On Wednesday a report was published in The Texas Observer
and The UK Guardian, titled
‘Why Blog del Narco Became Mexico’s Most Important Website’. The article summarizes the history of BDN
with a big reveal of the blog’s creator a young woman named “Lucy”. The article is published just as Lucy’s book “Dying
for the Truth” is launched.
Ironic is how I would describe the title of the book, for as
BDN has been less than truthful regarding the authors of the articles posted on their
blog. The dirty little secret of BDN is
they do not author the material offered on their blog. They
copy and paste articles, usually changing the title and sometimes adding
photos, but the text is the creation of others, mostly mainstream journalists,
and a few bloggers. And they do this
without the benefit of any type of source credit.
When the book and article was released there began a protest
of sort by those attempting to provide Texas Observer and The Guardian information
that disputed the claims of “Lucy”, and the true nature of their material. The Guardian removed any comment that was not
in line with their story line. Texas
Observer was a little more hospitable and left a few remaining. Quite simply they did not want to ruin the
fairytale.
When writers began researching the claims and then writing
about the less than honorable practice, Lucy’s publisher, “Feral Publishing”,
went into restoration mode in peculiar fashion.
While ignoring evidence sent to Feral their statements/excuses are
evolving and the latest is this:
“Blog Del Narco never made the claim of being
journalism per se, but an information-gathering resource where readers could
find material about the Drug War that wasn’t otherwise available, or if it was
available somewhere, not seen by many readers at all. People who wrote for Blog Del Narco included hundreds
of individuals who forwarded their posts to Blog Del Narco but had no desire to
be “credited” at all, since these credits could inflame cartel anger. As a
result, Blog Del Narco often became a repository of material
from journalists, police and ordinary citizens who wanted to remain anonymous.”
Huh?
So, El Universal, Milenio, Reforma, El Sol, Proceso, Diario,
Vanguardia, etc, etc etc are afraid?
That is so illogical it is an insult to the intelligence of people. How is it that an article is published in popular,
mainstream or regional publications on one day, freely exhibiting the authors
name, is then hours later or the next day finds itself in Blog del Narco, sans
credit, and we are to believe the fear developed in a few hours? Yet they continue to have the article running
in their publication? It is inconceivable
that they would both post on a mainstream publication and yet give to BDN to
post anonymously.
In a recent post Michel Maizco of "Fronteras"
explores the issue of BDN’s material and its origins; in his article he gives
examples of recent BDN posts as he offers the BDN post and the original post
source side by side, much lik my side my side example at the top of this post. In one case he contacts the reporter of El
Sol, Paco Zorroza, who reports he did not give permission for BDN to republish
his work.
Maizco writes, “The country’s news reporters are targeted
and assassinated for reporting on the situation, the narrative goes. They are
cowed into silence. Then one day, this woman steps in fill the void. She begins
to blog about what’s happening in her country, telling readers about the
atrocities that reporters can no longer write about. "Lucy" calls it
Blog Del Narco.” Writing further Maizco says, “A review of recent stories by
the Fronteras Desk shows the owners of Blog Del Narco have published the same
stories as the Mexican journalists they say they had to replace”.
He concludes “What is clear however is that Blog Del Narco
reports on the exact same stories the Mexican journalists report on. Yet the
blog, and now a new book written by the blog owners, claims they are the only
ones reporting the truth in Mexico”.
It is a simple process for publications or the book
publisher to investigate and examine the facts, and determine if the author of
the material gave permission. It is an
easy task. Give me a post and I will
find the original author in minutes, they are not hiding.
Of course it is not all bad when speaking of BDN, they have provided a
needed service and I struggle with what aspect is more important no matter their
motive. They have provided the Spanish speaking
public with information that perhaps they would not have seen otherwise. I have often stated I would rather be in a world with BDN than not.
Oh the other hand, they represent what is wrong with
Mexico. It is not narcos, narcos are
opportunists they are the byproduct of the true culpa. Corruption.
Corruption has permeated every agency, system of justice, political party
and has grown roots deep into the core of Mexican society. Bluntly speaking, it is accepted and expected
by Mexicans.
