Hack the Media (Winter, 1999 2000) ---------------------------------- By Jim Nieken Much has been said lately about journalists and the media, from their outright disregard for the likes of Kevin Mitnick and others, to MTV's much-criticized foray into the lives of hackers. Few would deny the power and influence of journalists, yet no one seems to like them. They tend to paint hackers and most other "underground" subcultures in a negative light, and there are a number of reasons for this. Among them, deadlines and other time constraints, the betraying nature of the news gathering process, and the necessity to simplify information. But there are ways to turn the idiosyncrasies of journalism to your advantage, and to help reporters present an accurate and positive account. Follow my advice, and you might even find something good written about you in the paper. First, some background. I have been working for various newspapers for years, both in freelance and staff reporter positions. My byline has graced the pages of papers both big and small, but I grew up working with local papers and tend to prefer them. I haven't done very much work with television, but the news gathering process is mostly interchangeable. Although a writer by trade, I am a geek at heart and must sympathize with the poor treatment my colleagues often give hackers. This article is intended to explain how print and television journalists investigate and report a story, and what you can do if you are ever asked for an interview. The Deadline: Your Ticket to Increased Adrenaline Output Years ago, when I was just getting into the newspaper business, a grizzled old editor took me aside and explained what I was really supposed to be doing there. "My job," he said, "is filling up newspapers. Your job is meeting deadlines." His point was that while journalistic integrity was all well and good, newspapers couldn't print blank pages. Deadlines are not just a part of the job; they are often the single most important concern. Reporters need to get their work in on time, and that can sometimes mean sacrificing accuracy for haste. No one wants to print an untruthful story, but the fact is that the less time you spend researching, the less quality information you will get. That information also needs to be analyzed if it is to be conveyed correctly, which also takes time. Looming deadlines are not the only factor in inaccurate reporting, but if you ever find yourself the subject of a story you should take them into account. If a reporter says that he or she has a day or less to cover a story, be concerned. If they have more than a few days they probably won't totally misrepresent you, and if they have several weeks the deadline is not likely to affect the quality of the reporting at all. This is why local television news reports are often so shoddy. Local TV reporters (carpetbaggers all) often work under deadlines of a few hours or less. They are told to run out to a location, pose in front of a building or a car accident, and rattle off a few facts provided by local law enforcement. They don't have time to actually investigate, which is the curse of all time constraints. As a subject, there is little you can do about deadlines, but you may want to ask when their story is due. If you want to help yourself and create a better story, try your best to work within the limits of the reporter. If you just did something especially nasty to the local power grid and you would like your side of the story told before they haul you off to a holding cell, try to be available to media sources. You can't get your side out if you won't talk, and newspapers may be forced to print only what they have heard from other sources. Those may be your friends and family, but they could also be the police and other government agencies, or the guy whose life was ruined because he missed the season premiere of Ally McBeal when you took out the electric company. The Interview as Seduction and Betrayal In college, a journalism professor once told me that there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who are interviewed often and who know how to be interviewed - and those who aren't and don't. As a reporter I get most of my information via the interviewing process, but no other news gathering technique has a greater potential for distorting information. Unlike a school district budget, or the winner of an election, or something equally quantifiable, conversations are more subject to interpretation than most people realize. Your ideas must survive the transfer into your own words, into my head or into my notes, into new words in the final story, past the mercurial tempers of various editors, and finally back into the heads of a hundred thousand readers. It's not at all uncommon for people to complain that they were misquoted or misrepresented when they see their words in print. I hear it all the time. The distortion extends beyond merely getting the exact wording of a quote wrong. Words are usually taken totally out of context, poorly extrapolated from sloppy notes, or even shamelessly fabricated. It's very uncommon for a reporter to totally fake quotes (we tend to be pretty anal when it comes to what's inside quote marks), but danger lies in how quotes are set up. It all depends on how your comments are explained and what context they are placed in. You could say something like: "I don't really like people who break into other people's computers just to mess with stuff. I mean, the idiots usually deserve what they get for leaving stuff wide open, but it's really mean and no one should take advantage of people like that." But a week later, this might be printed in the local paper: "...One hacker said that he feels no sympathy for people whose computers are attacked or vandalized. 