Submited By: Emmanuel Goldstein

I haven't had time to even begin to deal with this until now. So I'll be as clear as possible. Our fears of what this show would be simply did not do it justice. The reality was so much worse than any of the warnings we started getting months ago. And the most troubling part of all this is that so many people involved in this really knew better yet sensationalism was allowed to run unchecked.

A little history to begin with. We at 2600 were approached by MTV back in 1998 when they expressed an interest in doing a hacker documentary, with the Mitnick case being a focal point. For months after, we helped hook them up with various people and spent a considerable amount of time working with them and helping them however we could.

The first warnings of trouble came from an MTV intern who called into "Off The Hook" on June 29 with the revelation that all references to Mitnick had been eliminated and that the "documentary" was now going to focus exclusively on three trendy teens instead of the people and issues that were originally said to be the focus.

Even with this disturbing news, we told people to not pass judgement until the thing had aired. Well, it's aired and now it's judgement day.

Right away, the show begins with such sensationalism and quotes meant to scare the shit out of Joe America that I swear I could *smell* Geraldo. "It's like being God." "If I had the opportunity to shut off all the power in the city, would I do it?" "We want to know the location of every squad car within the nearest vicinity [sic]." And finally, "What people don't understand, they fear." Well, that's sure the theme of this half hour, isn't it? MTV clearly didn't grasp what hackers are or maybe they just didn't *want* to since anything that complex might confuse the audience they know so well. And they certainly did their bit to spread fear throughout the program with quotes like the above, with absolutely nothing to show that this was anything other than teenage bravado.

Then the part that really pissed me off personally. Earlier this year, I had asked the producers for one little thing in exchange for all the help that I and other 2600 people had given them. President Clinton had given a speech in January on computer hackers. We couldn't get the White House to give us a video copy which we would have loved to use in our upcoming documentary. I asked them if they could pull some strings and they said they'd look into it. Last I heard they were having no success. And guess what footage managed to show up in this program? That's right, the footage they didn't even KNOW about which they obtained after all and kept for themselves without a word to any of us! Fortunately there are other networks who *do* live up to their promises and we've gotten the footage from them. But this shows the sleaze factor at work in this kind of a production.

"Never before have people so young had so much potential power to disrupt the systems we all rely on." Please. Here we have the MTV age fixation coupled with a blatant bit of hysteria with no factual basis to back it up. Better get used to it as virtually none of the "facts" presented in the next half hour will be researched or confirmed in any way.

"Chameleon faced off with one of America's most dangerous enemies." This is basically Chameleon getting a piece of mail from someone he doesn't know who lives overseas - at least that's all the details we're going to get here.

"Shamrock - role model or renegade?" Yeah, that's the question that's been plaguing the hacker world for years.

"Mantis - who says he can find out anything he wants about you." Just by making such a claim, MTV will skip over all the proof and do a feature on you as if everything you claim is true. Not one iota of evidence is ever presented to back up this absurd bragging.

Now I want to point out that I don't personally have anything against any of the people who were portrayed in this program. They were basically taken in by MTV and taken advantage of. But by the same token, I don't think these people have a whole lot to do with the hacker community - at least, not from what we could see here.

Almost every sentence uttered throughout this program was a mistruth of one sort or another. Mantis: "People see hackers as some fat kid sitting at home dressed in black... I don't fit the stereotype of a hacker." Well, guess what? You *do* fit the stereotype - MTV's stereotype or else why would they have ignored all of the other people who are part of the hacker world who don't fit into the MTV demographic? It's hard to figure out who was playing who more - these kids or the MTV marketers. Narrator: "At 16, Chameleon left high school and became a superstar of the hacking underground." Yeah, we have superstars in the hacker world just like in the music business - how convenient for MTV. In fact, we don't really care at all about the technology - it's all about personalities. (That was sarcasm in case any MTV people are getting hard reading that.)

