On Monday, April 7, 2014 9:25:12 AM UTC-5, Boris Zbarsky wrote: . . . > > Most outlets completely ignored the voices that _were_ raised in > > Brendan's support. It's possible that if there were more such voices > > they would not have been ignored, but I doubt it; those outlets had a > > story to sell, not truth to report. > > > > > Where was the spirited defense? > > > > There was quite a bit of it happening on twitter, in various forums, in > > blog posts. As I said above, the press pretended none of it was happening. > > > > Some of us, myself included, wish we'd been able to do more, for sure. > > > > -Boris
And this is why we need the internet at large, uncensored. Mozilla and Firefox are important parts of this. I am both fearful and upset that Mr. Eich has departed regardless of whether it was internal pressure within Mozilla or sites such as OKCupid. That large media conglomerates can escalate this situation to this point, recalls the infamy of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon and the House Unamerican Activity Committee. We need a Senator Margaret Chase Smith equivalent "Declaration of Conscience" rebutting this senseless character assassination. Mr. Porter's quote of de Tocqueville is completely correct and directly applies to directly this situation. Here are the impressions I have: 1. The Mozilla board made a decision to appoint Mr. Eich as chief. 2. A web site of uncertain significance (to me at least) decided they didn't like it and changed a web page to comment on this, (their right to speak unimpeded), creating a media firestorm. 3. Others quickly joined what can only be described as the internet equivalent of a riot in the streets. 4. To quell the situation, Mr. Eich resigned. Whether this was internal pressure, his own independent decision about what was best for the organization, or as a result of outside pressure cannot be truly determined by outsiders such as me. Only he and the board can answer these questions. 5. Mozilla's board could have made a solid declaration that the Foundation would not and could not be persuaded by public pressure related to a key individual's personal (and private) political persuasions by publicly announcing it had received Mr. Eich's resignation and rejecting it, allowing him to continue in his position and making a clear and loud statement that private political beliefs are not the business of the Mozilla Foundation and its officers, whether they are in agreement with them or not. The simple facts are, that the Board did not publicly reject the resignation and did not make a "Declaration of Consciences." The new McCarthyism is here. The new question is not, "Are you no or have you ever been a member of the communist party?" _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
