He's helping himself by disassociating himself from the community that supports him. That's a prisoner's-dilemma defection: if everyone is afraid to acknowledge being a hacker when they're talking to journalists, journalists will only ever learn the criminal definition.

It's exactly as kragen says. I think he should call himself hacker, and explain why. Altough, of course, it can be a pain having to explain it every time, so it's understandable.