Until that mindset changes, demands for a lawful and fair society
will not be forthcoming, and opportunists will flourish and multiply.
For example; my own staff in Coahuila, all wonderful, caring, hardworking
people lives with the premise that getting paid for one’s vote is perfectly
acceptable. And when I try to explain why it is wrong to
accept a bid for half price from the security company employee offering to work after hours, rather than
accepting the full price bid from the man’s employer, they nod their heads at
my explanation, but their faces tell me
they don’t understand.
But all that said, people must be held accountable for their
actions, especially in cases that others are dying for the work that has been
taken and used without credit. Reasonable people would be satisfied with source credit. I
have only been asked once to take down the work of someone I republished,
this after giving full credit, adding a link to his blog, but that was not good enough,
and honestly I had no issue with complying with his request. It is his work. I respect that. Obviously the man does not
reside in Mexico however.
The most daring act of taking material from others is when BDN created an English Language blog naming it Blog Drug Trafficker. This was in April 2011. By accident I discovered it a year ago. It is an exact clone of Borderland Beat. Each post in real time is posted off the RSS feed on to their website. And each post states the administrator wrote the post. I began writing Borderland Beat at the top left, so in effect making it known it is Borderland Beat. It works because the blog is automatically posting articles, no human intervention. An inadvertent display of poetic justice was displayed when this post was posted on BDT and had a glitch and reposted 67 times. T left is a screenshot of the top post on BDT. It is Havana's latest post. Click to enlarge.
In preparation for this post I checked BDN with the thought
of gathering the latest posts and track down the true authors of the posts,
which is easy to do. What I found was there are only two recent posts,
those of last Wednesday April 10th.
The first BDN post:
"5 personas son ejecutadas en Guerrero; dejan mensajes"
BDN changed the title
of the original article which is:
"Ejecutan a 5 Personas en Guerrero, Dejan Message"
The article is authored by Paco Zorroza for El Sol de
Puebla
The second BDN post:
"EU congela todos los bienes a José Miguel Handal Pérez
aliado de ”El Chapo” y ”Zetas”
BDN changed the title of the original article which is:
"Incluye EU en 'Lista negra' a aliado de 'Chapo' y "Zetas"
The article is authored by Silvia Otero for El Universal
[See side by side posts at the top of this post]
In closing I will stress though it is frustrating, it really is not about BB, we do this work as volunteers, under our terms, it is not our livelihood, it is really about the many journalists that have been killed in the line of duty like Regina Martinez of Proceso in Veracruz. They truly lived and died for writing the truth, and it was their work that was not given credit, and clearly should have. It is about those true heroes of Mexico.K Mennem of the San Diego Reader and various blogs has also written about the topic. Below are Mennem's remarks click to enlarge:
Continues on next page
An interesting tweet exchange between the Guardian and Mennem, notice the excuse is different than the; 'I can't tell you which journalists are giving me the information, they may be killed', this one is 'they never said they write all their material'.
The following is written by K Mennem related his personal account:
Rory Carroll wrote this story- 'They stole our dreams':
blogger reveals cost of reporting Mexico's drug wars
"Exclusive: Anonymous author of celebrated Blog del Narco
speaks for first time about the risks – and reveals she is a woman"
Reported in partnership with the Texas Observer
My conversation with him on twitter:
from @K. Mennem to
@rorycarroll72 @GuardianUS You do realize that over 95% of Blog del Narcos
info is complete plagiarism right?
-Before he replies, Erin Siegal a reporter based in Tijuana
jumps in-
from @erinsiegal >
It makes me wonder about copyright law in Mex, something I don't know much
about..... @K_Mennem @rorycarroll72 @GuardianUS
from @erinsiegal to
@K_Mennem @rorycarroll72 @GuardianUS Also makes me wonder is the US
publisher of the book will be liable for any possible plagiarism...?
Rory Carroll then responds:
from @rorycarroll72
to @K_Mennem @erinsiegal The blog aggregated its own and others' material,
didn't claim it was all original reporting. Readers knew that
from @rorycarroll72
to @K_Mennem Attribution cd and should be better, agreed, but in Mx info
vacuum getting stories out + repeating them is hugely valuable.
