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That exploration goes well beyond invading the closed corners of the Internet. DefCon's more than 6,000 attendees hack everything: their cars, to increase horsepower and remove pesky safety and emissions controls; their brains, using biofeedback receptors attached to videogames to relieve anxiety disorders; even the war in Iraq. One Navy engineer gave a presentation detailing the nine months he spent hacking insurgent bombs, jamming their radio frequencies to prevent detonation.

OAKLAND -- Police, SWAT teams and bomb units from throughout Alameda County detained more than a dozen suspects after raids at Your Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue and three related locations this morning, police said. The people are being held in connection with murder, kidnapping, assault and robbery investigations, Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said. San Pablo Avenue was cordoned off for several blocks near the bakery at 5832 San Pablo Ave. Police said the North Oakland raids are part of an ongoing probe of businesses related to prominent Black Muslim leader Yusef Bey, who died in October...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Police are at the scene of a fatal shooting in Oakland that was reported at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, NBC11 reported. Sources told NBC11 the victim was Oakland Post reporter Chauncey Bailey.

NEW YORK - CNN said Monday that it has hired anchor Campbell Brown of NBC News, one day after she announced on "Weekend Today" that she would be leaving as host. CNN did not immediately say what Brown would be doing. There has been widespread speculation about a prime-time shake-up at CNN, where Paula Zahn has been lagging in the ratings at 8 p.m. ET. Brown, 39, had been co-host with Lester Holt of "Weekend Today" since 2003 as well as correspondent and occasional fill-in anchor on NBC's "Nightly News." She's a former White House reporter who also covered the...

Watch as MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski refuses to report a lead story on Paris Hilton on live TV. She even tries to set the script on fire! If only more anchors could display this kind of bravery and integrity.

DALLAS -- No longer breaking stories in high heels and skimpy outfits, Lauren Jones has signed off from the KYTX-TV "Eye of East Texas" news team and returned to modeling swimsuits. Rival stations in Tyler weren't entertained by the monthlong ratings stunt by Jones, the star behind the upcoming Fox reality show "Anchorwoman" and a former hostess for World Wrestling Entertainment. She spent June traipsing around the east Texas city in tight tops and a miniskirt, hunting down scoops for the CBS affiliate. Her on-air reports, which included toeing through penguin droppings at the zoo in stiletto heels, are intended...

I have heard of journalists thinking they're gods of objectivity but this is a new one. Apparently, when you become an elite journalist, you also become a prophet. AP reporter Nedra Pickler (her real name) filed a story on the recent Democratic presidential debate 45 minutes before the event had even started. Mickey Kaus reports (h/t Small Dead Animals): Why have a debate? AP has already written its lede: It's 3:15. The big South Carolina Democratic debate starts in 45 minutes. But you don't have to actually watch it. AP's Nedra Pickler has already filed her story, in the past...

If this war is another Vietnam fiasco in the end, it will be just as much the fault of the Public Relations arm of the US Military as it is that of the enemy or the Mainstream Media. (Called PAOs for Public Affairs Officers from here on) It is assured that the large preponderance of the MSM is antithetical to the armed forces of the US Military and Army authorities are right to be mindful that most reporters are not out there only to cover the war but are out there with the agenda to embarrass the military, destroy the...

Breaking on MSNBC

I didn’t know that the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin’s daughter Bindi was such a media star. However, at a recent press conference at the National Press Club, the charming eight-year-old was asked: You’ve been doing all these interviews, right? All week long...How do reporters compare to like poisonous snakes? Bindi’s absolutely adorable response (video available here courtesy of our friend at Ms Underestimated): Um. I don’t want to offend anyone here. Okay? I really don’t want to offend anyone, but, um…Okay, so please, nobody be offended…I think I like poisonous snakes!

I've been hearing the reasons people are going to vote Democrat, but I can't understand some things. These are questions I wish would be asked by reporters.1. You don't like Foley, so you are voting for the party of NAMBLA and homo marriage?2. You don't like the war in Iraq, but what are you going to think about a new granite slab with 3k names on it and a new training ground for Osama? 3. You don't like gas prices but the Dems won't drill anywhere?4. The economy isn't goood enough, so you want to go back to Carter's numbers?...

