Category: Storage Services
I have a small, tightly padded box available for rent. You can put almost anything you wish into it. Rates available upon request.

Greetings. As I write this, Google News shows over 2500 entries for the search term "craigslist killer" -- and many more for similar searches. Was someone at Craigslist killed? Did someone at Craigslist kill anybody?

Of course not. As you probably know by now, "Craigslist Killer" has become the media shorthand for references to alleged robber and killer Philip Markoff, who reportedly used Craigslist to find potential victims to finance what appears to have been a gambling obsession.

Since it has become so popular to blame open communications and the Internet in particular for most of society's problems these days, it perhaps was to be expected that mainstream media would home in on the Craigslist connection. But why?

Ads similar in every respect to the "erotic services" ads for which Craigslist is being condemned are available from openly accessible newspaper racks and vending machines in virtually every major city. To the extent that prostitution is an issue, I've seen absolutely no statistics to suggest that there have been measurable changes in its incidence with the arrival of Craigslist in a city. The world's "oldest profession" has managed to flourish -- with all of its attendant risks -- since the dawn of civilization, it is not a creation of the Internet. It will continue even if our technological civilization collapses, so long as humans exist.

Media reports are spending at least as much time with their concerted effort to crucify Craigslist as they are on the alleged killer himself, and the gambling connection that apparently drove the robberies eventually leading to murder.

In a particularly disgraceful interview example, ABC News' Martin Bashir asked Craigslist founder Craig Newmark if he "regarded himself as a law-abiding citizen of America." One can only assume that "enhanced interrogation techniques" might be next on the agenda after a question like that. (Full disclosure: Craig is a founding signatory of my NNSquad [Network Neutrality Squad] project, but I have never discussed with him nor anyone else at Craigslist any aspects of Craigslist policies or operations.)

Rather than concentrate on the risks that persons placing ads knowingly take, or on the gambling industry that has ruined and continues to ruin vast numbers of lives via everything from casinos to lotteries, the media focus on Craigslist represents a clear and present danger to free speech on the Internet.

The implicit argument being made by Craigslist detractors is that if Craigslist closed down its "erotic services" category, or someone manually pre-approved the millions of ads that are posted in Craigslist generally, that events such as the Markoff case wouldn't exist.

But as the example ad at the beginning of this posting demonstrates, there are myriad ways to camouflage erotic solicitations, in any number of innocent appearing categories and manners. The most likely result of closing down the Craigslist erotic services category would be the movement en masse of such ads to disguised forms spread throughout most other categories, where persons uninterested in such ventures will likely be confused in disconcerting ways.

At the very least, the collection of all erotic ads in a clearly labeled category -- call it a red light district if you must -- helps to avoid the kinds of misunderstandings that disguised ads could easily engender. And in fact, explicit ad categories have also been an effective tool for law enforcement use.

More broadly, the "blame the indexer" sensibility that seems to be spreading is of great concern, as legislators and other officials seem to be increasingly viewing control over search engines like Google as key avenues toward censoring what their citizens will be allowed to learn about or access. We're seeing an accelerating trend toward blaming such services for the existence of content that they index, rather than the creators and owners of the actual content itself.

This is not a totally black and white situation -- I have previously suggested that very limited "dispute resolution mechanisms" be considered to deal with unusual search query results problems.

But generally by far, blaming the messenger is an underhanded and historically popular scapegoating technique used throughout the ages as a diversionary tactic.

Trying to blame Craigslist for a gambling-induced, robbery-gone-wrong murder of a victim who posted an erotic services ad may be great for scoring quick political and popular appeal points, but it's completely wrong-headed from the standpoints of logic, fairness, and ultimate impacts.

Category: Tools
I have a very long and hard post digger available for rent. It will meet all of your gardening needs. I can rent it out by the day or the hour. Looking forward to discussing with you in more detail.

--Lauren--