The following statement was received by HNN from Shamrock in regardes to the MTV television special True Life: I'm a Hacker

I also owe the hacker community an explanation for what you saw on the show. There was mention in one of the HNN responses about "MTV was looking for someone guliable enough...." and thats what I assumed from the beginning, but I thought "could they be guliable enough themselves to actually air and credit themselves to the production of something like that?". I thought if they could, would there be any way that they would still be able to maintain credibility as journalists? I didnt think so. I also didn't think that when they asked if we could show them what types of crime take place in the hacker world that they would actually expect to see that. I also didn't think that they would take anything we showed them seriously.

Apon our first meeting with MTV I told them about what kind of work we do at pseudo.com as far as web broadcasting goes and told them about other hacker related Internet resources they should check out. They were referred to 2600, HNN, Defcon and L0pht. With that left the way it was I figured that there would be no excuse for MTV not being able to produce an interesting special on hacker culture.

Surprisenly (or not) they contacted us a few weeks later stating that they were not satisfied with what they had already gathered from other groups that had approached. They wanted more and at this point it becomes apparent that this wasnt being taken seriously (or if it was, they must be as guliable as they think we are). So we decided to take them for a ride (NOTE: at this point it was understood what was at risk, we had no intention of making hackers look bad. We waited for months to see if they would be realistic and after it was obvious that they wouldn't we figured the only option would be to discredit them with as much fiction as possible). The question was how far would they go. We already had our cast of charactures, next we needed we our plot. After setting the mood and introducing the compelling focus of our adventure we wanted to give them a climax. Unfortunatly, the part where we deliver the disk to the rival group and the police (which we had paid off) showed up and arrested our counterparts didnt make it into the MTV production. It's a shame too because we reallly wanted to see if we could actually get them to pay for and produce our own original presentation without them even knowing it.

Sadly, our hoax didnt even come close to what we had intended. All I can do is reiterate to you just how fake and hollow what you see on television is. After this experience I wonder where if any truth lies in what we are told to watch, read and listen to. This is the obvious issue the hacker community needs to address. If the nation's intellectiual lowest common denomanator (television/music/etc audiences) and the media that caters to them are sucessful using programming to shape what their opinions are and what behavior they should endorse, is this not the same prolem that exists when our governments are utilizing technology as a means to control its population?

If the media is knowenly skewing issues that are fact based to leave its audience with an unfounded impression of the truth, is it not the duty to those who know better to discredit the false source and to provide the audience with the rest of the facts? Isn't this similar to a situation where a government is developing or employing technology in a form that violates our rights to privacy and the public that is embrassing it unaware of what is really happening? or high techonology industries that capitalize on a public that pays for products or services that fall short of its claim's?

I think it would be very hard for anyone with a brain to take MTV seriously now and I hope noone does. I also hope that now this leaves open the opprotunity for a source to emerge that will be everything that the mainstream media isn't. I also hope this source encompasses everything that HNN, HNC and the other various hacker resources (which should've been feartured in the first place) are about.

Oh yeah, your also probably asking yourself what the fuck is this parsetv.com shit all about? Do you really think that we are some kind of "information security resource"? or "hacker culture outlet"? No. We're entertainment. We use the web as a form of free speech to do whatever the hell we want in an effort to entertain the people that watch us. Any issues related to the hacker community that we follow, we do so as an obligation to web community as a whole. If there is a vulnerability that exists we share it because its probably in our viewers best interest to know so, as far learning more about it or getting further detail all we can do is refer the audience to the proper source for that information. If an issue is brought up related to the laws and regulations that relate to the web, we feature it also due to the fact that it's in the best interest of all web users to know.

We do not claim to be the "consultants" or "experts" that other people claim to be (and are in fact not, um JP). My personal interest in computers and technology is just that, personal interest. I got interested in hacking and it's culture because I wanted learn more about it and its relation to the everyday world that non-hackers live in. Not everyone that read's 2600 or goes to Defcon does so because they want to be a hacker, or grow up to work in IT. Everyone has their own reasons. I think to many of you I represent a much bigger concern of yours and thats the growing number of non-hackers that have an interest in hacking but don't follow the traditional roles. Well get use to it because you can expect to see alot more of that as the web grows. As the web becomes more and more assimulated in our everyday lives, there will more and more people out there getting interested in hacking "FO ALL DA WRONG REASONS". All the hacker community can do about it is provide a responsable model for the ones who take it more seriously than others. The others will just become what they were to begin with, irrelavent to what hackers are really tring to do. I wholeheatly apoligize to those offended. The issues that hackers are out there tring to address are some of the most important issues that face the country, but it seems that the wrong people are listening and the right people are not. There is no doubt that the messages hackers are tring to convey need to be heard by the rest of the country, just don't expect that to happen through mainstream media. Mainstream media is content with keeping mainstream audiences ignorant and without discrediting what the media is saying, the ignorant will continue to listen.