In as fine a collection of stereotypes as can be found, the Associated Press furnished a story on July 14 covering the annual DefCon hacker get together in Las Vegas. It compressed at least one hoary cliche into each paragraph. Here is a summary of them.
Hackers are kids.
As a simple satirical exercise, Crypt News rewrote the Associated Press story as media coverage of a convention of newspaper editors. They're self-described nerds, dressing in starched white shirts and ties. These mostly overweight, mostly male thirty, forty and fiftysomethings are the country's best known political pundits, gossip columnists and managing editors. On Friday, more than 1,500 of them gathered in a stuffy convention hall to swap news and network. Journalism comes from an intellectual desire to be the town crier and a desire to show off how much you know, convention-goers said.