The Internet: Our friend and enemy

By Jim Huber, Turner Sports
March 7, 2001
11:00 AM EST (1600 GMT)

Commentary

Make no mistake about it. A half-century after the great little cartoon strip Pogo first uttered the brilliant line "We have seen the enemy and it is among us."

It still applies.

Jim Huber

And in the tragic case of the fight over Dale Earnhardt's autoposy pictures, it is indeed us. Us, the internet. Us, the great unwashed. Us, with very few restrictions.

The Orlando Sentinel has sued to have the right to view those photographs and the Earnhardt family is publicly fighting back. The newspaper claims, and I believe every word, that it wishes only to have its own independent investigator see the visual evidence and make its own determination as to exactly what killed the man.

The newspaper furthermore, and I believe this as well, that it will not publish those photographs, that a member of the Earnhardt estate can watch over the entire process to make certain the pictures aren't copied.

But Teresa Earnhardt is a weary but wise woman and she has hit the nail right on the head.

"I know," she has said, "that sooner or later, that if access to the photos is allowed, others will demand them, too. And make no mistake, sooner or later, they will wind up unprotected and published.

"And most certainly on the Internet."

We live in ever-changing times. The state of Florida has always allowed autopsy photographs to become part of the public record, unless they are part of a criminal investigation. But a judge hearing the Sentinel's request, has overturned that allowance in this instance.

Whether that is within his boundaries, whether it is right or wrong, he has taken that stand, surely knowing what a keg of dynamite he has put a match to. But I'm betting he also knows what Teresa Earnhardt knows, where those photographs will eventually wind up.

We, in this world-wide web of ours, have very few boundaries, hardly any restrictions. Just surf awhile and you'll eventually come up grimy and soiled.

There is no question, like the Orlando Sentinel, that we at NASCAR.com would not consider publishing such photographs, regardless of any "news value" attached. At least I would hope that would be the case.

But there is an enormous cyberspace out there beyond us who would leap at such an opportunity. The sites -- which take great delight in murder-scene photographs for instance -- sites which open the belly of the shark to see what it consumed last.

And if the Orlando Sentinel is well within it's rights in this case, so would be the prurient, the lurid, the slashers of this world.

Until we somehow build some solid walls for this grand new home of ours on the World Wide Web, then we must live with our neighbors, like them or not.

Keep the photographs locked up. In fact, burn them. If they haven't taught us any new lessons in how to keep our heroes safe by now, they will not in perpetuity.

Jim Huber is a regular contributor to NASCAR.com. He can be reached at write.huber@turner.com.

The opinions listed here are solely those of the writer.