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Anyone else get the feeling that the NY Post's fake Biden story was *deliberately* "breadcrumbed" to keep the story circulating longer as people "discovered" the source, traced the serial numbers, etc? I did digital forensics for a long time, and I almost never got this lucky:
Like 10,000 others, I downloaded and examined the photos, traced the GPS coords, etc. But it felt like one of those contests hollywood puts on the web to keep people interested in a show or movie - find all the hidden goodies, and build up excitement.
But Wait! There's More! The FBI Agent who signed it used to work IINI? Start a rumor there was CP on the hard drive! (Note: this is an IMPOSSIBLE scenario - the hard drive would be contraband, and it would be illegal to return it, much less search it on a subpoena).
If the Post's posting of this material was inadvertent, they're incompetent. If it was deliberate, they're unethical.
Either way, it's not a good look.
Either way, it's not a good look.
And since this is unexpectedly "going viral" and I have apparently confused quite a few people, let me sum up:
The images of the subpoena contained the metadata of the guy who snapped the subpoena. It would be a trivial matter to remove it, but the Post did not.
The images of the subpoena contained the metadata of the guy who snapped the subpoena. It would be a trivial matter to remove it, but the Post did not.
There are two likely reasons they didn't remove the metadata before posting:
1) They don't know what they are doing, and are incapable of protecting their sources - or -
2) They wanted other outlets to further the story, find the source, and keep people talking about it
1) They don't know what they are doing, and are incapable of protecting their sources - or -
2) They wanted other outlets to further the story, find the source, and keep people talking about it
As Daniel Kahneman said in Thinking Fast and Slow, “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.”
I regret that this post may be inadvertently increasing that effect.
