The Secret Service said Monday it will investigate the hacking of Fox's political Twitter account over updates claiming that President Barack Obama had been assassinated.
Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie says the law enforcement agency whose job it is to protect the president will conduct a probe of the false postings and that "we will conduct the appropriate follow up."
Hackers broke into the FoxNewsPolitics account early Monday, leaving a series of six tweets reporting that Obama had been shot to death in Iowa and the shooter was unknown.
In a statement posted on its website, Fox News called the tweets "malicious" and "false."
"We will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts," said Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital.
An online magazine at New York's Stony Brook University, Think, reported that initial posts around midnight indicated the Fox News Twitter account had been hacked by a group called the Script Kiddies. Harmless posts announcing the group's hacking of the Fox News account were followed by the false posts about Obama, according to Think.
For those of you who were offline yesterday and missed the initial story, you can get up to speed by visiting my post from July 4th.
Below are the offensive tweets:
The only upside of this is that these tweets came from Fox News which nobody with half of a brain would trust as an accurate source of news anyhow.
Yes, the rest of the media pretty much ignored the whole thing, which is interesting. Does no one care that our President was reported to be shot? I care, and if some teen can get jail time for hacking poor Sarah's account, these guys should get life. And if it turns out Breitbart was involved, HE should be sent to Gitmo.
ReplyDeleteAm I crazy, or does this link show that these tweets are still up?!
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/#!/foxnewspolitics
Anonymous @6:25: The rest of the media and everyone with half a brain ignored the whole thing because they all know that Fox lies about everything. Why should this be any different? Can you imagine if Fox ever was breaking a REAL news story? No one would pay a lick of attention. I completely agree with you about the penalties.
ReplyDeleteMaybe ole durty Murdy is simply trying to throw the law off his trial after the discovery that his UK rag hacked the phone of the Brit 13yr old girl murdered in 2002. Penultimate scumbag.
ReplyDeleteThere is a story on Yahoo News about another Murdoch property, News Of the World, which discusses its history of breaking into voice mail systems:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/britain-shocked-hacking-slain-girls-phone-124809707.html
This time they hacked into the voice mails of a woman who was murdered and may have interfered in the investigation.
Stay classy, News Corp.
Pretty lame response by Fox, as usual.
ReplyDeleteThe other media outlets, by their silence, are complicit. Despite the fact that Fox isn't news at all, any and all threats to the Commander in Chief are "NEWS" and deserves the same level of scrutiny any news story deserves.
I'm with the first commenter, whomever it is should be hauled to Gitmo. They're domestic terrorists, and should be treated as such.
I don't "Twitter" nor "Facebook" because I feel it's childish nonsense to tell the world your every move in real time, and to give free platforms to loons like Palin and Fox News.
I'm beyond outraged at this lack of decency and respect for the highest office. I hope President Obama calls a press conference once the facts come in.
News accounts said Fox News twitter had 34,000 followers. I am guessing most of the people who watch Fox have never heard of twitter.
ReplyDeleteABC news covered the hacking this morning. I am sure there is a reason for not putting a lot of emphasis on our president being assassinated......the horror.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Book 'em Danno!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Fake news on a fake news channel.. kind of redundant?
Unfortunately, the Fox News followers do only have half a brain.
ReplyDeleteMurdoch's News of the World tabloid in Britain is being investigated for hacking into the "phone mail of an abducted teenage girl and may have hampered the police investigation into her disappearance."
ReplyDeleteIf Murdoch's brand of "journalism" extends to criminal activity in Britain, I find it entirely plausible that FauxNews could engage in crimes here on this side of the pond.
If they did fake their own hack, then at least maybe someone at FauxNews will go to jail.
I'm not holding my breath, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if they were involved.
O/T Wonkette has picked up the virgin Bristol in a tent story...
ReplyDeletehttp://wonkette.com/448781/levis-
sister-says-bristol-was-part-of-teen
-sex-tent-party-with-levi
Pee'ers said Sarah was announcing yesterday...guess she didn't get the memo.
