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Spam, spam, spam, and spam!

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Several days ago, I received alerts from the hosting service I use for this blog, and from Sucuri.net, a second service that provides a separate level of security. I signed with with that service several years ago when this site was overwhelmed by one or more hackers and forced offline for several days.

In any case, I was warned that SEO spam had been found in certain files and I needed to take action to clean up the site.

To tell the truth, I was working on something else and repressed the job. Until this morning, that is, when I got a followup from my hosting service advising they would suspend my account in 48-hours if I failed to take care of the problem.

It didn’t help that when I ran Google’s Transparency Report, it didn’t find any problems. That encouraged me to procrastinate.

Well, the next problem was that I had no idea what needed to be done. And then, to compound the problem, I provided the wrong password to Sucuri, making it impossible for them to initiate a malware removal scan.

Finally I managed to contact both services and request their assistance, and managed to locate and provide the correct password.

It wasn’t long before I heard back from Hostrocket, my hosting service. The identified a few spammy files that had been deleted, and a few more outdated plug-ins that needed to be deleted.

Then I got a report from Sucuri. They reported identifying and clearing literally hundreds of hidden spam links tucked away in out of the way places invisible to me.

You’ll can easily look up and read about SEO spam, as it is apparently a widespread problem, especially with WordPress installations like this one. Here’s the brief Sucuri summary of the issue.

So…I’m sorry for whatever affects these bits of malware may have been causing to those who visited this blog. Hopefully now everything has been rendered spic and span, and all of my layers of security have been updated. Maybe it will make things run faster. We’ll see.

Disagreement over Change.org

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In a blog post last week, veteran award-winning reporter and, until recently, MidWeek columnist, Bob Jones, blasted the online petition platform Change.org for “promoting” a petition titled “Open Hawaii Now,” which demands Gov. Ige immediately open up Hawaii’s economy despite the continuing deadly threat of COVID-19.

Change.org bills itself as a place where people can start public campaigns seeking policy changes by creating a petition, then mobilize supporters to work with decision makers to drive solutions.

Like Facebook and other social media, the Change.org platform can be used to broadcast messages with widely varied political content.

Jones’ post appears on his new blog, The Bob Jones Report. I recommend subscribing, despite occasional disagreements (like this one).

It struck me as odd that Jones seemed as offended by the availability of Change.org’s platform that was used to present “Open Hawaii Now,” as by some of the dubious arguments expressed by the creator of the petition.

Jones also took a poke at Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of eBay turned philanthropist and entrepreneur, for making a $15 million investment in Change.org back in 2013.

It seems to me that Jones’s post missed the mark and gave far too much weight to the “Open Hawaii Now” petition, which as of this morning had drawn just 387 signatures, according results posted at Change.org.

For example, Jones might have mentioned that an earlier petition launched on Change.org two months ago called on Governor Ige to “Lockdown Hawaii Now.” It had drawn 1,173 signatures before Hawaii’s lockdown started and the petition became moot.

And, for some reason, Jones never even identified the originator of the petition, instead simply associating it with Change.org and Omidyar.

The petition was posted by Kit Carver, who lives and works in Kona. Although the petition was started by Carver, Jones doesn’t mention him by name or by reference.

Carver moved to Hawaii in 2008. He was previously the co-owner and operator of My Bar in Kailua Kona, and is now a licensed real estate salesperson, records show. His Facebook page reflects his involvement in real estate sales, and doesn’t express an ideological bent.

I took issue with Jones slant in a comment on his site.

Bob, to be fair, you should be clear. The petition is not by Change.org, which provides a platform to promote petitions on social and political issues by others, This means individuals and groups don’t have to design their own online presence. In that sense, it is like WordPress, which powers your website. You use WordPress to express yourself, and millions of others use it. When you don’t agree with their online comments, you don’t blame WordPress.

You should be explaining to people that they have to evaluate the source of each petition. In this case, the petition was launched by Kit Carver, a small business owner in Kona. Evaluate this sponsor’s qualifications for giving advice counter to that of all public health experts.

In any case, despite occasional disagreements, I highly recommend The Bob Jones Report. You can easily subscribe by providing your email in a form at the bottom of each page.

Free access to online journalism training sessions now available

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Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) is providing free access to training resources designed to give journalists the knowledge and tools they need to dig deeper into stores.

Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. is, according to the organization’s website, “a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. IRE was formed in 1975 to create a forum in which journalists throughout the world could help each other by sharing story ideas, newsgathering techniques and news sources.”

