Talking Points Memo Down After Publishing Slideshow of Unmasked ‘Anonymous’ Hackers

Adrianne Jeffries — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:35:53 -0400

UPDATED: The site was indeed DDOS'ed, says editor Josh Marshall, during which time reporters took to Tumblr:

We are lucky enough to live in a country where the risks and consequences of practicing journalism are usually quite light. Certainly compared to other countries. This episode is trivial in comparison to what numerous journalists have suffered in other countries when people retaliate over what is reported about them. Still, even in such minor forms, reporting the facts about criminal activity and the news of the day is not without consequences. But we believe in what we do. So we can take it.

ORIGINAL POST: Did Talking Points Memo just get cyber-attacked? The New York-based politics blog is down after publishing a slideshow titled "'Anonymous' Arrest Suspects Revealed" with mugshots of 14 of the 16 suspects arrested by the FBI. TPM obtained the photos via a Freedom of Information Act request.

"Are these some of the faces of "Anonymous," the loosely-knit collective of hackers and online pranksters that have caused so much trouble for government and corporate websites over the past three years?" the slideshow said. "That's what the FBI thinks, which is why they arrested 16 people from across the country in July."

Earlier in the day, TPM tweeted a link to the slideshow: "We sincerely hope our site doesn't go down for posting this."

TalkingPointsMemo.com crashed around 5 p.m., although ironically the slideshow remained accessible, and the site is now back up. "I warned @ryanjreilly about messing with Anonymous," TPM reporter-blogger Benjy Sarlin tweeted.

The Gawker post about the slideshow was considerably more insulting, although blogger Adrian Chen thought better of his headline "These Are the Pale Faces of Anonymous," altering it to "These Are the Faces of Anonymous" after hitting publish. But his snark--"They're a motley bunch—mostly 20-year-old white dudes, unsurprisingly, and middle-aged woman"--left that blog spared.

"Hey, Anonymous, i heard POLITICO was talking shit about you too," Huffington Post politics editor Sam Stein taunted on Twitter. "Hey, Anonymous, i'm pretty sure i heard National Journal making fun of your mother."

The @AnonyOps Twitter account just weighed in: "Here are the 'anonymous'mugshots.http://bit.ly/ppBsmu Look at these dangerous terrorists. *zomg* /sarc bit.ly/ppBsmu."

UPDATE, 5:51 p.m. Site is down again.

Betabeat » Hacked Or Not?

Just a Cheap Trick: Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Microsoft DNS Records Were Not Hacked

Talking Points Memo Down After Publishing Slideshow of Unmasked ‘Anonymous’ Hackers