You’ve no doubt heard of the blogosphere brouhaha that ensued when NBC Dateline reporter Michelle Madigan got caught going undercover at DEF CON — actions on her part both unnecessary (the convention gives out free press badges) and hilarious in their result (Madigan was literally chased out — video here).

Today Harry McCracken reminisces about an undercover job he pulled back in 2000, also with Dateline, about the PC repair industry’s sorry state of disrepair. The results of their investigation showed neither major retailers and mom n’ pop shops couldn’t manage to diagnose simple (if elusive) problems, and often way overcharged for unnecessary parts replacements. (My first job was at CompUSA way back in the day, don’t even get me started on how bad those fools screw their customers.) Bad for those fixing PCs, very, very good for the consumer. However, amidst Harry’s reserving judgment, he defensively goads the intelligence of those that responded:

“Most of the coverage of all this is in dogpile-on-the-rabbit mode–I haven’t seen a single account… that was even semi-sympathetic to Madigan’s overarching goal or specific actions.”

Ok, let’s be real about it then: NBC sent a reporter undercover to a hacker convention that offers press badges — Why? Or more specifically, why should anyone give her or Dateline the benefit of the doubt? She concealed her identity in an attempt to alter the context of and reaction to her presence — but it’s a technology conference, not a sting. The only reason to do such a thing would be if NBC is searching for a story they couldn’t just get by sending her to DEF CON cognito. They were looking to do a hit piece.

And then we remember: has a network like NBC ever done anything to portray black, gray, or even fringe white hats as anything but dangerous to the public-at-large’s personal security? How many FUD stories has it (and networks like it) run on the dangers of having your computer hacked into, your bank account information lifted, your identity stolen, etc. etc. The MSM often places the responsibility of real crooks and thieves on legitimate members of the security community who are unearthing faults and flaws in the technology we’re led to believe we can trust. Case in point: see the MSM’s total misappropriation of the term “hacker“.

So, sure, maybe it is a little presumptuous to say Dateline was there to paint DEF CON and security nerds as a serious threat to homeland security. But let’s be honest with ourselves and connect the dots. I’d be willing to bet a Franklin that Madigan was there to do a hit piece on hackers, hacker culture, and all the scary, awful security vulnerabilities they have cooking and will soon going to use to steal our money / children / souls.