Like many a worthy and eager (and, okay, zealous… perhaps overzealous… but don’t push it, ‘kay?) journalist before me, I published information about a rumor earlier today.
Here’s the original story:
I can't confirm this story as I'm in a television-less environment, but I've received word that CNN is at this moment reporting that al Qaeda leader and reputed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden has been captured.What will this mean for the war on terrorism?
What will this mean for the world?
In any event, this is — assuming the news is accurate — a moment to celebrate for the civilized world.
Everyone at my organization was sent an e-mail that said the following:
Turn on your TV. Osama Bin Laden has been captured. While CNN has no pictures at this point of time, the military channel (PPV) released some. I managed to capture a couple of these pictures off my TV. Ive attached a slideshow containing all the pictures I managed to capture. I apologize for the low quality, its the best I could do at this point of time. Hopefully CNN will have pictures and a video soon. God bless the USA!
Now, if I had read the middle of the paragraph carefully – the bit about the attached slideshow – alarm bells would have likely gone off in my mind’s Mission Control Center (or Bureau of Bullshit Detection, if you like).
However, in the frenzied race that is online news (and chat and criticism and analysis), I raced forward to print the rumors. Thankfully, I couched the rumors heavily as such, but it now seems obvious to this sheepish writer that this was merely a somewhat clever tact to get people to open up some kind of god-forsaken virus.
So if anything, I hope this little minor episode will remind people to not believe everything you read (particularly in e-mails and on the Internet!) and to never, EVER open attachments that you are in the least suspicious about.
At least I didn’t do that.
Yikes.
Thanks all.
For more on this and every other topic under the sun, check out:
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Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
I wouldn't say journalist there - I'd say Drudge. (Kind of goes with Dumpster ?!?)
2 - Dave Nalle
Does everyone turning on their TVs explain why my receiver keeps turning itself off for no apparent reason?
Dave
3 - Eric Olsen
are there TV viruses?
nice rescue EB, thanks!
4 - Eric Berlin
I believe there's TV addiction and psychosis, but no virus has yet been discovered.
5 - S L Cunningham
This isn't a preview for "War of the Worlds," is it?
6 - Eric Berlin
Maybe it is...
7 - Candleflame editor
Ah jeez Eric, I can't believe you fell for the bin Laden! Zoinks! I guess it can happen to the best of us, eh?
TKS
Candleflame
http://candleflameblog.blogspot.com/
8 - Eric Berlin
Yep, I read about the first 12 words and got suckered in.
I blame myself, of course, but I also blame the fact that I received the e-mail through an e-mail address in which I receive almost no spam.
Figures...
9 - Mark Saleski
strangely enough (or maybe not) we appear to have gotten a big spike in hits shortly after the initial post.
kind of amazing how many folks come in via google news.
10 - Eric Berlin
The Blog Gods work in mysterious ways...
11 - Shelley
I fell for it. I opened the attachment. AND my virus protection is "out of date". So I think I got the virus. What does the virus do?
12 - Temple Stark
It renders your blog comments invisible except for specially trained eyes.
- No need to thank me.
13 - Brooke Lee
Hey! I remember seeing a couple subjects containing the word captured, but I was just completely uninterested. Besides they were already quarantined as viruses. Thank you postini.com
14 - AcidGlow
This "virus" isn't a virus at all. It's simply a drop package for the virus itself. When you run this file it will connect to the internet and download the actual file (spyware/worm/virii/whatever) and activate it on your PC. for more detailed information about this look up http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trdlsmal.shtml a link on the same page has the tool that will help you remove the "dropper" itself. As for the virii or whatever it downloaded you will need to update your AV package.