
NSA goes on 60 Minutes: the definitive facts behind CBS's flawed report - SworDsy
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/nsa-surveillance-60-minutes-cbs-facts
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belorn
> The lack of specificity made cybersecurity expert Robert David Graham
> dubious that the plot NSA claimed to discover matched the one it described
> on TV. “All they are doing is repeating what Wikipedia says about BIOS,”
> Graham blogged, “acting as techie talk layered onto the discussion to make
> it believable, much like how Star Trek episodes talk about warp cores and
> Jeffries Tubes.”

A nice summery of how to read NSA PR.

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rhizome
I think the recent history of 60 Minutes might be what it looks like when the
government starts calling in its favors.

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mpweiher
Nah, just basic incompetence and lack of journalistic integrity, and it ain't
recent. Remember "Unintended Acceleration" from the 80ies? Complete and utter
BS, yet they not just ran with it, but _stuck_ with it after the BS was
"exposed" (in quotes because it was obvious beforehand).

(Unintended Acceleration was the claim in the 80ies that Audis, when in
reverse, would accelerate when the driver was stepping on the brake pedal
without touching the gas pedal. Mechanically completely impossible and never
actually happened. [http://www.manhattan-
institute.org/html/cjm_18.htm](http://www.manhattan-
institute.org/html/cjm_18.htm))

~~~
rhizome
There has to be a better explanation of why Dan Rather was fired and Lara
Logan just got a promotion. Now, as far as incompetence, I have a question of
whether I'm putting the cart before the horse, particularly whether the
NSA/Bezos/etc. _used_ 60min because they knew they could get their message out
predictably, because CBS News is a dead horse.

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roin
I have no idea how accurate the 60 Minutes story was, but this article is
woefully unconvincing. Calling your rebuttal "the definitive facts" is
childish.

My favorite line is: "There are as many red flags surrounding the BIOS Plot as
there are in all of China." Who writes this?

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codex
I am not surprised by the lack of comments given how badly written this
article is. I can only imagine the upvotes are in sympathy with the title.

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nitrogen
I didn't find the article poorly written on an absolute scale, at least the
first couple of sections (I haven't finished reading the whole thing). Are
there specific sentences or paragraphs that bother you?

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judk
Pundits said the Bezos interview with the Prime Air gimmick ruined CBS
credibility.

Now we have this to cement their new reputation as "PRNewsWire.tv"