I then responded:
from @K_Mennem to
@rorycarroll72 Your article failed to mention that as well. You make it
sound as if they are collecting anonymous sources and writing it
from @K_Mennem to
@rorycarroll72 Blog del Narco is a collection of articles from all over the
web, social media, and newspapers. From MX and US.
from @K_mennem to
@rorycarroll72 It has been for years. Owners and those writing about BdN
should state what it is, not mislead readers.
from @K_mennem to
@rorycarroll72 Credit needs to be given to the reporters from Zeta
magazine, El-Mexicano in TJ, El Sol de Cuernavaca, and more
from @K_mennem to
@rorycarroll72 these journalists are putting their ass on the line daily,
but when Americans read this they give Blog del Narco credit
At this point Rory probably
realized he had messed up with his article and did not respond. Erin and others
chimed in. There is more, probably would be just as easy to read it off my
twitter. Sorry if this was a confusing format.
from @erinsiegal to
@K_Mennem @rorycarroll72 Agree with K. on this one... it would be
interesting to take 50 recent posts & find out the % of, um,
"aggregation"
Chivis: "K" then moves to Amazon where he has an exchange with the publisher, it is blatantly obvious that either the publisher/Texas Observer or The Guardian are thick or just want the fantasy and not the truth.
K. Mennem:
Note: Adam Parfrey is a publisher and editor for the company which released the Blog del Narco book about Lucy. This conversation took place on Amazon, where I knew a publisher would eventually check the comments.
Stolen info, April 4, 2013
By K.Mennem "K.Mennem"
This review is from: Dying for the Truth: Undercover Inside the Mexican Drug War by the Fugitive Reporters of Blog del Narco (Paperback)
95% or more of Blog Del Narcos info is complete plagiarism. These are not anonymous sources. They are copy and paste jobs from news-sites and blogs across Mexico and the US border region. They give no credit to authors or other websites. They rarely post info first.
I wish you would have done some research before this was published.
Adam Parfrey says:
this is a LIE from a guy who runs crappier and more derivative blogs based on Blog del Narco...
K.Mennem says:
You clearly have no idea what your talking about then if you do not know where
Blog del Narco gets their info. It may be useful in the U.S. for collection of
info. In Mexico it is pure plagiarism.
A SPECIFIC CASE OF PLAGIARISM
A colleague of mine, wrote this article on April 2nd, 2013.
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldecuernavaca/notas/n2934104.htm
Blog del Narco copy and pasted his article two days later and published it as there own. Giving NO CREDIT!
http://www.blogdelnarco.com/2013/04/taxista-es-ejecutado-en-morelos/#more-18490
K.Mennem says:
The point is this person is getting credit for others work. She is not giving credit to those she steals from. How are you ok with that?
Michel Marizco wrote in 2010 about the blatant plagiarism by Blog del Narco http://borderreporter.com/2010/08/blogueros-no-periodista/
Adam Parfrey says:
Maybe K. Mennem will let on that he has an ulterior motive here, that he's linked to competitive blogs of Blog Del Narco and obviously jealous that Blog Del Narco gets a great deal more attention. BTW, who the f..k cares? It's all about reporter the reality of the grotesque drug culture and running for one's life for reporting it.
K. Mennem says:
I write, contribute, and photograph for numerous news agencies. I also run two blogs and contribute to one. I spend a good portion of my time IN Mexico. My writings are not competing with anyone, as I work with journalists all over Mexico and the US. This is merely about hard working journalists getting their works stolen and not getting a mere word of credit. That's all. Blog del Narco and MundoNarco have been stealing articles and info for years. Its nothing new. Go to Twitter, journalists are questioning Blog del Narco now more than ever.
You on the other hand as the publisher, have a lot on the line. I understand why you are upset now.
Adam Parfrey says:
Unfortunately, you have become a troll, trying to destroy the competition. Fortunately for Feral House, readers find great value in the book here. Just look at the sales rank.
K.Mennem says:
I am just informing readers who have been misinformed. I am not trying to sell books or advertisements Adam.
I wish you the best of luck with your book. I am sure I will look through it.
Adam Parfrey says:
you must know, of course, that reviewing a book you haven't even looked at is against the rules here...