Earlier a reader blog entry covered a little controversy in the Minnesota Governor’s race. Judi Dutcher, who is the running mate of Democrat Governor Candidate Mike Hatch, was asked a question about E-85 fuel. Dutcher responded by asking what E-85 is. Now this is a pretty major blunder here in the agriculture states. E-85 is a major issue for us, so the fact that Dutcher apparently doesn’t know what it is is significant. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign, the incumbent in the race, responded to the blunder by criticizing Dutcher for being ill informed on the issues. Amazingly, The Hatch/Dutcher campaign responded...

OXFORD, England - A coroner ruled Friday that U.S. forces unlawfully killed a British television journalist in the opening days of the Iraq war. Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said he would ask the attorney general to take steps to bring to justice those responsible for the death of Terry Lloyd, 50, a veteran reporter for the British television network ITN.

Letter to the New Scientist October 4, 2006 Ithaca, NY Dear Editor of New Scientist, I am the president of the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Club at Cornell University. In late September, 2006, we were contacted by someone writing us saying “I am a student at Cornell and am interested in coming to an IDEA meeting” and identifying herself as “Maria.” This person subsequently wrote us via e-mail using the e-mail address “Cel Biever < XXXXX@gmail.com>.” At the time I was surprised at the incongruency between her assumed name and email, and later discovered that Celeste Biever is...

Hundreds of people have gathered in central Moscow to pay tribute to prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaya -a day after she was murdered.

MOSCOW (AP) -- A journalist shot to death in an apparent contract killing was about to publish a story about torture and abductions in Chechnya when she was slain, her editor said Sunday, as Russia's top prosecutor took charge of the case. Anna Politkovskaya, famed for her unsparing coverage of abuses against civilians in Chechnya in the outspoken newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was found dead Saturday in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. She had two gunshot wounds - one to the head. Politkovskaya, 48, had collected witness accounts and photos of tortured bodies and the article had been due...

White House gates shut to 'Kazakh reporter' comic Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:46am ET Borat goes to Washington:PLAY VIDEOBy Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Borat, the fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan, may have gotten under the skin of Kazakh officials but on Thursday he couldn't get past the gates of the White House. Secret Service agents turned away British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his upcoming movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Also invited...

Why is it so dangerous to be a reporter these days? Why are so many journalists being targeted? Two Fox News reporters were grabbed in Gaza, held for nearly two weeks, exploited for propaganda purposes, and then released. They were lucky. Some 30 other reporters have been killed this year, according to the Freedom Forum; hundreds have died in the line of duty in the past decade. And it would be naïve to think that the problem isn't going to get worse. Reporters, meanwhile, like to say that they are there, in the battle zone, to "tell the story" --...

I'm just wondering out loud if there might be a connection between the kidnapping of Fox's Steve Centanni and this story in the Guardian... An iman at a London mosque says a FoxNews reporter tricked him into talking...Representatives of an east London mosque used by several of the terror suspects reacted angrily yesterday to what they called a "sick stunt" by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel. Mohammed Shoyaib, the imam of the Musjid-e-Umer mosque in Walthamstow, complained that he and other elders were tricked by a representative from the cable channel, a priest who said he was working for the...

U.S. Reporter Attacked by Castro Goons in Argentina Humberto Fontova Thursday, July 27, 2006 For the first time in 50 years a U.S. reporter actually asked Fidel Castro a pertinent question. This journalistic landmark took place last week while Castro visited Argentina. Castro (naturally) freaked. Why, the NERVE!! "You're a mercenary paid by the Bush!" he shrieked. "Who pays you? You'll probably try to assassinate me with a bomb!" As Castro yelled and sputtered, his bodyguards sprang into Kung Fu mode and pounced on the offending reporter chokeholding him and threatening much worse if he persisted in his impertinence. Did...

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2006 – U.S. soldiers freed a kidnapped Voice of America journalist and captured four suspected terrorists in two separate operations in Baghdad July 14, officials in Iraq reported. Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers rescued a kidnapped Voice of America reporter in southeast Baghdad. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, had observed four men dumping a bound-and-gagged body from their vehicle. The soldiers engaged the suspects with small-arms fire, but the men escaped into a nearby palm grove. The U.S. soldiers had first believed that the suspects in the car were dumping a...

