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Former Reuter's Editor Charged With Hacking Tribune's Computer System

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Photo Credit: Reuters Former Reuters.com Deputy Social Media Editor Matthew Keys pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal charges that he aided members of the Anonymous hacking collective.

Keys, 26, on Monday said he was fired by Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), the parent company of Reuters News.

Keys was indicted in March by a federal grand jury in Sacramento on three criminal counts, alleging he entered an Internet chatroom used by members of the hacking collective Anonymous and helped hackers gain access to the computer system of Tribune Co. in December 2010. A story on the Tribune’s Los Angeles Times website was altered by one of those hackers, the indictment said.

The alleged events occurred before he joined Reuters in 2012, the indictment indicated.

Keys was silent during the hearing in federal district court in Sacramento as his lawyer Jay Leiderman entered the plea. A status conference was set for June 12.

Read more from this story HERE.

Reuters Accidentally Publishes George Soros Obituary

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Publications often prepare obituaries for famous living individuals, particularly ones who are near death. Publications don’t, however, generally prematurely publish them.

Thursday evening, Reuters accidentally published its obituary of the wealthy liberal business magnate and political financier George Soros, who is alive and well at 82.

“George Soros, who died XXX at age XXX, was a predatory and hugely successful financier and investor, who argued paradoxically for years against the same sort of free-wheeling capitalism that made him billions,” his obituary reads. It went live at 5:41 p.m. EST and was up for about 10 minutes.

The obit continued to say that Hungarian-born billionaire was known as the “man who broke the Bank of England” for “helping force the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, which devalued the pound,” but put $1 billion in Soros’ own bank account in 1992.

He was also blamed for the Asian financial crisis of 1997, when Soros Fund Management sold the Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit short.

Read more from this story HERE.

DOJ Indicts Reuters Editor For Conspiring With Anonymous Hackers

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

A former Web producer and Reuters social media editor was indicted by the Department of Justice on Thursday for allegedly conspiring with the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

The Justice Department announced the charges Thursday, stating that 26-year old Matthew Keys provided hackers associated with the collective the login credentials for a computer server belonging to the Tribune Company, the corporate parent of Sacramento-based television station KTXL FOX 40. Keys had been a Web producer for the station, but was terminated in late October 2010.

The Tribune Company is the parent company of some of the nation’s most well-known newspapers, including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel and the Baltimore Sun.

The Justice Department said in a press release that Keys was “was charged in the Eastern District of California with one count each of conspiracy to transmit information to damage a protected computer, transmitting information to damage a protected computer and attempted transmission of information to damage a protected computer.”

He could face up to “10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 for each count.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Giants in Conflict: Associated Press Battling Reuters on Benghazi Accounts

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A just-released Associated Press account of the Benghazi attack contradicts a possibly false or misleading Reuters article claiming to quote a protester by his first name who described a supposedly popular demonstration against an anti-Muhammad film outside the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

The Reuters article claiming a popular protest against a Muhammad film is also contradicted by vivid accounts provided by the State Department and intelligence officials describing how no such popular demonstration took place. Instead, video footage from Benghazi reportedly shows an organized group of armed men attacking the compound, the officials said…

Reports the AP:

“It began around nightfall on Sept. 11 with around 150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants, sealing off the streets leading to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. They set up roadblocks with pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, according to witnesses.

“The trucks bore the logo of Ansar al-Shariah, a powerful local group of Islamist militants who worked with the municipal government to manage security in Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya and birthplace of the uprising last year that ousted Moammar Gadhafi after a 42-year dictatorship.

“There was no sign of a spontaneous protest against an American-made movie denigrating Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. But a lawyer passing by the scene said he saw the militants gathering around 20 youths from nearby to chant against the film. Within an hour or so, the assault began, guns blazing as the militants blasted into the compound.”

That account contrasts sharply with a Reuters report from Sept. 13 – two days after the attack – describing a supposedly popular protest outside the U.S. mission and even claiming to quote a protester.

Read more from this story HERE.