K.Mennem says:
That is fine. Are you on Twitter? We can move this discussion there.
Adam stopped responding....
A SPECIFIC CASE OF PLAGIARISM
A colleague of mine, wrote this article on April 2nd, 2013.
http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldecuernavaca/notas/n2934104.htm
Blog del Narco copy and pasted his article two days later and published it as there own. Giving NO CREDIT!
http://www.blogdelnarco.com/2013/04/taxista-es-ejecutado-en-morelos/#more-18490
K.Mennem says:
The point is this person is getting credit for others work. She is not giving credit to those she steals from. How are you ok with that?
Michel Marizco wrote in 2010 about the blatant plagiarism by Blog del Narco http://borderreporter.com/2010/08/blogueros-no-periodista/
Adam Parfrey says:
Maybe K. Mennem will let on that he has an ulterior motive here, that he's linked to competitive blogs of Blog Del Narco and obviously jealous that Blog Del Narco gets a great deal more attention. BTW, who the f..k cares? It's all about reporter the reality of the grotesque drug culture and running for one's life for reporting it.
K. Mennem says:
I write, contribute, and photograph for numerous news agencies. I also run two blogs and contribute to one. I spend a good portion of my time IN Mexico. My writings are not competing with anyone, as I work with journalists all over Mexico and the US. This is merely about hard working journalists getting their works stolen and not getting a mere word of credit. That's all. Blog del Narco and MundoNarco have been stealing articles and info for years. Its nothing new. Go to Twitter, journalists are questioning Blog del Narco now more than ever.
You on the other hand as the publisher, have a lot on the line. I understand why you are upset now.
Adam Parfrey says:
Unfortunately, you have become a troll, trying to destroy the competition. Fortunately for Feral House, readers find great value in the book here. Just look at the sales rank.
K.Mennem says:
I am just informing readers who have been misinformed. I am not trying to sell books or advertisements Adam.
I wish you the best of luck with your book. I am sure I will look through it.
Adam Parfrey says:
you must know, of course, that reviewing a book you haven't even looked at is against the rules here...
K.Mennem says:
That is fine. Are you on Twitter? We can move this discussion there.
Adam stopped responding....
Shitty move by BDN to plagiarize. But still, the site should be continuing to do what its doing because it informs the Mexican people. Still though, give credit where it's due.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhat a ripoff... All the hard work of others benefitting a single person... Thankyou BB for opening my eyes! I always thought BDN were a little fishy in what they reported
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't make BDN look any worse than what they are- a blog that gives no credit who gets information out to millions. It makes BB look like a bunch of wining envious wanna-bees. This won't help your cause!
ReplyDeleteYou can't be to mad at BDN at least they get the story out to a bigger audience. But they should give credit to the agency who posted the original story.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with you. Regardless of BDN's practices, they still provided much necessary and useful information to many readers. A lot of us don't have the time to research these stories in numerous sites. It is convenient to be able to go to two- BDN and BB. I appreciate them both.
Deleteauthor original material and see how it feels. I have always contended that inadvertently they get information out to the Spanish speaking world, but non is original and they should give credit.
ReplyDeleteYou may not care that the book is factual but there are true heroes working anonymously and this is not one of them. I honestly do not care what anyone thinks this is the true side of the issue take it or hate it. Kudos t the authors of these articles......chivis
BTW..most English speaker do not know that bdn built there blog on the work of others. They do not author posts.
ReplyDeleteI was clueless about this. It is wrong of them. I guess they have no shame as they are continuing to play the same game. In the article the reporter named Paco of Sol, I would like to ask him if there are laws to protect his work. Probably not.
ReplyDeleteIt sucks that they sold themselves to sell this book, I don't care really about the plagiarism, everybody in Mexico was aware of that, they and their editor should have taken a different approach in their PR campaign because there is a lot of merit in what BDN did, simply that merit is not in their journalism but in being able to bring all those news that otherwise would be lost at the police sections of local newspapers together for the general public and in their no censorship approach, but to be honest it's not something I really care about, the more attention their book and their made up Lucy get, the more people will care to know what goes on in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteWhat annoys me is the way they have put their site in "politically correct" mode, the biggest value of BDN now that there are a bunch of other sites also collecting information on violence, was in their lack of censorship, which brought a lot of crap but also comments from people with inside knowledge, now by cleaning their site they might as well have killed it in order to sell that book.