Shelby Monroe, a reporter embedded with 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, stands in front of an overturned truck that had been found filled with explosives near Tal Afar, Iraq. Courtesy photo by Shelby Monroe Reporter Spends 101 Days with 101st Airborne Tennessee reporter embeds with 101st Airborne to report on soldiers' stories. By U.S. Army Capt. Lyn Graves 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment KIRKUK, Iraq, July 3, 2006 -- Spending 101 days with the 101st Airborne Division in the heat of north-central Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom is not what some journalists would call a...

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Family and friends of Veronica Guerin, the investigative reporter whose slaying shocked Ireland and triggered a government crackdown on organized crime, laid flowers and prayed Monday near the spot where she was shot to death a decade ago.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -- CBS is expected to announce today that former "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather will leave the network after 44 years. Rather's contract runs through November, but he is expected to leave CBS immediately to pursue other opportunities. A special tribute to Rather's career is expected to appear on tonight's "CBS Evening News." The move was widely expected in the past few weeks after Rather, 74, had said that he would be leaving CBS after negotiations on a new contract hadn't guaranteed him anything but an office at the network. After leaving "CBS Evening News"...

Reporter Paul Wallsten, a leftist reporter, asked the president a question today during the press conference while keeping his sunglasses on. The president commented on the sunglasses in this exchange: Bush: You gonna ask your question with shades on? Wallsten: Yes... Bush: But there's no sun out here. Wallsten: It depends on your perspective. Bush: Touché. Daily Kos nutjobs are claiming that Wallsten is blind. Unless it happened recently, I think the nutjobs are just making stuff up (again). Wallsten is featured on the left of this picture:

The principal of a Los Angeles charter elementary school said Wednesday that neither he nor his staff ordered the assault of a KABC-AM radio reporter last week. Sandy Wells, the reporter working for KABC's morning show, "McIntyre in the Morning," was allegedly assaulted outside the school last week by a man demanding his audio tape. Station officials said Wells was also followed as he drove away. Rumors of Aguilar's involvement stemmed from an on-air caller to KABC's morning show, claiming he witnessed Aguilar order the attack, according to producer John Phillips. Police are investigating the incident. "I know for a...

NEW YORK — A cameraman and soundman for CBS were killed and a CBS correspondent was seriously injured Monday after their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the network said.Veteran cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, were killed, CBS reported on its Web site. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, 39, was in critical condition at a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad after undergoing surgery. The three were reporting on patrol with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, when their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device, CBS said.

Daily Bulletin reporter Sara Carter was named the winner of the 2006 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in Coverage of Immigration the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. This award "is intended to promote informed and fair reporting on this most contentious and complicated issue," according to the center. In announcing the award, the center cited stories, which Carter broke, about U.S. officials alerting the Mexican government to the activities of civilian border patrols and stories about drug cartels placing bounties on Texas law enforcement officers. "The body of her reporting over the past year is an important example of...

This one is delicious, and demonstrates quite vividly how today’s journalists say whatever they want whenever they want with total disregard for factual content or historical accuracy (hat tip to Expose the Left with video link to follow). During Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, an unidentified reporter asked, “Mr. Secretary, getting back to the question of the CIA, the last time we had an active-duty military officer heading up the CIA was even before you were in government, 1953 I believe.” Rumsfeld quickly stopped the reporter in his tracks: “What was Vernon -- didn't Vernon Walters do...

This past Monday, CBS, otherwise known as See? BS!, Al-Jazeera West, and the Corrupt Broadcasting System, proved once again that it is nothing but a shameless propaganda tool of the Democrat party, by releasing the results of a poll it rigged... uh... conducted recently showing that President Bush's popularity rating has plummeted to an all-time low of 34 percent. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

MIDI - BOTTLE OF WINE (scroll down for the MIDI file and click on it) Bottle of wine, Gregory's fine...Imus says call in when you're sober Yes, he was drunk...he is a skunk...for him it soon may be over He called Scott "jerk" while he was at work At news conference time, he really is slime He thinks it all is about him India's language is wonderful...hey, David, you are so full of bull Bottle of wine, Gregory's fine...Imus says call in when you're sober Yes, he was drunk...he is a skunk...for him it soon may be over He...

NASSAU, Bahamas -- A Florida television station said Wednesday that one of its reporters was struck by a prison guard in the Bahamas as he covered the detention of seven Cuban migrants held in the Caribbean nation after being stranded on a remote island. Reporter Mario Vallejo of Spanish-language WLTV Channel 23 in Miami was slammed into a car and hit above the eye Tuesday outside the detention center where the Cubans were detained on immigration violations, according to the station's news director, Emilio Marrero.

