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Wikileaks fakes NYT article

Started by garbon, July 30, 2012, 01:10:13 PM

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garbon

July 30, 2012, 01:10:13 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/bogus-york-times-article-fools-173703711.html

QuoteWith the help of social media, news now spreads faster than ever. And sometimes that speed comes at the expense of fact-checking or even making sure an article is real at all. That's what happened this weekend when a fake opinion piece purported to be written by former New York Times editor Bill Keller made its way around the Web Saturday night. The article titled, "WikiLeaks: A post postscript," was a rousing defense of the group that is usually known more for its document releases than for pulling online pranks.

There were a few reasons the article appeared to be the real deal. The page contained links to the Times' website and the site itself, opinion-nytimes.com,  sounded official. It was even tweeted out using a fake Twitter account that was similar to Keller's. The piece even fooled many journalists including the Time's own tech writer Nick Bilton who re-tweeted it to his 120,000 Twitter followers.

Bill Keller used his actual Twitter account to set the record straight on Sunday morning, saying, in all caps, "THERE IS A FAKE OP-ED GOING AROUND UNDER MY NAME, ABOUT WIKILEAKS. EMPHASIS ON FAKE. AS IN, NOT MINE."

Wikileaks has taken credit for the hoax on its own Twitter account. It will be interesting to see what effect it has on their future. Jay Rosen, an NYU journalism professor, predicted considerable fallout. He tweeted, "I say it's a nadir for Wikileaks...Their ship was launched on the sea of verification. They just sunk it. For attention."
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

grumbler

#1
July 30, 2012, 01:41:37 PM
I disagree with Professor Rosen; I think Wikileaks hasn't yet hit its nadir, though it is trying hard.

I also don't think Wikileaks lost much cred by making this up.  They lost all the cred they had left, but that wasn't much.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Razgovory

#2
July 30, 2012, 01:57:52 PM
I'd like to see someone defend that.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Barrister

#3
July 30, 2012, 02:04:42 PM
What possible benefit did they expect to see from this. :mellow:
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Darth Wagtaros

#4
July 30, 2012, 04:37:03 PM
Quote from: Barrister on July 30, 2012, 02:04:42 PM
What possible benefit did they expect to see from this. :mellow:
They can show how credulous people are and how little fact checking is done before even journalists start tweeting crap out?
PDH!

Ed Anger

#5
July 30, 2012, 04:41:14 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on July 30, 2012, 01:57:52 PM
I'd like to see someone defend that.

Mart will be coming back from a rave (OONTZ OONTZ OONTZ) soon.
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