It was a First Amendment issue for a lot of people. That and the arrogant service did them in. Along about the time they merged, I realized that virtually every empty-headed liberal I knew was an AOL subscriber. Virtually none of my more thoughtful centrist and conservative friends are. Consumers are far more savvy (of course) and aware of the political aspects to all this than these liberal, money-grubbing bozos ever realized. People did not want to subscribe to an Clinton-friendly, Ted Turner internet company whose ulitmate aim - we feared - was to control content. We already KNOW they would LOVE to shut down talk radio if they could.
virtually every empty-headed liberal I knew was an AOL subscriber Yep, and every person who is stupid about computers has it, or has recently tried it, too. I just spent a few hours this afternoon taking spyware and bloatware off a computer I sold to a customer a few weeks ago. Seems they got impatient with the free NoCharge.com dialup I put on there for them, and succumbed to one of those ever-present coasters flying around out there.
Glad to see Case put in his place, he's the arrogant head of a company that treats the American public more shabbily than any other I have ever known. And that includes US car companies, too!