ReplyDeleteWhile waiting for other shoes to drop here is a fun game. Answer the questions with Gryphen in mind.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.akinator.mobi/
"ridiculous", "false" and wishful thinking? They best hope it doesnt turn out to be an insider with a twisted sense of not funny 'humor'der with a twisted sense of not funny 'humor'
ReplyDeleteYou should have read some of the comments on Lucianne.com,aka the Goldbergs, a strongly pro Palin blog, wishing the tweets were true. These are people who helped bring her into the national spotlight. The evil comments found there regularly are dripping with hate. The fact that comments of that nature are allowed through the moderation speaks volumes about the level of evil these people represent.
ReplyDeleteI'd like them to investigate why Fox took so long to take down the tweets, or have yet?
ReplyDeleteHacked? Not likely. Published by Fox? Absolutely.
ReplyDeleteKnowing Fox News, my guess is yes, they were hacked, and once the message that Fox had been hacked was posted, Fox, itself, posted the Obama assassination stuff, to improve Fox's sinking ratings with the low IQ set.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing. Yesterday I looked carefully at the foxnewspolitics Twitter site, noting the 6 posts referred to (and the one at the top stating they'd been hacked), the timing on them :(i.e. given in "hours ago"), and I kept the page up all day, occasionally hitting the Refresh button to see if they'd been removed. They were all still there when I shut down the computer at 1am PDT.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that jumped out at me was that the post just previous to the Obama ones said something (can't remember the exact wording) about their accounts now being fully restored, everything back to normal, and Happy 4th, everyone. This had the same time stamp on it as all the Obama posts. The one before that one was dated June 30th and was just regular news-related stuff.
As of this morning, 10:30am PST, the Obama related posts and the one before it have been removed.
But my question about all this was why Fox kept the Obama posts up all day long, and gave out some nonsense in the early afternoon about being in discussions with Twitter about suspending their account. What's to discuss? It's their account, they can suspend it when they want! I think they left it up on purpose to draw people to their page....
What scum they are and continue to be.
@7:09 has it right.
ReplyDeleteRupert Murdoch is probably behind the whole thing. News of the World (a Murdoch paper) hacked a dead girl's cell phone to make her parents and everyone else think she was still alive.
They deleted messages making the police think the girl was still alive since there was activity on her line. Can you imagine how the parents felt when they found out?
Murdoch is dirty. And Fox News is another shining example of his desire to make money by subverting the truth.
So yes, now the Secret Service is investigating, thanks to Rupert. A waste of our taxpayer money thanks to this old, money-hungry fool.
ReplyDeleteWhat I worry about though is that the right wing noice machine will spin it that the Script Kiddies are affiliated with the Democrats.
ReplyDeleteAnd will try to use that to further indoctrinate their ignorant viewers about the "liberal media bias" trying to embarrass & therefore stifle Fox getting the "real news" out......play the victim card again.
A friend posted this news story on facebook yesterday. One commentor blamed the hacking on liberals because they "hate Fox News so much and will do anything to destroy it." Really?
ReplyDeleteThis is some sick stuff, I heard twitter already looked into it and said that it wasn't hacked but I cant verify that story? But there has to some consequences for this.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I filed a complaint to the FCC against FOX due to their monopoly in the media and the propaganda of hate and distortions they spread and the fact Mr Murdoch isn't even a citizen of the US.
Don't get me wrong I support free speech but fox news is own by a foreigner that uses his large network to distort facts and create division within OUR country.
Mr. Murdock needs to be deported and have his assets frozen in the US. Thats my opinion.
If the Secret Service is investigating the hacking of Fox News, in my mind that just solidifies that "Fox News" IS a political party.
ReplyDeleteAnony 10:41 a.m. Rupe took the U.S. citizen oath some years ago, when he was faced with the problem of being a foreigner owning a U.S. radio/TV company.
ReplyDeleteBut in his heart, he's still an Aussie. By the way. It is possible to meet well-educated Aussies who can discourse learnedly on many things. But who are some of the strangest conspiracy theorists around.
I blame Rupe's relentless mediaising in the Down Under.
I believe Fox hacked themself and did this just for fun and games or to see if it might just happen because they are ignorant and racist.
ReplyDelete