They seem really happy turning the whole thing into an episode of COPS while Shamrock and friends walk in slow motion down city streets with blurred faces. They can't get enough of his involvement with drug dealing, as if that has got anything to do with anything. They call him an expert on "phone phreaking" and once again don't back it up in any way. Apparently just walking down a street saying "I have knowledge that many people don't" is enough for MTV to believe you.

serena is amazed that shamrock knows she has two voice mail boxes. that's literally as easy as spelling out her name on a touch tone keypad. he makes it seem as if he's listening to her personal stuff and she believes him without asking for a single detail. hackers can do anything, after all. they spend a great deal of time listing shamrock's various offenses: wreckless driving, driving with a suspended license, phone fraud, possession of drugs, and assault. it doesn't have a blessed thing to do with hacking but they had to fill the time somehow and it's either that or put in something meaningful. there is one instance where something is alluded to on his net broadcast which seems to put down credit card fraud which was an opportunity to actually address that misconception. of course, it's never followed up.

"Not much is legal about hacking but it's never been easier to do." I'd love to see MTV's definition of hacking. From this show it would appear to be: affiliating with terrorists, taking over the military, moving satellites, and dealing drugs.

Serena is once again amazed that Mantis has a copy of "The Matrix" on his computer. Apparently, she's never had the opportunity to download a file. That's really all there is to it, you know. It's pretty fucking simple and, once again, has got absolutely nothing to do with hacking. But you have to love the mixed up hacker logic that is used to defend copying a movie: "It's all about trading information. Information has to be free. If Big Brother is watching me, why can't he be watched also?" Hello?? The MATRIX?! Copying a pirated movie is somehow striking out at Big Brother? What an insult to the many truly deserving causes that are out there and were passed over for this tripe.

The only part of the program with any glimour of what hacking is about is the section on the L0pht. But they never even bother to get into it, spending less than a minute on the entire group/concept and using the majority of *that* time to portray them as people whose most important ability would be disrupting the entire Internet.

Next, Serena follows Shamrock as he attempts to get to an imprisoned friend's disk before the authorities do. (Didn't we see this plot device in "Hackers"?) Of course we never see the disk, don't get any details about the friend, and learn absolutely nothing about anything in the whole fiasco. But we do get to hear this bizarre exchange: - Serena: "What do you think you can find on this disk?" - Shamrock: "The police! You know, when we're listening to them on the radio, obviously they're transmitting on a radio frequency - we know what frequency they're transmitting on cuz we're receiving it."

Maybe a good dose of LSD is the only thing that'll make sense out of that.

"You never know what you're dealing with when it comes to hacking" is one of the insightful concluding thoughts. You also never know what you're dealing with when you don't do any research into the subject matter or check out your sources. I'm hearing now that Shamrock is claiming he made the whole thing up just to fuck with them. If that's true, MTV certainly got what they deserved by ignoring the advice and warnings of knowledgeable people in order to pursue an utterly fictitious story. But while Shamrock may have thought it was amusing, it was stupid and caused great harm to the community by making people believe this kind of crap. I can only assume that he thought they would actually check the facts before running with the story. Now we all know better.

As for Chameleon, all kinds of allegations are thrown around about his dealing with a terrorist. Yet the only "evidence" of this comes from the editor of AntiOnline, who does not exactly have a good reputation when it comes to presenting facts accurately. (MTV hired him as their technology consultant - another detail they kept quiet.) There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE from a credible source that this foreign person he got a check from had anything to do with any terrorist group. All it shows is that someone was monumentally stupid in thinking that paying to hack a web page was a good idea. Again, nothing to do with hacking. Again, the facts were never checked.

Mantis: "I've been to the end of the Internet and back - over the course of my years, I've done everything possible." This kid is 19. With a boast like that, I expect him to have found the meaning of life by the time he's 30. I say we hold him to it.