5:02
ReplyDeletehaha yet your cool with it because you don't fucking write.
I did not know they did this but I don't speak Spanish so I mostly go to English blogs. I was going to buy the book because of the post on here but forget it, these are not honest people their book is probably bullshit. and you better believe the book was targeting English speakers and few would know about this.
It wouldn't be that difficult or time consuming to do what BDN does. They don't have to translate anything. All they do is a google search for keywords (narco,chapo,zetas,cdg) and bam they have content! On the other hand BB translates, engages in conversations with readers, comments on the stories, and provides content you would otherwise never see. Comparing the two is a waste of time. The only thing BDN has going for it is the videos they receive from cartels. That's it. I wouldn't dare call myself or anyone else that doesn't write original content or conducts interviews a "reporter". A glorified news gatherer at best.
ReplyDelete777
777- some of us write original material in part or whole at least 7 of the BB reporters listed write original material.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm chivota.. are you trying to call someone one out on BB?
Deletechivis you forgot one of the best parts-the blog they made by cloning borderland beat off your rss feed i forgot the name of it. when i first saw it i could not believe they were that brazen to copy a complete blog to make an english blog. these assholes are dogs.
ReplyDelete@ Chivis
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm saying I've read your original content and others. And like I said you at least engage in conversation with readers. BDN and BB is not the same thing! For all we know BDN is a robot that collects news and spits it out like their other clone websites they have. :)
wow finally chivis post something about michel marizco and fronteras desk, because a while ago one of my coments didn't get thru because i mentioned a former website of michel marizco a true journalist (border reporter), fronteras is a free narco cheerleaders just like proceso
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteMexico may not care because it is a corrupt nation, but I sure hell bet the original authors of the work care. We care in the US and isn't that where the book is targeted? Was it sold first in Mexico? If so how did it sell? I am guessing not very well if Mexico knows what the shameful practices are of this narco blog.
I want a book on BB reporters and the owner. Also I would buy a book written on Valor Tamaulipas and the reynosa underground writters who began the entire movement. great post BB
You guys do it to shame on you
ReplyDeleteWell 5:29
ReplyDeletePretty presumptuous of you:)
I don recall seeing that and I =did not know about marizco or his blog. Until I read this post I never ventured to his blog. I still don't really know his work, the site says it is funded by public funding grant. I only have read this post. He is detailed for sure, and his research took time. Is he in Mexico? It is ambiguous on his blog. the Sonora/az thing. Maybe he means Az but reports on Sonora, I don't know.
Truth is, because I am the only reporter that interacts with readers it appears I am the only one that mods, not true. In fact half the comments here on this thread were published by someone else. I don't know why your comment was not posted but as the sign says we don't post everything, and we publish many links to other blogs, the one thing is until we look at the link or video or whatever, that is not apparent on the comment, we don't post it, for obvious reasons, and sometimes we simply run out of time. You can write to me however and I will look at it. Remember, we are not paid and all of us have other professions, I try to devote at least 4 hrs per day to BB.
That all said, how did you like his part of the post?
I'm a little bit confused. By not reporting the reports true authors, BDN shows itself to be the only "true" source of information Mexico. With little publicity stunts,they build their reputation and then go on to publish a book.
ReplyDeleteSo it all boils down to money?
Buela said author original material and see how it feels. I have always contended that inadvertently they get information out to the Spanish speaking world, but non is original and they should give credit.
ReplyDeleteYou may not care that the book is factual but there are true heroes working anonymously and this is not one of them. I honestly do not care what anyone thinks this is the true side of the issue take it or hate it. Kudos t the authors of these articles......chivis
I'm with you Buela
I am confused why BB posted the other BDN story about the fake Lucy? BB has had posts ripped off by them. I was surprised to see it without editorial.
