Fox News's hacked Twitter feed declares Obama dead

The Guardian ^ | 7/4/11

[markomalley]

Rogue 4 July tweets on TV news channel's politics service go viral but Fox News is apparently back in control

Fox News has apparently fallen victim to hacking, with its politics Twitter feed repeatedly announcing President Barack Obama had been shot dead.

@foxnewspolitics began tweeting the information to its 33,000 followers at about 2am local time, with the posts rapidly being shared around the internet.

The rogue tweets appeared to begin after the account sent a message saying Fox had just "regained full access to our Twitter account".

The following tweets all related to the supposed death of Obama, with some posts being very specific about the president's injuries.

"@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead," came the first tweet. The string of messages continued:

"@BarackObama has just passed. Nearly 45 minutes ago, he was shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown. Bled out", and then: "@BarackObama shot twice at a Ross' restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. RIP Obama, best regards to the Obama family."

Whatever the hoaxer's identity, they do not appear to have been entirely web-savvy. The first three posts revealing the president's death were directed to the @BarackObama Twitter feed, meaning only those following both accounts would have seen the messages.

[spokeshave]

Well...I don brought a case o beer and I drunk it obama self.

[musicman]

"Fox News's hacked Twitter feed declares Obama dead "

Ant-knee ????

[ilovesarah2012]

LOL

[arasina]

@FoxNewsPolitics has around 33,000 followers, but evidently many of the tweets have been retweeted and spread rapidly across the network.

That's the problem right there. Why would people "re-tweet" something like this without first checking its authenticity?


Tweet this, ya little Soros-subsidized hacker puppets: a special geek prison is being built. Its cells will look and feel just like a room in mom and dad's basement but will have 19th century "technology".

[television is just wrong]

exactly secret service has been on top of this. heads will roll.

I would be pleased if the man would just resign and we can start this nation on the correct track.

[smith288]

There was an attempt on Bush in Europe with a grenade.

[Clara Lou]

By “amateur” I assume that you mean that FOX had a password that was too simple?
I’m guessing that the kiddies changed the password so FOX can’t manage it?

[smith288]

First thing I did was check FR. :)

[Biggirl]

At a time when the divisions in this nation are so very deep, this the very last thing you need right now.

[Rome2000]

Since when do the antics of a bunch of imbecile hackers qualify as breaking news?

Its July 4th, how about something else, I don't think its appropriate to give these "people" any publicity, especially on subject matter like this.

[rlmorel]

And I am only joking. Kind of. Well, maybe not.

I won't believe this is a conservative who did this until they have someone in custody and an extensive history proving it. Here is why:

1.) Hacking and virus creation is vandalism. Vandalism is the sole province of immature people and liberals, which is redundant.

2.) As described repeatedly by Ann Coulter in her books, and reinforced in her most recent book Demonic, political violence in American history is exclusively the tool and the work of the Left. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, political violence is carried out by the mentally ill or Leftists, again, the redundancy.

3.) The Klu Klux Klan was an organization of Leftists. The segregationists were Leftists. Anytime you hear about a noose on a lawn, vandalism against leftists or racial slurs, it turns out to be leftists themselves who do it for political or personal reasons.

Bottom Line: It is possible that a conservative or a group of conservatives did this to the Fox News Twitter account. But to me, the most likely explanation is that a liberal at Fox News who had the password used it themselves, gave it to someone else deliberately, or was lax in the use of the password and had it filmed with a cellphone in the process of being entered or wrote it down in a non-secure document.

[Le Chien Rouge]

I want Obama:

1) Live a long life

2) Retire from ‘public service’.

3) Publish plenty of books TRYING to defend his insane policies during his ONE term as president

4) Enjoy the company of his NRA, bible thumping grandchildren

5) Grow old in a booming economy created by his the president elected in 2012 who not only cleaned up his mess but gave Barack an electorate beating that resembled Drago destroying Apollo Creed in Rocky 5...Sarah Palin.

[rintense]

Yeah but news about CNN, NBC, ABC being hacked? Not so much.

[rlmorel]

"...Grow old in a booming economy created by his the president elected in 2012 who not only cleaned up his mess but gave Barack an electorate beating that resembled Drago destroying Apollo Creed in Rocky 5..."

Ahhhhhh...you mean kind of like Jimmy Carter's experience, without all the charm of Jimmy Carter!

/s

[LibLieSlayer]

I would bet that the IP address traces back to san fruitcisco or berkeley.

LLS

[rlmorel]

See my post at #91, specifically the Bottom Line at the end...

[GoCards]

Awful! Shameful!

[livius]

The people who did it have already been boasting about being part of or followers of Anonymous, the recently disbanded hacker group which was composed entirely of anarchists and radical leftists.

I can’t see any reason a “conservative” would do this, and I don’t think the hackers expected anyone to think that it had been done by conservatives. They simply want to ridicule and single out conservatives; this was just another form of assault.

[GoCards]

Awful! Shameful!

[livius]

Or somewhere in Europe, possibly England.