Rumors about cameras in DTV converters revealed as a HOAX

Rumors about cameras in DTV converters revealed as a HOAX

tech.yahoo.com

Wired tracked down the creator of the video—a 28-year-old software engineer named Adam Chronister—who now admits that yes, it's just a hoax. No tiny camera, no microphone—although Chronister claims that a pal did, indeed, tell him the rumor about the hidden DTV camera.

So—know anyone who got fooled? Think the hoax is just a "smoke screen" (as Wired puts it) for the real DTV conspiracy?

(visit the link for the full news article)

Maybe this will finally get it through the heads of all of you that think this is for real... THE guy who made the video admits he made it up!!!

Hopefully this will put this whole thing to bed - once and for all...

It is curious however, that only the "BS" that we all know is phony is the only thing that gets covered by the MSM...

tech.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yes, to be honest I didn't even watch the video, it seemed so implausible that you could just crack open one of those boxes, and wow! there's a camera!

Interesting point about how the truly baseless stories are the ones the media picks up on, but other very possible issues, with documented proof of being possible, go unnoticed and unreported.

Originally posted by chefcollin
Hopefully this will put this whole thing to bed - once and for all...

I don't think I trust the issue to be 'dead'. You may be inclined to accept this hoax as applying to all claims. I can't do it. I've seen some crap you definitely would not believe.

Originally posted by Ian McLean
Yes, to be honest I didn't even watch the video, it seemed so implausible that you could just crack open one of those boxes, and wow! there's a camera!

Interesting point about how the truly baseless stories are the ones the media picks up on, but other very possible issues, with documented proof of being possible, go unnoticed and unreported.

Most definitely. And very convenient that ATS was mentioned in a MSM article, (I believe it was an English news org), at the same time this story was first coming out.

ARTICLE DAILY MAIL (UK)

The article mentioned ATS as an "American Crackpot Website" that has stories on it such as the camera inside DTV boxes.

ATS THREAD

My question is: COULD THAT STORY HAVE BEEN INTENTIONAL DISINFO MEANT TO DISCREDIT ATS SPECIFICALLY????

We know ATS is the leading website when it comes to these things, ands we here go about it in a logical, sane way, which is very dangerous for TPTB.

Just a thought.

[edit on 24/2/09 by MajesticJax]

reply to post by MajesticJax


I gotta admit, the thought crossed my mind too. It often does. ATS has no control over who posts what (beyond the T&C - which wouldn't deter such an effort.

However, it seems counter-productive no? I mean we usually vet things quite rigorously here, generally speaking.

Of course we do vet them pretty quickly. BUT THE AVERAGE READER OF THE ARTICLE DOESN'T KNOW THAT. So basically, whoever engineered the hoax, and associated ATS with it, has essentially discredited ATS to the average article reader, before those readers have visited ATS. NOw they have a pre-conceived opinion regarding ATS; mission accomplished.

[edit on 25/2/09 by MajesticJax]

Television doesn't need to include a camera. It is already a mind-numbing distraction enough that as long as people are in front of it then the government is content.

The best hoax is the one with a certain amount of truth. That not only lends credibility but believability.

For the fact that ComCast had been researching, in partnership with Intel, to develop the technology of using Video Cameras in Set-top DTV Boxes, and had no qualms admitting that it was something they had researched, developed, but abandoned long before potential implementation, set the underlying premise that it is not only possible but plausible.

For the fact that other companies have been developing Set-Top Video Cameras for purposes of Ratings, Targeted Advertising, and Demographics, only feed the credibility of the video.

So, the premise isn't entirely baseless. It is just fabricating beyond that premise to create a hoax that these Set-top Cameras in DTV Boxes had been found in the wild, when in fact they never left the Laboratory or Trade Shows.