ReplyDeleteI was very pissed reading the lies in that post. In it 'Lucy' talks about the couple killed in Laredo attributed by Zetas for blogging. Lucy says they were sources for her. BULL SHIT! There was not one link to blogging. Every respectable blog said as much. They were innocents. Zetas made sure they got a blogger the next go around.
Yes it has been always about money. They have always made good money with all the advertising. I found this blog after reading Chivis article on money laundering and Chapo, on Insight Crime blog. I have been a follower since then.
Bullshit, nobody writes original articles, it's safe to state that most if not all articles publish on the web are a collage of others work. For someone to write an original article you would had to be locations of events or be first hand recipient of the source, not even translation counts as original work.
ReplyDelete7:34pm
DeleteAccording to?
How can you not care of Plagiarism by BDN,we have lost what over 95 Journalist's over the last 8yrs in Mexico...they would be turning in there graves right now.
ReplyDeleteHow hard is it too give credit too the source,you know the ones that done the real work....It's called Respect.
I always saw Blog Del Narco as more of a police blotter more than anything else. It's obvious to me that all "their" articles are from journalists reporting from all over México. It's a travesty that "Lucy" decided to take credit for the work of other journalists and then earn a book deal thru her lies. Her life would'nt be in danger unless she started to personally write articles that criticized the criminal organizations themselves, or those who are their partners. The statement that her life is in danger for posting crime scene articles is a sham in itself. On the other hand, Borderland Beat gives you insightful and indepth articles that give you the reasons for the crimes, and BDN does not. I think its time BB took its traducción skills seriously and posted their blog in Spanish also. As for this Adam Parfrey, you would be upset too if the book you invested money in ,by publishing it, had the subject matter "being called out" for plagiarizing. I'm sure there was a initial payment for publishing rights.
ReplyDeleteOh no , Blog Wars
ReplyDeleteStill a good site blog del n
Puro mundonarco.com haters
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of blogs like bln if to spread the word not who deserves the credit. We do not understand the level of scensorship that the people of Mexico experience. You believe that the readers in Mexico give a crap with pladgersim when the news is a matter of identifying a love one who's been missing or what is going on on certain parts of Mexico that you might have travel? The news is more important!
ReplyDeleteI understand why authors, writers, journalists would get upset. But from a reader's perspective, I don't really care where it originally comes from. I go a few times a day to BB, but I also go to BDN, Narconoticias, nota roja, MN for latest Narco news. I even used to read Marizco's blog before but he stopped updating his blog long time ago. Nobody complained before they came out with the book, even though they have been doing this for a long time. It smells like someone is jealous
ReplyDelete9:41pm
DeleteWake up, the accusation of plagiarism started about three years ago
I am not ordering the book either it should be classified as fiction
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the publisher cares if I publish the book with any source credit? The very article he holds as an example is a Milenio authored article.
ReplyDeleteThis is a response from the author of the book Dying for the truth, he claims that Blog del Narco will get the stories forward to them by people who were afraid to post the truth. What a big fat lie, I have follow the drug war since 2006 and I can tell you that many journalist will post their articles and Blog del Narco will take it from them.
ReplyDeleteThe backlash has begun.
The new Feral House book, Dying for the Truth, consists of new material as well as older but significant posts from the Mexican Drug War blog, Blog Del Narco. This blog is one of the most heavily trafficked in Mexico, and as a result seem to foment a great deal of resentment. Not only from drug cartels who have threatened the lives of Blog Del Narco’s creators, but also from the mainstream media.
Without even reading the book in question, a Mexican “journalist” wrote me about a story he was writing to accuse the book of being nothing but plagiarized material that doesn’t credit the source material.
Well, huh? Blog Del Narco never made the claim of being journalism per se, but an information-gathering resource where readers could find material about the Drug War that wasn’t otherwise available, or if it was available somewhere, not seen by many readers at all. People who wrote for Blog Del Narco included hundreds of individuals who forwarded their posts to Blog Del Narco but had no desire to be “credited” at all, since these credits could inflame cartel anger. As a result, Blog Del Narco often became a repository of material from journalists, police and ordinary citizens who wanted to remain anonymous.
The past few years have seen the murder of many dozens of “credited” journalists and policemen.