What's amazing (and indicative of the MTV sleaze once more) is that Mantis isn't shown to be doing anything illegal. In fact, he's the success story, teaching others, staying out of trouble, doing positive things... Yet MTV manages to make him look like a criminal by getting him to say that *IF* he did something illegal he would know how to cover himself. Slick.

The whole charade ends with footage of Serena not able to get into her AOL account and saying "my account has been hacked by hackers." She feels "angry and violated." There is irony here - most everyone in the hacker world has the same feeling right now because of MTV's yellow journalism. But once again, there is no evidence to suggest that this "hack" is anything more than a publicity stunt, much like when MTV hacked its own web page a while back to get attention. If there is anything to suggest that Serena herself didn't do this or one of her fellow employees didn't set it up to get the "perfect ending," I sure didn't see it. Changing a password on AOL is not exactly hacking. But since nothing else in this half hour was either, we can hardly be surprised.

So the lessons to be learned here are several. The most important being: DON'T TRUST THE MEDIA! Especially the slick and trendy media. They're not interested in the story but rather in being cool and accepted in the industry. If you don't know how to deal with them, they will screw you over and as a result screw over those people you're supposedly speaking on behalf of. Far too many people were getting all excited about MTV doing a piece on Mitnick that they played right into their hands and got crucified. While Kevin was justifiably upset that they cut him out of the program (they claim they just didn't have enough time), I think he'll be happy not to have any affiliation at all with this portrayal. Interestingly, special thanks are given to David Schindler (Kevin's prosecutor) which means that they actually managed to do a rare video interview with him and still decided to shelve it or maybe he gave them a ton of money to just sit on the story. At this point, I'll believe anything.

emmanuel


The following was received by HNN after the airing of MTV's True Life: I'm a Hacker


contributed by Anonymous
'True Life, I'm a Hacker' fully demonstrated MTV's aptitude for generating educational, accurate, and informative programming. The young, uneducated, MTV television audience needed that mockumentary about as much as the preceding 'Karaoke Boobs' game show. Having conversed with "True Life's" producers when they started filming, it was apparent from the beginning that they were only looking for a few amateur crackers gullible enough to admit to criminal activities on national television. Thanks a lot for making role models out of a few misguided kids.

In all fairness, they did end the show with a few shots of Mantis educating schoolmates about proper HTML design. Way to go, MTV, commending the underprivileged youth. How very politically correct of them. Now, as the virgin AOL audience gets their first taste of the exciting, daring, world of 'hackers', they'll know to let Parse TV and John Vranesevich field their questions. Not once did MTV capitalize on the creative spirit that embodies the hacker, or the ubiquitous self-reliance and profound skepticism that distinguishes young hackers from their mainstream peers and schoolmates.

So in a few words, I'm disappointed. MTV had an opportunity to educate, and to impart some hacking spirit to the disillusioned masses. Instead, it spoke to unfortunate, angry, and repressed high school geeks, burning into the backs of their heads the phrase: 'Hacking is Power'. So go forth and invade others privacy, misusing your knowledge to scare your peers. Make yourself seem bigger then you are. If you made it far enough to watch the credits, you'd note that even MTV personalities fear you. Isn't that the way true life should be?


contributed by Mike
The MTV "True Life" show was disturbingly sensationalistic, although I really should have expected it. Serena (although an attractive woman) gives virtually no real insight into things, no big picture. This would be fine if the show genuinely was about "observational" asethetics that could be found in a documentary--but this show presented itself as a Journalistic show. It really didn't explore very much... and I kind of felt at times that Serena was _straining_ to make things look even more exciting, when they weren't. For example, the illustrious MYSTERY DISK, which reminds me of something one would find directly out of Hackers The Movie, and we all know what a truthful and honest cinematic experience that was. The three guys involved weren't particularly good at articulating themselves (particularly Shamrock, who looked more interested in impressing us with how he GOT INTO HACKING FO' ALL DA WRONG REASONS). I watched the show with folks who have virtually no knowledge of "hacker stuff", and they came out with tons of misconceptions. Essentially, the show portrays itself as potentially objective ("hacker: renegade or criminal?"), but all its final premises are basically anti-hacker, not to mention confusing. I guess that's all you can do in a half hour, in a medium marketed for short attention spans, though, huh?