I’ve been a member of IRE for about 30 years, and have found it’s many resources to be an invaluable.

The first newly resource is a set of live and recorded webinars designed to aid reporters in their work during this unprecedented crisis. These programs should also be of interest to anyone interested in the hard work and ongoing educatio and training that goes into news reporting.

One of the recorded webinars is likely to be useful to a wider audience of bloggers, journalists at all levels, and anyone trying to reach a wider digital audience.

TV and radio broadcasting from home
(Co-hosted with RTDNA)

Speakers: Eric Flack, investigative reporter at WUSA9 Washington; Danielle Leigh, investigative reporter at ABC7 New York/WABC; and Lee Zurik, director of investigations for Gray Television and chief investigative reporter at WVUE in New Orleans. Hosted by Cindy Galli, chief of investigative projects for ABC News and Denise Malan, deputy executive director of IRE.

Step inside the living rooms of veteran local TV and radio investigative reporters to see how they’ve adapted to “work from home.” So how do you do it? How are we all broadcasting from home? What do you need gear-wise? What are best practices for Skype interviews? How do you make TV or radio without a studio? Can you actually create a green screen in your apartment? (Hint: yes, we’ve done it).

There is a tip sheet accompanying this webinar that surveys useful software and hardware. Well worth check out if you have any interest in reaching an online audience.

Here are a few of the other topics covered by the webinar series so far.

Investigating higher ed amid COVID-19

Speakers: Elizabeth Brixey, Missouri School of Journalism; Michael Vasquez, Chronicle of Higher Education; Shera Avi-Yonah, The Harvard Crimson; and Mike Hiestand, SPLC’s senior legal counsel. Hosted by David Herzog, IRE & Missouri School of Journalism; Sarah Hutchins, IRE; Denise Malan, IRE.

Covering job losses and economic fallout from coronavirus

Speakers: Paul Overberg, The Wall Street Journal; Keith Taylor, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Wendi C. Thomas, MLK50

Fact-checking coronavirus stories
(Co-hosted with Society of Professional Journalists)

Speakers: Rachana Pradhan, Kaiser Health News; Samantha Sunne, independent journalist; Cristina Tardáguila, International Fact Checking Network; Claire Wardle, First Draft News

IRE Chat: Janine Zacharia on covering disinformation

Speakers: Janine Zacharia, journalist and lecturer at Stanford University; interview conducted by IRE training director Cody Winchester.

Fighting for open records during the COVID-19 crisis
(Co-hosted with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)

Speakers: Adam Marshall and Gunita Singh, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; Jason Leopold, BuzzFeed News; hosted by Denise Malan of IRE

I’ll review the other newly available resource library tomorrow.

A longtime friend bites the dust

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I’ve been a daily (or more often) reader of MacSurfer Headline News for years. Could be decades, although I’m not sure when this compiler of all news re Apple and Mac began appearing daily online. I’ve subscribed along the way, a very modest annual fee.

Recently, the site’s publisher, Phil Pearson, announced his intention to retire, with plans to have two others continue to maintain the site. He asked readers to offer support with a $40 annual subscription. I immediately ponied up.

Dear MHN Readers: Retirement beckons after 25+ years of producing one heckuva news resource of All-Things-Apple. Beginning for 2020, MacSurfer will move to a Subscription Platform.

I ask our dedicated MHN Readers to please subscribe and support our amazing editors, Darren and Scott, so they can continue on with MacSurfer for many many years to come. All it will take is 10 subscribers daily to keep MHN going. I know I can count on your loyal patronage…

Cordially, Phil Pearson, Publisher.

But then, early this morning, I received a notification from PayPal of a refund. When I checked, it was from MacSurfer. That immediately had me flying over to Macsurfer.com to find out what was going on.

Readers today are greeted with this sudden announcement.

MacSurfer’s Headline News ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear MHN Readers:

Not seeing a viable future with subscriptions, MacSurfer and TechNN will cease operations effective immediately. Please allow a few weeks to process forthcoming refunds. If need be, subscription inquiries can be addressed to the Publisher at the bottom of the Homepage.

Thanks kindly for your support, and thanks for the memories…

MacSurfer’s Headline News Team

I am so very sad to read this. Now I’ll have a gap in my daily morning routine. I’ll be feeling its absence for a long while, I predict.

In the meantime, I hope the Phil and the others behind MacSurfer know how much their faithful readers appreciated the hard work that went into their site.