Hillary Then And Now

In 1998 when Bill Clinton’s sex scandal was the big news, news that broke because Matt Drudge posted it after it was quashed in the MSM, Hilary had an opinion about the Internet. Hillary said she did not know what she was in favor of but it sounded like she favored some kind of regulation.

…I don’t know what — that’s why I said I don’t know what I’m in favor of. And I don’t know enough to know what to be in favor of, because I think it’s one of those new issues we’ve got to address. We’ve got to see whether our existing laws protect people’s right of privacy, protect them against defamation. And if they can, how do you do that when you can press a button and you can’t take it back. So I think we have to tread carefully. Drudge Report

Hillary said that without some kind of gatekeeping function it was difficult to defend a reputation. It probably did not occur to her that Bill’s reputation was hurt when he had the affair and then lied about it. If he had been telling the truth then it would have been Drudge’s reputation that needed to be defended.

Thirteen years later and with news of China continuing to censor the Internet, Ms. Clinton still has an opinion though it is different than it was back then.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday called for an unfettered worldwide Internet and urged global condemnation of those who conduct cyber attacks, as China sought to contain tension with the United States over the hacking and censorship of Google.

“A new information curtain is descending across much of the world,” she said, calling growing Internet curbs the modern equivalent of the Berlin Wall.

“We stand for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas,” said Clinton in a major address that cited China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt among countries that censored the Internet or harassed bloggers. Yahoo News

Well things have certainly changed with regard to her position on this.

Did it change because the scandal left Bill relatively unscathed and now China is the focus?

What do you think prompted her position reversal? I would be interested to read your opinions in the comment section.

Big Dog

Gunline

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2 Responses to “Hillary Then And Now”

  1. Darrel says:

    Bigd: “What do you think prompted her position reversal?”>>

    DAR
    Perhaps you can explain some kind of connection or contradiction between the first quote and the second.

    I don’t see any, at all, zero.

    D.

    • Blake says:

      Well, D- in the first, she is talking about how in the internet age, comments can and are widely disseminated without any “truth” to them (AGW)- and in the second, she is bemoaning the fact that China seeks to control that information, kind of like Mark Lloyd wishes to in this country.
      In the first, she wished for more control, in the second, she is against it-
      Typical progressive- she was for it before she was against it, or “Do what I say, not what I do.”