Jul 4 2011, 6:34 PM ET
President Obama is alive and well. Today, he is celebrating the Fourth of July by hosting a barbecue for military families and administration staffers on the lawn of the White House. But close followers of Fox News might not know that.
Early this morning, six tweets went out over one of the Twitter accounts managed by Fox News,
@foxnewspolitics, which described in graphic and convincing detail how the president had been shot and killed while campaigning in Iowa. The first read: "
@BarackObama has just passed. Nearly 45 minutes ago, he was shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown Bled out". (The rest of the tweets are displayed below.)
It wasn't until around noon -- ten hours after the messages had been posted -- that someone with access to the Twitter account, which has more than 38,000 followers, logged in and deleted them. Fox News also posted a statement on its website, calling the late-night tweets "false" and "malicious." "We will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measured to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts" said Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital, who said the tweets were the result of a hack.
A representative from Script Kiddies, a hacking collective that is hoping to gain attention for itself and join forces with Anonymous, the group responsible for a number of widely-publicized hacks in recent months, told Stony Brook University's Think magazine that his team was behind the tweets. "We are looking to find information about corporations to assist with antisec," the representative said. "Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting."
Comments
It was amusing watching people today spiral further into debt (slavery) buying fireworks so that they can celebrate their "freedom". Happy fuckin' 4th.