'The idiots usually deserve what they get for leaving their stuff wide open,' he said casually." The quote was reproduced accurately, but the context was totally reversed. Beware of this. Reporters love juicy, callous, or controversial quotes. They spice up a piece of writing like you wouldn't believe. If you re not careful they could even end up right in the headline. If it takes three minutes of set up and hypothetical situations and philosophical justifications before you can say something like, "...so I guess if looked at it that way we should probably just blow up the phone company building," you can be assured they will not print the philosophical justifications and skip right into your admission of a terrorist plot. As an interviewee, you can help in a number of ways. First, don't say anything that needs a lot of background or buildup. We work with sound bites, and you should never say anything you don't want printed unless you make it clear that it's off the record. All reporters will respect your wishes to not have a quote printed, but always pay attention to what you are saying. Don't say anything too sociopathic. Go slowly. We can only write so fast, and it allows you to choose your words more precisely. If you re ever suspicious, ask the reporter to read your words back to you. Make sure you like what it says, because they may come back to haunt you and this is the only chance you are going to get to change them. Also, always realize that you never have to answer any question asked by a reporter. We're not cops, and we can't force you to do anything. On the other hand, most journalists have large expense accounts and bribes are an extremely common industry practice. You might suggest that you sit down over dinner to talk. Be sure to order a dessert. Journalists May Be Stupid, but Our Readers Are Even Stupider My handy Microsoft Word grammar checker tells me that this document is written at or around the 10th grade reading level. This means that if you can read this paper without moving your lips, you are capable of reading at least that level. Most magazines and nearly all newspapers are written at or around the sixth grade level. This is not because this is all the average American can handle. Rather, it keeps Joe Public from choking on his coffee at 7:30 a.m. as he slams into words like axiological. Put simply newspapers are mass mediums. They are consumed by the general public, and are written so people don't have to know anything about the subject being reported. Newspapers are expected to provide only general information and basic facts. You might succeed in explaining the intricacies of exploiting a CGI loophole and stealing root access on a server to a reporter, but the writer still needs to explain that to 500,000 non-technical people. Most journalists are fairly good at assimilating information, but they are still not likely to get technical details correct. Even if they do understand it for some reason, it is likely to get twisted in the translation. There is little you can do in this regard, other than to try simplifying your language. Assume that the reporter has no clue when it comes to technology, and no intention of printing anything the least bit technical anyway. Journalism Is a Business: A Lesson in Economic Theory News reporting organizations are not a public service. They are a business like any other, and they must remain profitable if they want to continue printing or broadcasting. In order to do this, they must run interesting stories about interesting events. If that means slanting an issue or exaggerating a point, it can easily be justified. Most of my journalism classes in college centered on giving otherwise mundane stories enough "sizzle" to make them interesting. But there is a duality at work: "sizzle" versus "responsibility." Most reporters have no desire to print a false story, but most reporters have no desire to print a boring story either. Often the two sides are at least partially in conflict. But it could be worse than that, depending on the particular ethics of the organization doing the news gathering. The journalistic reputation of the network or newspaper doing the story is typically a good barometer of how concerned they are about responsible reporting. I would trust PBS or The New York Times with just about anything, although they make errors like anyone else. I would trust the Boston Globe or the Washington Post to get most of the story right. I would expect the Associated Press, CNN, ABC, and the average local paper to at least get the basic information correct. I would bet some amount of money that CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox News, and most larger city papers retain at least a passing resemblance of reality. As for most Internet news clearinghouses, any local television news station, or the likes of MTV - their efforts are more akin to self-serving propaganda than journalism. I wouldn't trust MTV to report anything accurately, let alone something as delicate as what it means to be a hacker. Every news-gathering company has a different perspective on sensationalism versus responsibility. It's probably in your best interest to evaluate how much you trust the particular organization before you consent to a story about or involving you. If you don't already trust most or all of what they tell you, don't expect that you and your story will fare any better. One thing you can do to help is to constantly mention how much you distrust the media and how they ve let you down considerably in the past. Bring it to the forefront of the reporter's mind that accuracy is more important to you than what is provocative. Make him or her think that they will be betraying you if they misrepresent you in any way. It usually helps a lot. Conclusion: Reporters Are People, Too If you ever find yourself the subject of a news story, be aware that the end product will probably not show you the same way you see yourself. Complicated details tend to be simplified, and that can mean a significant change for something as technical as computer hacking. Like I said, no reporter and no newspaper wants to print an untruthful story. It's not likely that they will totally fabricate facts, but they can be taken out of context and reworked to create a more interesting story. Reporters often go into a story with preconceived ideas, and it can be difficult to change them. Just act natural, be truthful, and explain things as clearly as you can. If the reporter is any good, you may actually like what you read in the paper or see on TV a few days later.