Does the “plagiarism” accusation truly fit the threatened truth-sayers at Blog Del Narco?
The Blog Del Narco folks say that not a word of the book Dying For the Truth was written by anyone other than the blog’s actual crew.
But now the smears are being launched. Cui Bono? For whom do they most benefit?
Federal House, you need to get your head out of your ass. Many people have accused Blog del Narco of plagiarism since 2010.
About the Book who cares what is written on the book, this woman claim she was the only one daring to do what no one else will, not to mention that she has called other cowards, when in reality she is a coward for not telling the truth.
jajaja 9:11 you can't write a comment let alone an article. Why would you care? or comprehend it? and many have written about bdn-mundo stealing 100% of their posts. Including chivis. Sure the posts are important but how would you like someone taking credit for something you've created? Try to think logically and fairly. It is not ethical or legal. reasonable people do care. and 'get it'. I could write bdn from my home in the states, copy and paste can be done anywhere. No translation, nothing.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that there are people that do not care. It shows a deep disrespect for those who work very diligently, some like those at BB, without pay, to bring us information. By saying 'I don't care' is saying I don't respect you or your work. I sure would not stick around listening to shit like that. As for google translators, put the pipe down pal, I am bilingual and the translations are very good to excellent. The fact the publisher had to say something is huge in itself. The word is catching on like crazy. I like the way this post integrates the posts of Michel and K. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteTexcoco love your blog man.
I like this version better
ReplyDeleteI also like this version much better. It is not so bitter like the one with the post by Michele. This one gives a greater understanding. I could not agree more about the problems with Mexico is not the drug war the problem is corruption.
ReplyDeleteBut BDNs clone of Borderland Beat is truly appalling, that act did it for me. No wonder you are ticked off.
Regardless of the information it provides, it only takes a few moments to credit those they are stealing from. The journalists who are in the streets working for local agencies in Mexico are the ones risking their lives, not these people copy and pasting all day.
ReplyDeleteThese journalists are not happy about BDN getting credit for their hard work. Tons of local Mexican agencies report on crime every day.
I can imagine how a reporter will feel when he/she finds out that there articles have been stolen..but first and foremost, we still have a good blog to get info so the people can know about mexico..I don't know why are Mexico's reporters whining about credit, they cant even post Nothing about the drug war in terms of getting threatened..that's why some blog steals their article and posts it.."cause we're anonymous"..so no cartel can threaten us..Good work BorderLandBeat!!
ReplyDeletehavana pura also has a blog the same as borderlandbeat..but the posts haven't been updated..and bb has up to date articles..thanks bb for keeping us informed..so..watch out BB, you might have a reporter who's corrupt,in terms of stealing articles for their own blog site..peace out, NAJ
ReplyDelete@6:32PM
ReplyDeleteI think you are joking but incase someone actually thinks this. ACI has her own blog as a way to contain her work with it 100% original material..
Though Havana doesn't write material, (she should though) she spends an incredible amount of time on her posts with all the goodies such as links and images, all requires a ton of research, so followed suit with created her blog, and I decided to put all my work which I authored in a blog as well. When I went back through the achieves, for me it was too much work to do, so I have done nothing since the first day. I want to as a way to catalog my work but I don't need extra work at this time. Maybe later.
BTW to see their blogs just look for their names in the reporter list and it will say the name or a link. Don't look for mine I never went further with the project.
And no one makes money here. Honestly we just have a deep hearted concern for Mexico which for most of us it stems from living in, working in or having a close connection to Mexico.
Thank you for the good comments BTW. I was really expecting to get slammed. I think it helped when I revised the post. When you think of it in the context that reporters have died for their work, that a blog has ripped off and presented as their own that is a whole different view.
And for them to clone our blog in real time for 2 years which states at the bottom the posts are written by the admin...that is wrong. and entire blog. My guess is there are more.
www.blogdrugtrafficker.com
why would BB or any blog generated by volunteers be jealous, that makes no sense at all.
ReplyDeleteSomeone robs a bank, and a reporter writes about it, because of that action they are therefore jealous? defining wrong from right does not mean jealousy. Let someone steal your work, assuming and that is a big assumption, that you are employed, and see if you can better comprehend the issue.
