A previously unreleased White House document among the 7,500 published by the Clinton presidential library Friday warns that the burgeoning Internet of 1995 is being “seized” by the “right wing” and turned into a “communication stream of conspiracy commerce.”
The 1995 report, titled “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce,” describes the Internet as a new method of communication “employed by the right wing” and used to “convey their fringe stories into legitimate subjects of coverage by the mainstream media.”
Among those “fringe stories” were the now-infamous reports and lawsuits alleging extra-martial affairs with the president, including accusations from model and actress Gennifer Flowers, and murmurings about former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones, Mashable reports.
The White House counsel’s office and Democratic National Committee produced the report, which explains how “Republican staffers surf the Internet,” and describes it as “one of the major and most dynamic modes of communication.”
“The Internet can link people, groups and organizations together instantly,” the report reads. “Moreover, it allows an extraordinary amount of unregulated data and information to be located in one area and available to all. The right wing has seized upon the internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people. Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and information.”
