Archive for the ‘Media issues’ Category

Sockpuppets everywhere

Oh dear. Even someone with an ‘official’ Facebook page and thousands of followers apparently feels the need to have a sockpuppet … Yesterday, your Wonkette uncovered a private Facebook account registered to what is (or what was at one time) Sarah Palin’s private e-mail address. Last night, she took to her public Facebook page to […]

A friend’s lament – from FB to newspaper

A new version of the clichéd reporter’s question: ‘How do you feel?’… I don’t know the background, but I observed this morning that a young woman’s lament on Facebook about her friend’s death in a car crash was reproduced on a news website, along with a photo purportedly of the two of them from the […]

How the smear works: Now Assange = ‘lothario’ … as a given?

This super sleazy opening line from Marcus Baram (maybe we can blame his subeditor?) illustrates the lazy acceptance of a smear … or is he just trying to be a colourful writer? FAIL. NEW YORK — A super-secret organization led by a white-haired, cold-blooded lothario that uncovers revelations exposing the wrongdoing of the world’s most […]

Worth reading

The Dirty Little Secrets of Search David Segal writing in the NYTimes reveals the games some businesses play with search engines. Reminds me of the ‘last-week-horse-racing-this-week-internet-marketing’ snake oil salesmen … note what happened to them when JC Penney got caught and ‘punished’ by Google’s spam cop. PENNEY reacted to this instant reversal of fortune by, […]

Google ‘street view’ moves INDOORS

Where next? Google has hired photographers to take panoramic pictures inside hundreds of shops and other businesses in Wellington and Auckland so their interiors can be viewed within Google Maps. The internet search giant is seeking permission before filming inside business’ premises. It said it might use the photos in unnamed future applications, but business […]

Facebook info purloined. I guess I’ll be sorry when this isn’t news.

Another day another Facebook abuse. This woman’s Facebook profile and name and an image was used in an advertisement — snatched from Facebook by a ‘friend’ who worked for Vodafone creative… NZ Herald So, having slaughtered the words ‘friend’ and ‘like’, what? We’re now we’re redefining ‘public’?: Privacy lawyer John Edwards said while Vodafone could […]

Hacking the hackers, oops!

Also interesting reading on the WikiLeaks world is the humiliating news that Bank of America hired some ‘internet security’ consultants (Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal and Berico Technologies) who briefed them on cyber attacks and personal pressure tactics they could launch against WikiLeaks, including naming Glenn Greenwald, who has highlighted the conditions [alleged] leaker Bradley Manning […]

Julian Assange extradition case defence documents

Available on his lawyer’s website: www.fsilaw.com where you can also donate to his defence fund. It’s interesting, blood-boiling reading in places. I got hooked just on the Skeleton Argument document (PDF 550K) OVERVIEW 12. Julian Assange (JA), the head of Wikileaks, arrived in Sweden in August and stayed by invitation at the flat of the […]

Beeee-aaautifully put! We’d write for free for Arianna, but not AOL

I don’t mind saying, sometimes one comes across writing that says EXACTLY what you were thinking — or formulating — and says it so well you shiver in recognition. Douglas Rushkoff, on guardian.co.uk nails it on the unease about Huffington Post/AOL deal. … here we have a new media company  fooling an old media company  into […]

The demonisation of Julian Assange hits turbulence

As noted before, I’ve been uneasy about the pursuit of the WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange — concerned at the [presumably] US and other intelligence agencies attempts at launching a ‘decapitation attack’. The Swedish prosecution seems half-baked — an arrest warrant, solitary confinement, extradition for questioning? Eh? Extradited for questioning? Now, according the Wall Street Journal‘s Julian […]

Ironic, Mr Zuckerberg. Ironic.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has obtained a temporary restraining order against a California man accused of stalking him, his girlfriend and his sister. … [Alleged stalker] Manukonda tried to contact Zuckerberg numerous times in December via letter, email and Facebook, including more than 20 times in one day, Facebook security officer Todd Sheets said in […]

Uncovering the Scientology cult and its practices

Writing in The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright gives a comprehensive and illuminating account of the cult known as the Church of Scientology. His article is a follow-up the controversy surrounding writer/film director Paul Haggis’s public defection after 35 years as a Scientologist. I quoted Haggis’s resignation letter with its core message: ‘Silence is consent … […]

Oh.

315 million reasons to build an internet following … Well done to the crew at Huffington Post. I guess. Huffington Post Gets Bought by AOL for $315 Million The Huffington Post has confirmed tonight that it has been acquired by AOL. According to a report by Kara Swisher, site-cofounder Arianna Huffington will become Editor in Chief of […]

But, but, but … well, bravo!

I hate to be a nag about Facebook, but this is the sort of thing that makes my blood run cold. Good on these guys for exposing what can happen … What they did was set up a fake ‘Dating’ website called Lovely Faces .. and populated it with REAL names, locations and photos — […]

Quite a lot of wannabe Hemingway

Oh zing! From Ed Vulliamy’s The Observer piece about WikiLeaks publishing US State Department cables re the background of the Egyptian — gee, what do we call it? Uprising? Revolution? Riots? Julian Assange: ‘How do you attack an organisation? You attack its leadership’ Julian Assange … has been up all night disseminating, on his WikiLeaks […]