Hackers Punish PBS for ‘Less Than Impressive’ WikiLeaks Show

“Less than impressed” with “Frontline’s” “WikiSecrets” episode, a hacker or group of hackers called LulzSec hijacked the PBS.org website late Sunday night, posting, among other things, a fake news story claiming Tupac Shakur is alive and living in New Zealand. If you caught “WikiSecrets,” you might sympathize with the crusading hacker(s).

(“WikiSecrets” is embedded below)

For one thing, Frontline focused a disproportionate amount of time on accused leaker Bradley Manning’s mental state, suggesting the young soldier’s alleged actions may have had more to do with getting dumped and being a depressed young homo in the Army than a sincere desire to out, among other things, the murder of civilians and journalists by U.S. forces.

The show also glosses over Manning’s torture, which is addressed only at the end, and makes a point of reporting that his conditions have improved.

“WikiSecrets” devotes much time to various Wired employees and their key source, Adrian Lamo, without mentioning that the publication has been accused of journalistic malfeasance for its reporting of this story. Lamo, himself, is presented as a sympathetic figure who has lost all of his cool hacker friends for ratting out Manning and now leads a solitary life with his pet fish.

In his interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, correspondent Martin Smith is so determined to ask tough questions that he doesn’t give Assange much space to answer.

We’re not thrilled that our friends at PBS were hacked, but we can understand why people who think WikiLeaks is doing important work would hope that PBS would do a better job. — PZS

BoingBoing:

The PBS.org website, and data associated with the PBS television network, its programs, and its affiliate stations, appear to have just been hacked by an entity calling itself LulzSec (or “The Lulz Boat”). The hack was made public around 1130pm ET, Sunday, May 29, and included cracking the PBS server, posting a bogus news story and some defacements, and publishing what appear to be thousands of passwords.

The information compromised and published included network, server, and database details and logins, as well as user login data for some PBS staff and contractors. As of 3:24am ET Monday, some defacements are still live on pbs.org.

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