Updated below!
Gerry Nicholls sent me a note this morning telling me that Prime Minister Harper does not, in fact, eat babies -contrary to what the GO Train message board informed him on the way home to Oakville last week.
Well thank God—I was starting to worry that Mr. Harper was a big fat baby-eating meaniepants and that story would dominate the media headlines next week—giving more credence to that whole Harper has a big big belly liberal media caper that they all broke immediately following Harper’s election.
It was a story Gerry broke last week after doing his daily commute and getting to a computer to report about his trip and what he’d seen, in his blog. I read Gerry’s blog entry last week and thought to myself, “no, no no, this can’t be right. Babies are not normally eaten, and certainly not by Prime Ministers.”
The crack journalists in urban Ontario, who all apparently drive to work in their personal automobiles, picked up Gerry’s blog story. The Toronto Star’s take on it (on their front page (click to see) no less):
Harper doesn’t eat babies: GO Transit
Rail authority apologizes after mischievous rider hacks into electronic message board
May 2, 2006. 07:47 AM
PHINJO GOMBU – STAFF REPORTERGerry Nicholls thought he was hallucinating as he kicked back in his seat to take the 35-minute GO train ride to his Oakville home.
About every three seconds, the scrolling electronic sign that usually carries transit updates and advertisements had a very different message that he just could not keep his eyes off.
“Stephen Harper Eats Babies. Stephen Harper Eats Babies. Stephen Harper Eats Babies,” the message kept repeating.
“No one (in the car) seemed to be reacting to it,” said Nicholls, who happens to be vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, the same conservative think-tank formerly headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“You go home and you are trying to rest from work and all of a sudden where they usually talk about Ticketmaster, all of a sudden you see this thing say `Stephen Harper Eats Babies,’” Nicholls said yesterday. “I wasn’t even sure when I got off the train. Was I hallucinating?”
Turns out he wasn’t.
An ingenious hacker, who boarded the Lakeshore GO Transit westbound train, made sure that on Thursday, Friday and yesterday, suburban commuters in at least five different cars continued to get his or her subliminal message
His weapon of choice was a remote control device that can be bought at a Sam’s Club and used to discreetly program scrolling electronic signs found commonly in shop windows — and in every GO Transit train car — from about two metres away.
When Exclusive Advertising, the company that sells interior advertising on GO trains, installed the LED signs about nine years ago, the signs, which have to be individually programmed, couldn’t be password protected, said company president Greg Donohue.
[… story goes on…]
As the Toronto Star reports, the irony is that Gerry Nicholls is vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, the same conservative think-tank formerly headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And that he was the only one who even noticed. They failed to allude to the fact that apparently, good conservative “right-wing think tank” guy (or as Buzz Hargrove called him during the last election, the boss of a “secret society”) Gerry Nicholls, rides public transit unlike even one single liberal reporter. (Maybe the crack media squads were simply in agreement with the “Harper eats babies” message or they simply accepted it as a truth, or accidentally failed to report it.)
The Globe and Mail certainly fails to acknowledge that it was Gerry Nicholls who broke the story—or they fail to enjoy the irony (hat tip to conservativegal):
Train airs hacker’s PM insult
HAYLEY MICKFrom Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
TORONTO — A case of “electronic vandalism” mocking the Prime Minister has left a media company red-faced after a hacker tampered with advertising signs on Toronto commuter trains to read “Stephen Harper Eats Babies.”
GO Transit officials promised yesterday to block further insults on its trains.
… and the National Post similarly fails to acknowledge Gerry Nicholls and fails to enjoy the irony as we do:
Hackers break into train advertising signs and insert anti-PM message
Published: Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Passengers on Toronto-area commuter GO trains over the past five days may have noticed what at first looked like an odd advertising campaign. Some of the trains’ scrolling LED signs bore the words “Stephen Harper eats babies.” Edmund Shea, head of public affairs for Go Transit, said it was a case of electronic vandalism. “Someone seems to have hacked into a few individual signs on a few trains,” he said. The incidents have forced GO Transit to shut down all of the electronic signs until Exclusive Advertising, the company responsible for them, can reprogram them with password security. The first sign was tampered with last Thursday evening. The prank was repeated on Friday night, and three screens were hacked yesterday.
But my my—that’s some seriously solid Isreal-style security being deployed on our nation’s public transit systems isn’t it?
UPDATE! CTV.ca picks up the story!
More Updates! Gerry will appear on Adler Online today to discuss it (between 4:00 and 6:00 PM, EDT Monday May 2 2006)!
Still More Updates! Gerry will be a guest on the Gary Doyle show (570 News Kitchener sometime between noon and 3 EDT)!
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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