contributed by TechNoiD
About this true life that mtv showed on tv. It really wasnt that good. It doesnt show why we do it which in most cases is to better the security in this world. That is one thing I wish mtv would have said something about. What do they do? They make hackers look like idiots. If the hackers on MTV were true hackers then they would not want their face to be showed on tv for one. For 2 they would not admit they just hacked something like that voice-Email box or that one linux box. Give me a break. I watched it with a couple of my friends that know somestuff but not much. Even they agree with me that is a BS story.

contributed by Sp3ctacle
I heard about the MTV's I'm a Hacker special and I eagerly awaited its airing. I read the through the armchair critics postings on slashdot.org which expressed little confidence that MTV could do this topic any justice. But I still had faith. Maybe someone could finally explain to the teeming millions what drives thousands of their wired brethren worldwide to "hack". What makes them explore every crevice of the data sphere? What makes them want to share what they find with others? Where do they get their healthly mistrust for the government and big business? What are the positive and negative things they bring to society?

I was sorely disappointed. But I guess that is what I should have expected from a show which credited John Vranesevich, the guy from antionline.com, as a "Technical Consultant". I think Vranesevich's misunderstanding of hackers put a major dent in the show and I can only hope that this will keep him from being hired as a "Technical Consultant" on hackers again.

There were no deep questions answered about hackers. But there were no shallow ones answered either. That is except the fact that they share many of the same traits as their non-hacker peers. Some do 'E'. Some pound 40's. Some are geeks who go out of their way to defend their non-geekdom. Some feel a need to be empowered. Surprise! Teenagers are still teenagers. But I wanted more. I wanted to know made hackers different not what makes them the same.

I was left with the sense that the show was telling me that hacking was this juvenile thing that I should just get over. I should move on before I get into trouble somehow. I didn't really know why though. It was kinda like a DARE session where they tell you to 'Just say no' to drugs but don't really tell you why.

They did have a couple of moments of the more constructive side of hacking. They showed the guys from the L0pht and showed Chameleon moving on to a job with a security software company. Good move Chameleon!

But the majority of the show was just hacking without much of a reason. Hacking as just something else to do, like skateboarding or tagging a utility box.


MTV had promised HNN an advance copy of the show for review. After watching the show we know why we never got it.

The following statement was received by HNN from Shamrock in regardes to the MTV television special True Life: I'm a Hacker

Well, first I'd like to apoligize to the hacker community for giving MTV 
viewers a bad impression of what hacking is about. No doubtly this
fiasco has taught you all what you should've already known, MTV and the
media are completely full of shit. They don't care about giving an
acurate depiction of what's happening in the world. Remember this is
"television programming". They care only about sensationalism and soft
drink advertising. 

I also owe the hacker community an explanation for what you saw on the show. There was mention in one of the HNN responses about "MTV was looking for someone guliable enough...." and thats what I assumed from the beginning, but I thought "could they be guliable enough themselves to actually air and credit themselves to the production of something like that?". I thought if they could, would there be any way that they would still be able to maintain credibility as journalists? I didnt think so. I also didn't think that when they asked if we could show them what types of crime take place in the hacker world that they would actually expect to see that. I also didn't think that they would take anything we showed them seriously.

Apon our first meeting with MTV I told them about what kind of work we do at pseudo.com as far as web broadcasting goes and told them about other hacker related Internet resources they should check out. They were referred to 2600, HNN, Defcon and L0pht. With that left the way it was I figured that there would be no excuse for MTV not being able to produce an interesting special on hacker culture.

