Amid tight Senate race, Reuters reporter sat on Beto hacking story
It'd be great if reporters stopped handing President Trump ammunition for his attacks on the press.
Reuters? Joseph Menn, for example, discovered prior to the 2018 midterm races that former Rep. Beto O?Rourke, D-Texas, was a member of the infamous Cult of the Dead Cow hacking group in the 1980s. As a contributor to the group, the former congressman penned a whole lot of deeply weird and poorly aged fiction and poetry.
Yes, he wrote violent and deeply perverted things. Still, teenagers do and say many, many, many regrettable things.
The real issue here is that the Reuters journalist offered to sit on the story until after the midterm Senate races had ended, even after O?Rourke had already confirmed in 2017 that he was a member of the group. That is really bad.
Details of O?Rourke?s membership in the Cult of the Dead Cow were revealed for the first time last week in a Reuters exclusive titled, ?Beto O?Rourke?s secret membership in America?s oldest hacking group.? The story revealed much of the former congressman's teenage writings, including one bit of fiction, titled ?Visions From The Last Crusade,? wherein the author fantasized about murdering children with a car. One passage reads:
One day, as I was driving home from work, I noticed two children crossing the street. They were happy, happy to be free from their troubles?. This happiness was mine by right. I had earned it in my dreams.
As I neared the young ones, I put all my weight on my right foot, keeping the accelerator pedal on the floor until I heard the crashing of the two children on the hood, and then the sharp cry of pain from one of the two. I was so fascinated for a moment, that when after I had stopped my vehicle, I just sat in a daze, sweet visions filling my head.
That?s certainly different. The Reuters report also uncovered some of O?Rourke's adolescent poetry, including a poem titled ?The Song of the Cow,? which includes the following stanzas:
I need a butt-shine,
Right now
You are holy,
Oh, sacred Cow
I thirst for you,
Provide Milk.
Buff my balls,
Love the Cow,
Good fortune for those that do.
Love me, breathe my feet,
The Cow has risen.
Wax my ass,
Scrub my balls.
The Cow has risen,
Provide Milk.
I don't even know how to respond to that.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/amid-tight-senate-race-reuters-reporter-sat-on-beto-hacking-story