MediaChannel.org a Hacking Victim

MediaChannel.org apparently experienced some issues Monday morning, as an attack by a hacker temporarily shut the site down following an appearance by editor Danny Schechter on TV show Democracy Now!.

An email from Schechter Wednesday read:

AND THAT’S THE WAY IT IS FOR US

On Monday morning, I was pleased to be a guest on Democracy Now! talking about Walter Cronkite‘s support for MediaChannel.org and playing clips of his criticism of the demise of journalism. It was great that Amy Goodman plugged MediaChannel and showed the Website. Unfortunately, if you have been trying to visit the site since then, you have found that our server is down.

We have, in effect, vanished.

It appears that a hacker was able to get into our database and temporarily shut us down. We are in the process of restoring our sites, upgrading security and server software, but at a cost we cannot afford. Will you help us offset some of these costs by making a tax deductible donation to keep MediaChannel going and growing, and help us improve our technical capabilities to fight off hostile hackers, before we are permanently shut down!

The site was up and running Wednesday morning.

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