Surprisenly (or not) they contacted us a few weeks later stating that they were not satisfied with what they had already gathered from other groups that had approached. They wanted more and at this point it becomes apparent that this wasnt being taken seriously (or if it was, they must be as guliable as they think we are). So we decided to take them for a ride (NOTE: at this point it was understood what was at risk, we had no intention of making hackers look bad. We waited for months to see if they would be realistic and after it was obvious that they wouldn't we figured the only option would be to discredit them with as much fiction as possible). The question was how far would they go. We already had our cast of charactures, next we needed we our plot. After setting the mood and introducing the compelling focus of our adventure we wanted to give them a climax. Unfortunatly, the part where we deliver the disk to the rival group and the police (which we had paid off) showed up and arrested our counterparts didnt make it into the MTV production. It's a shame too because we reallly wanted to see if we could actually get them to pay for and produce our own original presentation without them even knowing it.

Sadly, our hoax didnt even come close to what we had intended. All I can do is reiterate to you just how fake and hollow what you see on television is. After this experience I wonder where if any truth lies in what we are told to watch, read and listen to. This is the obvious issue the hacker community needs to address. If the nation's intellectiual lowest common denomanator (television/music/etc audiences) and the media that caters to them are sucessful using programming to shape what their opinions are and what behavior they should endorse, is this not the same prolem that exists when our governments are utilizing technology as a means to control its population?

If the media is knowenly skewing issues that are fact based to leave its audience with an unfounded impression of the truth, is it not the duty to those who know better to discredit the false source and to provide the audience with the rest of the facts? Isn't this similar to a situation where a government is developing or employing technology in a form that violates our rights to privacy and the public that is embrassing it unaware of what is really happening? or high techonology industries that capitalize on a public that pays for products or services that fall short of its claim's?

I think it would be very hard for anyone with a brain to take MTV seriously now and I hope noone does. I also hope that now this leaves open the opprotunity for a source to emerge that will be everything that the mainstream media isn't. I also hope this source encompasses everything that HNN, HNC and the other various hacker resources (which should've been feartured in the first place) are about.

Oh yeah, your also probably asking yourself what the fuck is this parsetv.com shit all about? Do you really think that we are some kind of "information security resource"? or "hacker culture outlet"? No. We're entertainment. We use the web as a form of free speech to do whatever the hell we want in an effort to entertain the people that watch us. Any issues related to the hacker community that we follow, we do so as an obligation to web community as a whole. If there is a vulnerability that exists we share it because its probably in our viewers best interest to know so, as far learning more about it or getting further detail all we can do is refer the audience to the proper source for that information. If an issue is brought up related to the laws and regulations that relate to the web, we feature it also due to the fact that it's in the best interest of all web users to know.

We do not claim to be the "consultants" or "experts" that other people claim to be (and are in fact not, um JP). My personal interest in computers and technology is just that, personal interest. I got interested in hacking and it's culture because I wanted learn more about it and its relation to the everyday world that non-hackers live in. Not everyone that read's 2600 or goes to Defcon does so because they want to be a hacker, or grow up to work in IT. Everyone has their own reasons. I think to many of you I represent a much bigger concern of yours and thats the growing number of non-hackers that have an interest in hacking but don't follow the traditional roles. Well get use to it because you can expect to see alot more of that as the web grows. As the web becomes more and more assimulated in our everyday lives, there will more and more people out there getting interested in hacking "FO ALL DA WRONG REASONS". All the hacker community can do about it is provide a responsable model for the ones who take it more seriously than others. The others will just become what they were to begin with, irrelavent to what hackers are really tring to do. I wholeheatly apoligize to those offended. The issues that hackers are out there tring to address are some of the most important issues that face the country, but it seems that the wrong people are listening and the right people are not. There is no doubt that the messages hackers are tring to convey need to be heard by the rest of the country, just don't expect that to happen through mainstream media. Mainstream media is content with keeping mainstream audiences ignorant and without discrediting what the media is saying, the ignorant will continue to listen.