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MTV Hacker Saga Gets Worse
weld writes "Now Shamrock, one of the MTV hackers portrayed as involved in some sort of criminal behavior, has posted a letter saying he made it all up. He now wants to come clean. He made it all up to dupe MTV because he knew all they wanted was criminal hacking stories. The journalistic integrity of this "special" is under serious question now. HNN has posted
Shamrock's letter to the hacking community. " Check out our original story on this to get the full details.
Do you think Shamrock really has worse spelling and grammar than Hemos, or did he Hemosize his article to get Hemos to post it?
/. it sounded exactly like entertainment, not a documentary. When was the last time someone turned to MTV for their journalistic capabilities?
/. but the server isn't serving up the other replies for the moment. The best thing slashdotters could do is ignore this, or at least name and shame MTV.
So, the guy hacks MTV, pulls one over on them, and now is trying to explain himself to the hacking community. Something is fishy.
Shamrock and his coworkers need to get together and present every fact of their side of the story. Dates, places, names of MTV flacks, what got said, what got rejected. If they do that, then I will have more confidence this was a real media hack, and not some snotty wannabe script-kiddie who pulled a fast one and found himself in shit.
But given the shallowness of MTV, it is not surprising some illiterate kid could take them for a ride. Didn't see the show myself, but from descriptions here on
I expect a lot of "told you so" here on
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
This is a hack in the most classic sence of the word. If I had thought of this and thought I could get MTV to produce my own production I'd have jumped on it in a heartbeat, the only thing I'm angry about it that I didn't think of it first. Obviously his vision didn't come across and that's probably why the tone is so apologetic, it was something of a failure but I love the concept, reality hacking is the best :) :)
I produce video and it's frustrating, any independent film maker will tell you that starting out, you lie, cheat and steal to get the actors, props, editing equipment, you'll spend hours playing rope a dope with police sending them back and forth between people who "have the permit" and try and get your shot in one take before they kick you out. This was almost slick
All code and no slashdot makes meersan a dull gal, you know.
We want endless gardens of data, where the bits can flower, flourish and reproduce. -- Andy Mueller-Maguhn
Shamrock simply asserts without corroborative evidence that, "We faked it."
If you were a lame-brained criminal and realized you had been caught on camera, isn't it possible that one of your alibis might be, "Hey, I was just foolin' ya, to make y'all look stupid."
Personally, I would like to believe Shamrock's story. Any organization that would retain someone like Jesse -- a person so amazingly annoying that he can cause nose bleeds at 300 yards -- is, without question, in serious need of reality adjustment (not to mention attitude adjustment). But until I see some corroborative evidence (such as a detailed timeline or affidavits from the police officers), I'm going to take this story with a grain of salt.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
You misunderstand. If we are to take Shamrock's message as true, MTV showed an almost aggressive disinterest in their desire to actually educate them about the hacking/cracking scene. Had Shamrock et al. persisted in trying to get their story right, MTV would simply have moved on to another group of people who were willing to give them what they wanted.
In other words, MTV had already written the kind of story they wanted to broadcast, and were simply shopping for willing bodies to put in front of the camera. This practice is exceedingly common, and has a long history. CBS News did a very similar hatchet job over ten years ago on a gathering of highly respected computer luminaries, including RMS, Donald Knuth, Lee Felsenstein, John Gilmore, and others.
These days, the media calls this "journalism." We know it better as Infotainment.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
C'mon folks. We're criticizing MTV for having low journalistic standards. Is this for real? IT'S MUSIC TELEVISION for crying out loud. I don't care how "polished" the programs are, nobody in their right mind should take anything on TV (much less MTV) at face value. People keep complaining about how the media "brainwashes" people or frames the range of discussion along safe lines or whatever Chomsky'esque criticism happens to be in vogue these days. Well how about this: when you watch TV - THINK a little bit. It's not that hard. But I'm preaching to the converted. Victor "silence - I'm watching television" Ng