some damn good prophesying.

Too bad they've lost that gift.

[SpaceBar]

The New York Times. Advocating murder since 1878.

[davius]

This post violates the recent requirement that satire be clearly labeled as such in the header. It both confused me and made me anxious that my grip on reality was tenuous.

[ChildOfThe60s]

My first thought was of the technophobia that is often expressed on FR.

Honest analysis of what unpleasant changes technology can make on society is not necessarily technophobia.

Granted, it's happening regardless of what we may want, but we still should understand the implications..

I'm considered a techno lover in my family, but I am a liberty lover first. I would trade cell phones and all the other neat toys, including my PC (which is my business lifeblood) for the time before Big Brother and the fascist Nanny State. For the time when our privacy and freedom were real and not illusions. For the time when you didn't worry that the NSA was able and willing to listen to everything you said and did. And potentially come after you for verbalizing incorrect thoughts.

[ElkGroveDan]

From morning till midnight our ears will be tortured with the uproar of aerophonic talk, and deaf men will be looked upon as the favored few to whom nature has made life tolerable.....

[Savage Beast]

It just shows (yet again) that the New York Times has always been merely a megaphone for morons.

[Dr. Sivana]

I didn’t think that Edison had anything to do with telephone type products. That was that famous Candaian-American-Brit A.G. Bell/

[Arthur McGowan]

Edison invented an improved transmitter for the telephone. For awhile, Bell’s transmitter WAS the receiver.