Saturday, July 16, 2005

HACKERS ON T.V.


A campaign of 'hacktivism' aimed at improving the quality of local television news has left reporters fearing on-air ambushes from a giant tiger or a cheese-flinging martial arts expert. Shock tactics have been employed by a New York-based group that says it has had enough of TV stations feeding viewers an insipid diet of minor car accidents, petty crime and house fires in which nobody gets hurt. In an attempt to get 'real news' back on the agenda, the Newsbreakers group has hijacked live reports in several states with an array of characters including Cheese Ninja, an alcoholic religious correspondent called Dizzy Monk and the Reverend Utah Snakewater, who delivers on-air exorcisms. The activists - a team of technicians, actors and a former journalist - post footage of their successful 'busts' spliced with their own campaign messages on their website, newsbreakers.org.
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