Admittedly, I am not the savviest of users of the DKos search engine for previous diaries. But I did one, and did not see anything about this story. Given the latest horrors bestowed upon us by the cowardly ones of our Party, I thought I'd share this little nugget:
Las Vegas (NV) – In a sweltering hot parking lot, a young woman clutches her purse and runs to her car, chased by dozens of people. But she’s not being robbed because the mob in pursuit - a strange mix of Defcon attendees, press and security personnel – just want pictures and video of the undercover reporter that’s just been outted by Defcon officials.
Defcon Security held a convention recently in Las Vegas, you see, and while the Press was invited, they had to follow some guidelines - like wear press badges. For Michelle Madigan, Assciate Producer for Dateline NBC, following the established rules was out of the question. She so brazenly TOLD the people hosting this convention that she intended to do it her way...
Their {NBC's} goal was to secretly record hackers admitting to felonies. According to "Priest", a senior Defcon staffer, Dateline also wanted to videotape a federal agent going up on stage and then broadcast it on national television.
Lovely that our National Media "Presstitutes" really give a hoot about our National Security, eh? I mean, that they want to boost ratings by exposing our Undercover Agents on DATELINE? Honestly, I would've hoped that our so-called "media" would've learned much more important lessons from the Valerie Plame Scandal than this.
Anyway, I digress; back to Ms. Madigan. According to the UK's Inquirer,
The people from Defcon talked to her four times, two before the show, two on the scene, and offered her press credentials and the opportunity to officially talk to the people she wanted to talk to. Four times she declined.
And folks, this is when it gets good. The Defcon Security people were NOT about to allow this to go on without a response. It was the best turning of the tables I'd seen in a while: Once again, from TG Daily's "Defcon 1, Dateline 0" article
According to Priest, the Defcon security team started tracking Michelle Madigan, associate producer of NBC Universal, when she boarded her plane for Las Vegas from the east coast.
Heh...they began following and tracking her even before she left her home turf! They knew her every move. They saw her acquire her "human" pass to enter the convention (as opposed to getting the free press badge that they asked her to do 4 times) and they even saw her go into the ladies room to wire up and activate her hidden camera in her purse! The UK's Inquirer has great pics of her. (I don't know how to do that, so please, go take a lookie! They had cameras trained on her the entire time.
Anyway, long story short, one of the convention hosts got on stage and announced a contest called "Spot the Fed". Since the reporter from the Inquirer (whose article I've been referencing here) was in on the gag, he stood up and fingered someone they all knew wasn't a Fed...
Dark Tangent was on the stage, and had a lengthly preamble about undercover feds and the "spot the fed" contest. A fed was 'spotted', and I brought Winn Schwartau up on stage as a 'fed'. The conversation then went to integrity and how to go undercover ethically.
It was all part of the plan. Shortly after that, the host then announced that the game was shifting to "Spot the undercover reporter who is violating the Defcon rules".
She was offered the option of coming up on stage and getting a press badge, but instead, Michelle bolted for the door, pushing a goon out of the way.
Oh, and in case I didn't mention it, a "goon" in this instance is one of the Defcon Security personnel. It's what they call themselves...or that's how the articles refer to them. :-)
So, anyway, this chick ends up bolting from the convention, totally busted and outed in front of the entire crowd, and they end up following her! Get this:
There were people swarming Michelle, Defcon people estimated 150 or so, as she walked for her car, quickly at first, slowing when it became obvious that she wasn't going to get away.
CLASSIC! I know, I'm getting a lot out of this, and truly all at Ms. Madigan's and NBC's expense...but seriously, this paparazzi journalism has really got to end, and outing them like this is a great way to break the cycle of trash masquerading as news.
In the end, not only was Madigan exposed and humiliated as the rule-breaking, pompous, non-journalistic, potentially traitorous, media whore that she is; but, NBC was caught...just like they trap their victims on their "infotainment" shows they so love to create in their "To Catch A..." series'. In fact, I'll let the Charlie Demerjian from the Inquirer sum it up:
...questions shouted at here, ranging from "What were you thinking?" to "Can I have your badge?" I guess she now knows what it feels like to be on the others side of the 'to catch a predator' stories.
The best part of it all is that when she finally got into her car and drove away, she drove into a dead-end corner, had to turn around, and then drive through the same screaming crowd that chased her to her car!! HAHAHA! {{cough....sorry}}
Charlie, one last time:
The moral of the story? Don't screw around with people who are smarter than you. I guess Dateline NBC hasn't learned this lesson.
p.s. Google News has tons of stories about this. My guess is that NBC isn't gonna say a peep. If they do, I can just imagine the spin they'll put on it! LOL