Some Fox News-haters celebrated the Fourth of July by hacking the Fox News politics Twitter feed and posting six tweets announcing the assassination of President Obama, including two shots at an Iowa restaurant to the pelvis and neck. Washington Post reporter William Wan found the suspected hackers think the entire concept of Fox News is a joke:
In the @foxnewspolitics Twitter feed, an online outfit called the Script Kiddies initially took responsibility for the attack but then apparently deleted online information about itself, according to a student news Web site called Think at New York’s Stony Brook University.
Adam Peck, a writer for Think, relayed instant messages he exchanged with a person claiming to represent Script Kiddies in the wee hours of the morning right after the hack. One message said, “Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting.”
...Within hours, news of the fake assassination spurred a wave of re-tweets, jokes and comments mocking Fox online, fueled in part by idle Blackberrys during the holiday and, given the cruel nature of some tweets, apparently a measure of glee at the embarrassment of a news organization sometimes perceived as opposing Obama.
Fox News managed to remove the prank tweets and issued a statement on its Web site calling the tweets "malicious" and saying it “regrets any distress the false tweets may have created.” Fox News is requesting an investigation by Twitter.
