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 Linda Thomas
twitter: @TheNewsChick
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Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

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SpaceNeedle.jpg
An investigation by KIRO TV finds hackers manipulated the vote in the Space Needle's design contest to paint a new top to the Seattle landmark. (Linda Thomas photo)

Was the Space Needle's paint design contest rigged?

February 15, 2013 @ 9:49 am (Updated: 9:56 am - 2/15/13 )

An international design contest to repaint the Space Needle for its 50th anniversary appears to have been manipulated by computer hackers.

KIRO 7 TV investigative reporter Chris Halsne found strong evidence that someone on the outside hacked into the contest's online voting system to give the current trees design on top of the needle the most votes.

Before that, "Deep Blue Sea" designed by local artist Ryan "Henry" Ward was the clear winner.

While acknowledging Halsne's research is correct, the private company that owns the Space Needle points out contest rules stated Space Needle officials had sole discretion to declare a winner -- even if that winner failed to receive the popular vote.

Read Halsne's story here.

Listen to an interview in the podcast above.

And, have a great weekend.

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (9)


  • Add A Comment

  • sghouse wrote...
    Are they saying it was always going to be the tree design?
    February 15, 2013 9:22 am
    if so why bother with the ridiculous contest except to jerk people around.....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hpygolkyone wrote...
    I Learned About This In College...............
    February 15, 2013 11:28 am
    ......only it wasn't called 'jerking people around'.

    They called it 'marketing'.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    Just repeat after me....
    February 15, 2013 1:50 pm
    "it just doesn't matter....it just doesn't matter."
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Nickatnyt wrote...
    In other news...
    February 15, 2013 6:06 pm
    The bots at BIT40.com seemed to have 'hacked' their way onto every comment board here at MYNW.com
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rick W7PSK wrote...
    Yea and the Network administrators
    February 15, 2013 8:29 pm
    need to go back to school to learn simple IP Blocking.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    And you all thought I was joking around
    February 17, 2013 6:10 am
    Look at UO's center court. Look at the top of the Space Needle. Seattle got hacked by Ducks! (UO Sports Marketing students) This was worse than their painting of ASU's "A" green last year prior to a game.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • turp63 wrote...
    Rangerhawk
    February 17, 2013 12:17 pm
    You got to admit painting that rock was pretty funny.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • montanarose wrote...
    well I know one vote for the trees that was real
    February 17, 2013 2:19 pm
    It was mine, it was the only one I liked.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • thenewarts wrote...
    This story on KIRO
    February 24, 2013 8:54 am
    I had put up a post that KIRO has deleted for violation of the user agreement. I made sure when I made the post that it in no way did that. I pointed out Chris Halsne has some previous issues with factuality in his reporting. You can search via Google and it will pop up. Anyway, if you read into the article you will see that it is Ryan and his friends who were using hacker tools and techniques to find the unpublished pages tracking vote totals. They then used that to backtrack and locate an individual who they believe, without actually present any evidence of any kind, may have hacked into the vote. What they then did, and Halsne with their help, was to publish these accusations without going to the police or FBI. Ryan and his pals are committing criminal acts in an effort to get this contract. Its extremely alarming. If you support this kind of activity, go ahead and think the vote was rigged, someone deserves to not only have their name published, but also have a KIRO reporter go to their employer with allegations which are specious at best. This is the worst kind of conduct.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }