Re: press trickery of the worst kind

["B.K. DeLong" <bkdelong () pobox com>]

Don't forget to submit this to Attrition.org's Errata
(http://attrition.org/errata) if he makes the correction worse. Always
good for tracking such things in perpetuity.

On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 1:30 AM, Gadi Evron<ge () linuxbox org> wrote:
> I spoke yesterday with one David Harris--I shouldn't have. He is a
> reporter for a Chinese publication and was writing a story on "cyber
> war" in the middle east. He was referenced by a friend so I was happy to
> help him.
>
> I mentioned how whenever there are political and ethnic
> tensions--anywhere, cyber after-math follows. This often consists of
> silliness such as kids attacking with defacement and DDoS attacks. I
> also mentioned "warfare" is buzzword, hyped, over-kill which shouldn't
> be used lightly.
>
> At no point did I speak of Israel as a state. I told the reporter that I
> don't work for the Israeli government these days and that I can't
> comment anyway as I know nothing about what Israel does or doesn't do.
>
> Here is what he wrote:
>
>        "Gadi Evron, a private consultant formerly responsible for security in
> Israeli government's non-military computer system, does not deny that
> his country has a large-scale activity using the Internet to disrupt
> enemy activities. He just tends to err when it comes to talk of the more
> grandiose plots. "
>
> Even if I forgive him for calling me a consultant...
> I called the guy, and he said: "well, you did not deny it".
>
> Of course I did not deny it, how can I deny something I know nothing
> about? He may as well have said I didn't deny the Roswell landing and
> alien abductions.
>
> Immediately after what is referenced to me without quoting, he puts a
> quote which claims this even more vehemently. He then attributed it to
> someone else at the end of the paragraph almost as an after-thought:
>
>     "While it is clear Israel has successfully used cyber-tactics
> against its enemies, it is harder to know to what extent Israel has been
> hit, according to Dahan. "
>
> I don't know where Dahan comes up with his facts, but I my alarm bells
> should have ringed when the repoter, Mr. Harris, asked me about silly
> rumored conspiracy theories against the US government--they were so
> ridiculous I don't even remember what they were.
>
> Was this reporter just looking for a hit story, no matter if
> unsubstantiated and unprofessional, or is this some sort of agenda?
>
> This is trickery of the lowest sort, and yellow journalism if I've ever
> seen such. Unless it was an honest mistake on the reporter's part--in
> which case I hope this is fixed soon.
>
> You can find his article, here:
> http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/15/content_11709201.htm
>
>        Gadi.
>
>
> --
> Gadi Evron,
> ge () linuxbox org.
>
> Blog: http://gevron.livejournal.com/
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
B.K. DeLong (K3GRN)
bkdelong () pobox com
+1.617.797.8471

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