Undercover Dateline NBC producer gets pwned
Cory Bergman August 6th, 2007
A Dateline NBC producer wired with a hidden camera tried to hack the Defcon hackers convention this last weekend in Las Vegas. But go figure, the hackers knew they were being hacked — they said they had their own mole inside NBC who sent them a photo of the producer, Michelle Madigan. So they booted her out of the place, and a dozen or so attendees armed with video cameras followed her all the way to her car, asking her questions and taunting her along the way. Of course, it’s all caught on videotape…
DefCon staff say that Madigan was asked four times if she wanted to obtain press credentials, but she declined. But ZDNET blogger Ryan Naraine says Defcon went too far. “Was it really necessary for Defcon organizer Jeff Moss, a guy who is usually even-keeled and unruffled, to trigger a mob frenzy to get Madigan tossed from his conference?” he blogs. Regardless of who you support on this, you can bet it won’t be the first time that citizen media fights back against big media by turning the cameras around.
16 Comments Add your own
1. n.l. belardes | August 6th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
They were polite, lightly embarrassing, and mildly satirical.
If you’re caught, you’re caught. That’s the risk in today’s digital media world when you go undercover.
I think the best thing is for the reporter to laugh about it.
What else can you do?
As for citizen media fighting back. Nothing wrong with that. Just makes the media world more interesting and diverse…
2. Brink | August 6th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Sure is lucky they didn’t become violent.
Of course, they’d NEVER do that, right?
Nooooo.
3. Good on ya' | August 6th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I think it’s awesome on Defcon’s part, and makes Dateline look like….welll….Dateline…
4. Allen | August 6th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Nerds Gone Wild
5. Richard | August 6th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
So let me get this right, if a reporter doesn’t submit to accreditation she’s subject to being hounded out of the hall? And the reporters here are good with that?
That display was disgusting. I would assume Madigan paid her entry fee and so had every right to be there. There’s no proof that she was secretly taping anyone, only some whacked hacker’s accusations.
That said, Madigan skulking away like a whipped pup only compounded the problem.
6. Mike | August 6th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Richard,
Did you even read the article? She did have a hidden camera and what she was doing was against their clearly stated policies. She was misrepresenting herself for the purpose of portraying them in a scandalous light and got caught. She was in the wrong across the board. Far from disgusting, Defcon should be commended for keeping the situation “playfuly” in hand.
7. Jake | August 6th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
A VJ in training…Nice..steady..video…
8. John Proffitt | August 6th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
She had more than four explicit chances to do the right thing. She chose to do the wrong thing and act like a slimy TV news thug. That’s Dateline for ya.
Everyone working on Dateline should be smacked in the mouth and sent to bed without any supper. Datline is a travesty of a program and a cancer on journalism and has been ever since they rigged up truck gas tanks to explode so many years ago. Now they catch “predators” and try to expose “hackers.” Idiots.
I’m glad the DefCon people didn’t get violent. But the humiliation was poetic justice for these clowns.
9. Richard | August 6th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Mike,
I had not read the Wired article, but after reading it and other accounts of the event its pretty obvious to me that Madigan was in way over her head. NBC has not confirmed that she had a hidden camera, but witnesses report she did and was rather open about it. Footage from inside the hall was prohibited and it is DefCons event so they get to make the rules. So an unhidden hidden camera was just plain stupid.
There is still much about this story that I find offensive. The idea that a reporter must have “credentials” to be a legit reporter is ridiculous.
That the other reporters in the audience were in on the game of “Catch the Undercover Reporter” only indicates to me that they have traded their investigative instincts for said credentials.
If you’re on the police beat, you do not have to settle for what the desk sergeant gives you. It is acceptable to ask questions that people don’t want to answer.
Maybe next year the DefCon folks will hand out orange vests for the credentialed reporters to wear. Then some folks might squawk.
10. John | August 7th, 2007 at 4:15 am
“NBC has not confirmed that she had a hidden camera.”
Nor has Barry Bonds confirmed that he’s used steroids for six years.
(*holding my breath)
11. Hussman | August 7th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Yikes! Felt like I was watching the ‘Blair Witch’ sequel. Shake shake shake! Shake shake shake! Shake your camera. Shake your camera.
12. Safran | August 7th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I’m just proud there was a Safran behind the camera. (See video credit in lower right.)
13. Z | August 7th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Fools! Send in the obvious plant, but have less obvious ones in the audience, safely ignored after the plant is chased away.
14. Donal | August 7th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
An attractive woman at a hacker convention? Thats some investigative journalism. They had her pegged when she walked through the front door.
Seriously, Richard, most conventions require the press to be open about their affiliations. The Adult Entertainment Expo is very anti-press(not that I go to that sort of thing or….you know, I’ve been told…QUIT JUDGING ME!) because the media likes to portray them (and attendees of DefCon) as criminals and degenerates.
Unfortunately, infotainment reporters are more interested in finding villains than reporting the truth. She was there to make a scary story for her bosses to pimp out.
And no organization takes kindly to undercover reporters.
15. n.l. belardes | August 8th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
She could have stayed and made it a little more dramatic for Dateline by yelling out questions for the hackers to answer, forcing them to grapple her…
You know, just like in the movies… “Isn’t it true, that you hackers…”
But then, they didn’t seem the violent types. They looked like they had fun embarrassing the reporter and seemed to follow her just in case she did say something…
16. Tonto Weinstein | August 8th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Defcon does not want unauthorized video taping for the privacy of all the attendees. Sure, there’s people attending who play in the gray areas, as well as many of the attendees are highly valued software and system engineers who do not want the world knowing that Microsoft/Apple/Adobe/HP/Dell are there and deeply concerned about system security.
The rules are posted, she deserved to be ejected.
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