but how many times has he died this week? Its 4am and the press wire AP has issued the news that the PLO leader has died. A week ago Prez Bush was told in a live press conference that the Palestinian leader had died and it was taken as a fact but it turned out to be a misguided rumour.
In the age of fast moving IT with beepers phones broadband email WAP 24/7 TV news, there is a distinct lack of authentication of news, of sources, of wires. While the wires are most often not duped there are slip ups.
So who do we trust? when more than one relied source backs up another? can we know that the source is who it says it is?
Authentication integrity & non-repudiation are the corner stone of PKI, perhaps all news should carry a health warning until we can really trust its source. when fair and balanced becomes unfair and unbalanced who ya gonna trust?
Reuters row in, and the BBC report that the French Military Hospital where Arafat was, stated he died at 3.30am (2.30 UTC) it 4.20 now … back to work, at least I know what Nov 11 2004 news diet will be.