Anti-CBS

Never Cheese Off a Guy with an Animation Program

1988.10.15

Last updated: 2021.11.22

Since 1984, there has been an annual gathering of computer industry luminaries, called the Hackers' Conference. It was originally inspired by the release of Steven Levy's book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution.

At Hackers 4.0, back in 1988, CBS News asked if they could shoot material for a brief news segment for airing that weekend. They represented, and we presumed, they were going to highlight the positive contributions made by the people at the conference, and the incredible potential of what the future might hold.

We were wrong.

That weekend, we were treated to a sensationalistic smear story wherein the conference was portrayed as a gathering of reckless thieves and vandals who break into computers and wreak havoc. This conference was attended by the likes of Ted Nelson, RJ Mical, Jerry Pournelle, Clifford Stoll, John Gilmore, Steve Wozniak, Richard Stallman, Jeri Ellsworth, Tsutomu Shimomura, Tom Duff, and others of similar renown, and CBS News painted them all as malicious crackers. (It is for this reason that the Hackers' Conference no longer permits media coverage of the event.)

So, since CBS did such a hatchet job on the conference, I felt it was only fair to return the favor. This animation was designed and completed in a single night.

Animation Info

Items for Download

• AntiCBS-anim.lha, 36K
• AntiCBS-src.lha, 24K