By Alec Hogg
Had my 15 minutes of Twitter infamy yesterday when featuring in an “expose” about a media conspiracy. It was based on a screenshot of an apparently secret Direct Message (DM) conversation I never had with someone I’ve never met. The conversation makes me out to be the kingpin of a grand conspiracy.
They painted me as the shadowy bossman directing news flow for John Robbie, Peter Bruce, eNCA and some respected editors I’ve never engaged with. Apart from a warped mind, whoever put this together has zero knowledge of how the media works, especially pros like John and Peter. And madly over-estimates my influence.
Pals who flooded me with suggestions say the scam took a lot of time to set up. One theory is I was “catfished” – when someone creates a parody account claiming to be you; and uses it to engage with someone who thinks they’re talking to you. Another theory is the mischief maker simply used one of many websites that create such conversations between anyone you want.
You have to wonder what kind of people would go to the trouble of creating a parody account to trick an unsuspected third party (the unfortunate Karin Morrow) with the specific intention of hacking into her account in a wild attempt to discredit someone they don’t like. I feel for Ms Morrow – she is the one who was tricked and whose privacy has been abused so that the miscreants could have a very cheap shot at their perceived enemy. I hope she finds a pro-bono lawyer and sues their asses.
Whatever the future outcomes. Two reminders from my side. First, coming on top of the Arch’s supposed passing last week, it was a reminder to be very careful about believing stuff posted on social media. There are lots of sickos around. And second, Biznews must be ruffling the right feathers if our critics go to such lengths trying to discredit us. A reminder to them: We stand for democracy by promoting free enterprise and attacking corruption. Period.