THE father of a US journalist kidnapped in Iraq has told her captors she is not their enemy and will tell their story. In a direct appeal broadcast on CNN today - 16 days after 28-year-old Jill Carroll was abducted off a Baghdad street - Jim Carroll urged her kidnappers to release her alive. "I hope that you heard the conviction in Jill's voice when she spoke of your country. That was real," he said. "She is not your enemy. When you release her alive, she will tell your story with that same conviction." Carroll, a freelance journalist working for...

BAGHDAD, Jan 22 (Reuters) - U.S. forces hunting kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll are raiding Iraqi homes in a race against time but, as with much of their counter-insurgency war, face the dilemma that their tactics can foster resentment. Operations designed to take her captors by surprise have angered those Iraqis who say troops have blasted their way into their homes, put sacks over their heads and detained their relatives in the search for Carroll, who was abducted on Jan 7. One such raid, shortly after the reporter was seized, targeted one of Baghdad's biggest Sunni mosques; the sight of...

A kidnappers' deadline expired with no word on the fate of US reporter Jill Carroll, whose father appealed to her captors in Iraq to spare his daughter's life. As Sunni Arab leaders in Iraq and Muslims around the world pleaded for her release, the US embassy in Baghdad said it had no direct contact with the armed men who abducted Carroll on January 7 in Baghdad after shooting dead her interpreter. The kidnappers in a video had demanded the release of all Iraqi women detained by the US military in Iraq by Friday midnight Baghdad time (2100 GMT). Carroll's father...

An Arab television channel aired a silent 20-second videotape Tuesday night of hostage American reporter Jill Carroll and said an accompanying message gave the United States 72 hours to free female prisoners in Iraq or the journalist would be killed. Al-Jazeera would not tell The Associated Press how it received the tape, but issued its own statement calling for Carroll's release. The tape showed the 28-year-old reporter sitting in front of a white background and speaking, but her voice could not be heard. Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, has not been heard from since she was...

The Cable News Network has made $100,000 gift to the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) in support of the organization's college scholarship fund. NLGJA president Eric Hegedus told PageOneQ today, "The gift from CNN is an expression of confidence that we are doing the right things as journalists in making sure there is fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues." "This gift," Mr. Hegedus continued, "guarantees many years of support." for the fund, named after the organization's founder, Leroy F. Aarons. The gift will be used to endow the fund. In a statement released with the...

BAGHDAD, Jan 7 (Reuters) - A female Western journalist was kidnapped in Baghdad on Saturday and her translator killed, police said. They said she was on her way to a meeting with a Sunni Arab leader when a car carrying an unknown number of gunmen blocked her vehicle in the Adel district near Malik bin Anas mosque in west Baghdad. The gunmen shot dead her driver, an Iraqi journalist who also worked as her translator, abandoned their car and drove off in hers. There has been a spate of kidnappings of Westerners in Iraq over the past few months...

Matt Pottinger was a reporter, but he's no longer so sure that the pen is mightier than the sword. The 32-year-old former Wall Street Journal reporter has joined the U.S. Marines. "The life of a reporter versus the life of someone in the military -- it is a radical departure," he mused. Combination of Factors In seven years covering China for The Wall Street Journal, Pottinger got a sense of how American liberties are a rarity in the world -- especially when he got arrested for writing about corruption. "I was standing over a toilet," he recalled, "with a bunch...

WASHINGTON – Aaron Klein, WND's Jerusalem bureau chief, was prevented today from entering Syria, where he planned to interview officials from Syria, Lebanon and the U.S., as well as co-host ABC Radio's nationally syndicated "The John Batchelor Show," because, according to at least one official in the Syrian embassy, he's Jewish. Klein, an American citizen whose family has resided in the United States for five generations, is currently working full-time for WND in Jerusalem. He and Batchelor, along with producer Lee Mason, made arrangements with the Syrian embassy in the U.S., in advance of their trip. All three were told...

After 18 years of covering the harsh effects of the Taliban--particularly on women--Kathy Gannon, the celebrated AP correspondent, is leaving her base in Pakistan to reopen the AP's news bureau in Tehran. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Choosing the hard option over hot meals and clean sheets is Kathy Gannon's way of getting the better story. She's trudged with burly anti-Soviet mujahedeen soldiers over the mountains separating Pakistan from Afghanistan and lived in Kabul while U.S. bombs rained down from above. Most recently she slept in her car for eight days in Muzaffarabad, the epicenter of the South Asian Earthquake, where tens of...

