British Hackers Politely Deface Sky News Website

Last night, a website affiliated with Rupert Murdoch‘s Sky News was hit by an unknown number of hackers, who were unhappy about the “hollow” “American”-style debate in which Sky has been asking British party leaders to participate. It would be the first televised debate between the leaders of the UK’s three biggest political parties.

They changed the caption next to a signable petition from “The Leaders’ Debate Petition” to “The Windbag Debate Petition,” and put a big smilin’ Rupert Murdoch where a picture of leaders Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and Nick Clegg had previously been. Under the heading “Reasons this debate idea stinks,” the defacers of the site mentioned five main grievances about the debate format. Before we get into them: what American web saboteurs would ever use words as mild as “stinks” and “windbag,” given the circumstances?

From Telegraph.co.uk:

1 – It smacks of Murdoch pushing an agenda, again
2 – It’s a talking competition and so will reward presentation over substance, must we really copy everything the Americans do? If people want to hear hot air, waffle and hollow rhetoric then we can just tune into BBC parliament.
3 – Where are the other parties? I know we only ever elect the same old fossils in this country but it would be nice to know the others existed.
4 – If the media want to equip people to be informed about politics why not run a few stories that analyse policies in an objective manner? I mean that is if you can fit it in around the latest Cricket and Weather.
5 – Everyone knows Gordon Brown should be el presidenté for life (OK, not really)

Hijacking other people’s web properties is a crime, and whoever did this is a very, very naughty hacker. Not that Murdoch’s own media holdings haven’t hacked to get a story in the recent past (and we’re not talking about the subpar writing-type of hacking, although there’s always that too).

But for a stunt like this to criticize the media’s obsession with weather and sports and its “reward[ing] presentation over substance” — and to actually make a level-headed, slur- and profanity-free case of it — takes chutzpah.