Simon Cowell was swatted yesterday, via L.A. Weekly:
Simon Cowell is the latest victim of a “swatting” prank, according to reports and authorities.Someone called Beverly Hills cops and said someone “had been tied up with duct tape and needed assistance” at the local home of the X Factor creator and judge, according to a police statement….It all happened Sunday about 12:56 p.m., according to cops, though they only reported the event late last night.Other recent swatees — the prank is to get cops to swarm a celeb’s house, Punk’d-style — include Ashton Kutcher, the punk himself, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.
We all know about swatting from the experience of Patrick Frey (Patterico) and others.
Via Patterico, The L.A. Times has a well-done front-page story about the problem:
Using Simon Cowell’s recent SWATting as a news peg, Chris Lee and Richard Winton have a front-page story at the L.A. Times about the phenomenon of SWATting. The story focuses on the recent rash of celebrity SWATtings in Los Angeles, rather than the politically motivated SWATtings of four people (including myself) between June 2011 and June 2012. Hey, the news biz is all about eyeballs! However, the article does mentions the SWATtings of myself and Aaron Walker.If you’re looking for a typical Patterico polemic on the atrocities of the L.A. Times, you’re going to be disappointed. I spoke to reporter Chris Lee for the story a few weeks ago, and he pretty much gets it right….I think the editors should have explained that Aaron [Worthing] had been my guest blogger, and knew it had already happened to me and two other conservatives who had written about related topics. That information would have helped readers understand how Aaron knew he had been SWATted. And I would have liked to have seen more discussion of the political SWATtings and potentially related harassment — including the details of the SWATtings of Erick Erickson and Mike Stack, and the curious way in which we and our writings have been the particular obsession of a dangerous group of online lunatics.
It’s deadly serious, but not all the Hollywood media takes it seriously. The L.A. Weekly post linked above says it’s all a yawn:
In any case, get your swatting straight, people. Not only are you wasting officers’ time, but you’re making us yawn.
Yup, until someone gets hurt.
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