The Pac Is Back?

Tupac Shakur's killing in 1996 may have rendered him unable to record anymore, but he continues to be a thorn in people's side. After seeing a PBS "Frontline" documentary critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, members of the group Lulzsec hacked PBS's page for its NewsHour program and posted a fake story claiming that Shakur was alive and secretly living in New Zealand. The group claimed that the posted the fake news item about the rapper, who was inspired by both black radical politics and street violence, was their way of saying they were "less than impressed" with "Frontline"'s reporting and wanted to get revenge on PBS for what they perceived as a smear of Assange.

Shakur would have loved this.

The story was taken down almost as soon as it was discovered. I don't think anyone seriously believed that Shakur was still alive. Anyone who knows anything about the rapper knew that his life was a proverbial walk down a razor. His feuds with other rappers were legendary, and his murder still hasn't been solved.

American public broadcasting can't get a break. First its radio service gets stung by right-wing activists, then its television service Web site gets punked by left-wing hackers. If public broadcasting in the U.S. is offending both extremes, it must be doing a good job.