Idiot.
Plagiarism is the lifting of a passage or passages from another author's work into your own work, either not giving credit or writing it in such as way that the reading assumes it is the author's.
ReplyDeleteCopyright infringement is the lifting wholesale of another author's work and either claiming it as your own or claiming benefit from their work.
Plagiarism is to copyright infringement what jaywalking is to vehicular manslaughter.
The few times I read BDN, I decided the main value was the commenters, some of whom sounded as though they had in depth knowledge of what was going on in the drug war. It has its value and it had its place.
Thank you for this post. Well done. I came back to the story to show a friend and it is different. an improved edition.
ReplyDeleteI respect the fact you made it clear it is about the reporters that died for writing drug war information, those that BDN stole from and now making blood money off of. I really was not in to the story but from this perspective it changes everything to me.
Great job
I just looked at the clone blog at blogdrugtrafficker.com and how do they get away with doing that? Can't you do something? to duplicate and entire blog and claim the writing, wow how low can one go. thank you for the post
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the books Feral publishes. That answered the glaring question for me-didn't they do a proper verification of facts? I was easily able to match the BDN articles with the original writer, they could have done this by spot checking and contacting the journalists to verify.
ReplyDeleteK_Mennem
ReplyDelete"The journalists who are in the streets working for local agencies in Mexico are the ones risking their lives, not these people copy and pasting all day"
Which is what BB does,and i,m sure has in the past done?Yes it takes a couple of seconds to give credit.Most of the stories are culled from other places,how much of your own input constitutes"original work"when can you call it your own work?Grow up,its an unfair world.Imagine reporters in the street having their work taken,they are risking lives,not vanity.
I wonder if BDN would come clean if the journalist was up for a Pulitzer Prize? I can tell you that if someone was trying to claim a journalistic award off of my work, there would be a protest. Or if it was a song I wrote, trying to get royalties off it! Or an invention that could bring me wealth and fame, and somebody else was trying to patent!
ReplyDeleteYou should know that Reporters without Borders and PEN International bought into the BDN scam big time.
ReplyDeleteBreak out the popcorn, baby, it will be a fun show to watch!
I also read historiasdelnarco.com.The same concept as BDN,and I've noticed that these two sites have sometimes the same stories the only real difference is their title,so much so that I taught these two sites were ran by the same people who run BDN,let me get some feedback on what you guys think on the historiasdelnarco.com site as well because I find these two sites too similar.
ReplyDelete@11:25
ReplyDeleteSmart reader, yup they have 5 or more blogs, all are the same people and Historias is one of them.
I sent this also to your email-Debbie Nathan on her facebook page-they chose her to do the BDN article first:
ReplyDelete"I got an email about 8 days ago, purporting to be from Feral House and offering me, because I'm such a good journalist, an "EXCLUSIVE" with the woman who runs Blog del Narco--even though the person who wrote me (under a female name) said she didn't know who the Blog del Narco woman is, nor could she reveal to me the name of the "famous writer," as she put it, who referred the Blog del Narco publisher to Feral House.
I wrote back to whoever this person was, and said I'd be interested in interviewing the woman associated with Blog del Narco, in person, in Mexico, and I'd also need to know the name of the "famous writer." Two days later the "exclusive" ran in the Guardian, with a followup piece in Texas Observer. I was surprised no one in either publication commented on the fact that Feral House has such a checkered and questionable history when it comes to being interested in the truth.
Their list is rife with conspiracy theory paranoia, including a book ("Psychic Dictatorship in the USA) alleging that journalists like me, who did critical work challenging the satanic daycare panic of the 1980s, are perversely pro-child sex abuse, and/or dupes/operatives of the CIA (who are supposed to be behind the mass abuse conspiracy). I'm still waiting for contact details from Feral House for my "exclusive."
Well done Chivis, how anyone could support the pretense for which this book was written is sad. You did a wonderful job illustrating why BDN deserves criticism for the PR leading up to the book.
ReplyDeleteThanks ACI...BTW when apx when is the next installment? I am dying in anticipation! I can't believe the amount of work you have to spend on research and perusing documents. You are braver than me!
ReplyDelete