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September 20, 2006
Spying on media
Spying on media: Off-topic, but it's at the top of TechMeme right now... a New York Times article today starts: "Hewlett-Packard conducted feasibility studies on planting spies in news bureaus of two major publications as part of an investigation of leaks from its board, an individual briefed on the company's review of the operation said yesterday." My first reaction was "eh? This is news?" Any such centralized point of influence will always become a target -- once something becomes popular and influential enough, others with non-transparent goals will try to infiltrate it. Bob Woodward came to the Washington Post from military intelligence, for instance. Parties and dining have always been a part of the commercial storytelling business too, from WR Hearst onwards. If the New York Times is worried about business groups listening in on the newsroom, then I hope they're really, really worried about political groups planting reporters in the writing pool, planting ideas and influence in the editors' social life. Same thing as splogs or Digg-gaming... once a resource becomes useful enough, it attracts exploiters, so the architecture needs to be set up from the start to deter abuse.
Posted by JohnDowdell at September 20, 2006 08:38 AM
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Later: I got took! Read that first sentence from the NYT again... "an individual briefed on the company's review of the operation said yesterday." That's it. That's their sourcing, their proof. They not only don't link to source information, they don't even name it.
Presumably their alleged source promised other members of their workgroup that he or she would keep their NDA. At some level or other, the New York Times article contains a lie within it.
Posted by: John Dowdell at September 20, 2006 08:06 PM