Internet Abuse

There's a well-known racing industry executive that writes a column on a Valvoline-backed website under the pin name I.N. Sider. His columns, including his latest one, are usually insightful and well thought out pieces. His current column is very critical of the NHRA upper management team including NHRA prez Tom Compton, the NHRA publicity department and the board of directors including Wally Parks and ex-NHRA president Dallas Gardner.

I.N.Sider's observations and criticisms of NHRA's IRP facility, the sanctioning body's comparatively weak payouts when compared to other sanctioning organizations, the lack of leadership in some areas, and his proposed solutions have already been the subject of columns written by writers who work for this magazine, including myself, and others. Who, by the way, all signed their real names to their work.

The only problem here is that this man used a website sponsored by a company that is a major player in the motorsports community to chastise NHRA severely and then hid behind his pen name. Evidently he didn't feel strongly enough in his convictions to take the credit and responsibility for his criticisms or solutions to reveal his real identity.

Too many people involved in drag racing and other motorsports don't have any trouble blasting the Tom Compton's, Bill Bader's or Bill France's from the safety of the internet and anonymity. You've all met these guys. They talk a lot of stuff about people in bars, or on internet message boards and chat rooms, but they never sign their real names. And if they happen to meet the people they've been talking about, they're more likely to kiss their ass than blister it.

Allowing people to vent in a public forum is a basic tenet of freedom of speech. Doing so without sign their names has nothing to do with freedom of speech or valid criticism. The main reason that internet publications and journalists are having so much trouble being taken as legitimate media are the chat rooms and message boards that allow virtually anything to be said by anyone without the least bit of verification. That's not journalism; that's a bunch of old women gossiping over the back fence and it can result in doing real damage to people lives and jobs.

When I started this magazine the first decision I made was that it would have no chat room and no message board, and that all letters had to be signed with a real name and verified. I would run this magazine in a professional way, hold everyone working here to the standards expected from professional journalist and in turn be held to the standards of our profession by our readers and advertisers. That is what I learned in my college journalism classes and that is the way I worked at every print magazine and newspaper I ever worked for.

Part of the internet's problem is amateur websites with message boards and chat rooms that allow people hiding behind a bogus name to write anything they want about people or organizations. As a result, almost all internet publications' reputations are damaged by those that abuse chat rooms and message boards. I'm of the opinion that all internet publications with chat rooms, message boards, or writers using pen names should be denied credentials. For the most part they only have them to juice up their readership numbers.

When a publication backed by a company like Valvoline allows an executive to anonymously use it to bash a company, that only reinforces the perception that internet publications or the people that work for them can't be taken seriously or treated as legitimate.

Never mind that many of the people working on this magazine and others on the internet have degrees in journalism and years of experience covering this sport, or that it takes the same amount of time, effort, and talent to publish an internet magazine as a print publication. Never mind that internet readership is growing by leaps and bounds.

Drag Racing Online itself is averaging over 75,000 readers and 600,000 page views per issue. These numbers are better than most monthly magazines devoted to racing. Yet when submitting for credentials from those people, very often the disdainful words "Oh, you're an internet site" are heard. You can almost hear the person rolling their eyes, wadding the request up and pitching it in the round file.

Which brings me back to Mr. I.N. Sider and the Valvoline Company.

Shame on the both of you! If, as a company involved in racing, Valvoline can't stand the heat when someone who works for their web site criticizes a sanctioning body, then they should not allow him to do so. As for Mr. I.N. Sider, how about giving legitimate journalists -- especially those of us working on the internet -- a break. If you don't believe in what you are saying strongly enough to sign your name, how about just shutting up. If you really believe in what you say and want it to carry some weight and affect change, then identify yourself.

If you won't do that consider the damage you are doing as an amateur to the efforts of real, legitimate journalist and publications working on the internet. Stop it!!!!

photo by Randy Fish

Copyright 1999-2002, Drag Racing Online and Racing Net Source