Categories: OLD Media Moves

Reuters digital media editor denies charges

Mackenzie Weinger of Politico reports that Reuters digital media editor Matthew Keys has denied the charges that he helped hackers access the Tribune Co. computer system.

Weinger writes, “‘I did not give a username and a password to anyone,’ he wrote in a Facebook post. ‘I did not ‘conspire’ to ‘cause damage to a protected computer.’ I did not cause ‘transmission of malicious code,’ and I did not ‘attempt’ to cause ‘transmission of malicious code.’’

“‘My attorneys have said much of the same over the past few days, but I feel it might mean more coming from me directly,’ he added.

“Keys — a former web producer for the Tribune Co-owned television station KTXL FOX 40 in Sacramento, California — has been charged with giving members affiliated with ‘Anonymous’ log-in credentials for a computer server belonging to the Tribune Co. According to the indictment, the group used the information to hack into the Los Angeles Times and change a news story online.

“He has been suspended from Reuters, with pay.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.