WASHINGTON - A federal judge found Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus in contempt Wednesday, saying the journalist must reveal his government sources for stories about the criminal investigation of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer said that "in order to avoid a repetition of the Judith Miller imbroglio," Pincus must contact his sources to inform them of the court's order in case they wish to release him from his pledge of confidentiality. Miller, a former New York Times reporter, served 85 days in jail for contempt in the CIA leak investigation, agreeing to talk only after...

But the true story of Iraq is far different than what some would have the American public believe. It is story of enormous sacrifice, commitment, political, and military success, and a desire for freedom on the part of the Iraqi people that in many ways parallels our own War of Independence, 230 years ago. What about America’s military successes and victories in Iraq? They are in many ways, immeasurable: A reality of the overall global war on terror. What is known is that the war — in Iraq and elsewhere — is being waged and won by the U.S. and...

CAMP SLAYER, Iraq - As the world waited to see whether the Iraqis accept a new constitution or if the necessary step toward democracy in this embattled nation will have to start all again, three expatriates are hopeful the ayes for a new beginning in Iraq will win. For security reasons, their real names are not used in this article. "The Iraqi people have been locked up for 35 years under Saddam (Hussein)," said Ali. Concerns about the sensitivity of their work translating Iraqi documents for the U.S. government and that they still have family in Iraq led them to...

It’s Hard to Believe, But… Tokyo: An indignant Japanese woman summoned the police after a man she met online cheated her out of 1 million Yen. The man was “supposed to” track down and murder the wife of a man, with whom the woman was having an affair. The hitman had promised to chase the victim down on a motorcycle,pull alongside her in a tunnel, and spray her with a lethal bio-agent…but then he realized it was a lot simpler to cheat the woman who had hired him. (It’s so hard to find reliable help these days !) New Jersey:...

CHAPEL HILL -- The dismissal of a writer from a student newspaper over a controversial column usually would stir a tempest only on campus. But not at UNC-Chapel Hill, a frequent battleground in the national culture wars. In the first sentence of her opinion column Tuesday in The Daily Tar Heel, Jillian Bandes wrote: "I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport." Referring to conservative writer Ann Coulter's comment that if she ever wanted physical intimacy, she would walk through airport security, Bandes wrote: "I want Arabs to get...

A St. Petersburg Times reporter covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was shot and wounded late Monday night in Baton Rouge, La. Marcus Franklin, 34, was treated and released from Baton Rouge General Hospital on Tuesday after doctors decided removing the bullet was too risky, at least for now. Franklin said he had been up since before daybreak reporting on people returning to their homes in Jefferson Parish near New Orleans. After filing his report, Franklin headed to a Baton Rouge motel after sleeping four nights in his car. He said he was driving on Interstate 110 in Baton Rouge...

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China will have to tolerate more dissent as its economy grows and opens up to the rest of the world, former President Clinton said Sunday. Clinton, who is on a four-day visit to China, also said he would have raised the case of a Chinese journalist imprisoned for allegedly providing state secrets to foreigners when he spoke at a conference on Saturday but he had not been aware of the issue at the time. Clinton delivered the keynote address at a conference hosted by Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc.'s new Chinese partner, Alibaba.com, at the eastern...

Former US president Bill Clinton urged China yesterday to recognize the urgency of the environmental threats to its growth, and to use the Internet as a tool to surmount them. But he remained silent on the risks faced by those who use the Internet as a forum for dissent. "You will have to come to grips with significant challenges to your growth," Clinton said at an Internet conference in this eastern resort city, warning that the energy consumption required to keep China's economy growing at its recent rate of more than 9 percent is "unsustainable." Clinton, the keynote speaker...

Dear President Clinton: We, the undersigned organizations, urge you, as the keynote speaker of the 2005 China Internet Summit at West Lake in Hangzhou, China, to call for the release of Shi Tao, a journalist and Internet activist serving a 10-year sentence for divulging state secrets. This Summit provides a prime opportunity to address the controversy over the role of U.S. Internet companies operating in China. We would like you to talk directly with Jerry Yang, cofounder of Yahoo!, who will be a speaker at this event, about the role that Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. played in providing...