NYT columnist ‘finds’ child porn on his computer – and rushes to the Times to save him
The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has told the world via Twitter he found child porn on his computer, and called his paper to save him, leaving the comments wondering if the FBI need to step in – or he was simply scammed.
“Someone compromised my IP address and is using it to download child pornography,” Krugman tweeted on Wednesday. “I might just be a random target,” he added in the now-deleted tweet, “but this could be an attempt to Qanon me. It’s an ugly world out there.”
Come again? Krugman was immediately savaged for what commenters saw as an act of pre-emptive ass-covering. “Good one @paulkrugman,” one wrote. “I’m sure the @FBI will totally buy it.”
The only reason I could imagine someone like Paul Krugman would say, when no one asked him, that he got hacked and someone downloaded child porn to his computer is because he learned that he was about to be outed.
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) January 9, 2020
I am absolutely, positively, 100% certain that's not how that works. 🙄ps. I was a White hat hacker and IT dweeb before most even knew what the Internet was and does. https://t.co/T81dN8V6CA
— Derek Smart (@dsmart) January 9, 2020
How is Paul Krugman's IP address explanation like his NY Times economics column?Either he's ignorant of how the things work and he's explaining it anyway, OR he knows how the thing works and he's lying to benefit/protect himself.
— Locke Wiggin #EndTheFED (@Locke_Wiggins) January 9, 2020
As Krugman was dog-piled online, he took the matter not to law enforcement, but to his employers at the New York Times. After all, where else would a smeared liberal journalist run to than into the protective arms of the liberal media.
The Times is now on the case.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 8, 2020
A short while later and evidently after a chat with his bosses, Krugman tweeted “Times thinks it may have been a scam. Anyway, will have more security in future.”
So did Krugman, a Nobel-prize-winning economist, out himself as a pedophile for the whole world to see? Highly unlikely. Instead, the 66-year-old writer likely fell for a ‘spearphishing’ scam, in which pop-up ads or emails warn gullible computer users that child porn has been found on their PC, usually accompanied with a request to hand over money to make the problem go away.
My IT pro take on @paulkrugman - someone spearphished him with an email saying they hacked his computer and found child porn on it. Classic scam. But he thought it was real, they actually caught him, and he went public in a panic.
— Ron Bassilian (R) (@Ron4California) January 9, 2020
As much as people want to conjure up conspiracy theories based on Paul Krugman's tweet, the most likely scenario is that he fell for this well known scam. https://t.co/TWf1i2Jjfmpic.twitter.com/Q1FquxaIic
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) January 9, 2020
Looking back through Krugman’s twitter feed, it seems he’s not the most computer literate writer at the Times. Krugman has a history of falling for internet scams, whether they’re attampts to hack his Facebook account, or sign him up for sites offering “live sex cams.”
Oh, joy. I got a notification that someone tried to sign me up for a site that offers "live sex cams". I'm sure whoever is engaging in this harassment are very fine people. If one of these attempts succeeds, advance notice: it wasn't me.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 15, 2018
He also has a history of making terrible predictions. In 1998, Krugman wrote that “the growth of the internet will slow drastically,” and “by 2005 or so, it will become clear that the internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” He also predicted in 2016 that Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election would bring about “a global recession, with no end in sight.”
Neither have come true, yet based on recent events, the internet continues to regularly vex and frustrate Krugman. At least he hasn’t sent any money to Nigerian princes...yet.
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