Hackers pirate PBS website, post fake story about Tupac still alive

Online hackers have pirated the PBS website and posted a false story claiming the rapper Tupac Shakur -- who has been dead for almost 15 years -- is alive and living in New Zealand.

The group -- called The Lulz Boat -- also posted what it said were passwords of journalists, login information for the PBS series "Frontline" and sensitive information about PBS stations.

The Lulz Boat claims it was "less than impressed" after watching the network's program "WikiSecrets" and "decided to sail our Lulz Boat over the PBS servers for further... perusing."

The "WikiSecrets" documentary, which aired last week on the PBS show "Frontline," talked to U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning's father and close friends.

Manning, a military intelligence analyst, is suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents that ended up on the WikiLeaks website -- one of the largest leaks of classified material in U.S. history.

In a message linked to from their Twitter account, The Lulz Boat taunted PBS.

"Anyway, say hello to the insides of the PBS servers, folks. They best watch where they're sailing next time," the group said.

PBS acknowledged the hack early Monday morning.

Teresa Gorman, who works in social media and online engagement for the PBS program "NewsHour," published a stream of Twitter messages Monday morning in response to comments about the fake story.

"Thanks for your concern guys - we are aware there is more than the Tupac story being hacked right now," she tweeted.

She said she did not want to comment further to CNN.

The fake Tupac story claims the rapper was "alive and well in a small resort in New Zealand," citing "locals." It goes on to say a small town there -- unnamed due to security risks -- also housed the late rapper Biggie Smalls for years.

In addition to posting the Tupac story, The Lulz Boat also created a page -- within the pbs.org address -- that says "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO LULZSEC." The title of the page is "FREE BRADLEY MANNING. (expletive) FRONTLINE!"

The group's bio states, "We are LulzSec, a small team of 80-year-old men and people who smoke on webcam. Right?"

The Lulz Boat also claimed it was not Anonymous, a hacker collective globally infamous for disrupting the websites of MasterCard, Visa and PayPal in December after the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on unrelated sexual assault charges.

A slogan under a "LulzSec" banner online reads, "Laughing at your security since 2011!"

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz suspended after calling Laura Ingraham a ‘right wing slut’

Ed Schultz has been suspended from MSNBC for calling conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham a "right wing slut" on his syndicated radio show.

Schultz opened his primetime MSNBC show on Wednesday apologizing to Ingraham, MSNBC, his family and viewers.

"It doesn't matter that I was on radio ad-libbing," Schultz said of his comments the day before. "What I said was terribly vile."

Schultz met with MSNBC management earlier in the day on Wednesday, and said he offered to take himself off the air indefinitely and without pay. The network said the suspension would be one week.

"I have embarrassed my family," he added, before turning the show over to substitute host Thomas Roberts. "I have embarrassed this company. The only way I can prove my sincerity in all of this is if I never use those words again. You have my word I won't."

Schultz said that he tried--unsuccessfully--to reach Ingraham to apologize personally.

Network brass released this statement before Schultz went on the air: "MSNBC management met with Ed Schultz this afternoon and accepted his offer to take one week of unpaid leave for the remarks he made yesterday on his radio program. Ed will address these remarks on his show tonight, and immediately following begin his leave. Remarks of this nature are unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

The "Ed Show" host joined MSNBC in 2009, taking over Keith Olbermann's 10 p.m. slot after Olbermann -- no stranger to network suspensions -- left the cable channel earlier this year.

In this case, Olbermann sided with MSNBC. "There is no excuse for any political commentator calling any woman a 'slut,'" he wrote on Twitter, "least of all Laura [Ingraham]."

Later, Olbermann challenged a tweeted defense of Schultz's remark with this: "Bullsh*t -- would you be OK with Beck saying that about Maddow?"

Watch Schultz's full, on-air apology here: