The Whistle Stop: Biased journalism and plagiarism in Indian country

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

What are some of the worst, most biased newspapers in the United States, when it comes to Indian country?
Censored News readers say the two most racist newspapers in the U.S. are the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Rapid City Journal in Rapid City, South Dakota.
The coverage of the Indigenous Peoples Day proposal, and the Flagstaff Council's approval, shows how bad journalism spreads, metastasizes, and becomes either the worst journalism or the best journalism.
To begin with, the Arizona Daily Sun published biased coverage of the Indigenous Peoples Day proposal, which was actually a victory by Native Americans. Then AP picked up the Sun's biased coverage.
After AP picked it up, other media carried the biased coverage.
It didn't end there either.
The stay-at-home plagiarizers and re-writers at Indian Country Today then re-wrote the biased Arizona Daily Sun article. It used the byline "ICTMN" (Indian Country Today Media Network) to prevent exposure of the exact editor, or reporter, carrying out the rewrite.
Censored News readers have been able to read the authentic coverage from Flagstaff by Klee Benally, Dine' (Navajo), since the Indigenous Peoples Day proposal was passed by the Council.
The scams, however, only begin at this point.
Facebook has become a nauseating hemorrhoid of plagiarized articles for profit; a pocket of fecal matter where the work of authentic journalism is stolen for profit.
These websites include the so-called "Free Thought Project" and "Counter Current News." They steal real reporters work, and either plagiarize it, or disguise it with a rewrite. Next, they place an enormous amount of gaudy advertising at the bottom of the post.
It is a financial scam. In a pathetic attempt to avoid copyright lawsuits with stolen photos, these websites often make collages out of stolen photos.
Don't be fooled. What these websites are engaged in is the theft of copyrighted content for profit.
Don't be fooled. What Indian Country Today is doing is no different from what the other corporate criminals are doing. Reporters and editors are staying home and letting others do the work, take the risks, and pay the cost of being present on news stories. From their easy chairs, the plagiarizers and re-writers reap an illegal paycheck.
Indian Country Today editors and reporters aren't staying home and plagiarizing because of a lack of funding. The newspaper is owned by the Oneida Nation of New York, which owns a billion dollar casino industry in New York.
It is time to hold the reporters and editors at Indian Country Today responsible who have been plagiarizing -- profiteering from the hard work of others -- for the past 10 years.
As for Facebook, look at the entire posts before sharing those links. Don't get fecal matter on your hands.


Brenda Norrell is publisher of Censored News. It was created after she was censored and terminated by Indian Country Today in 2006. Norrell began as a staff reporter for Navajo Times in 1982, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She also served as a stringer for AP, USA Today, and many others. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was repeatedly censored, told not to cover grassroots Native issues, and terminated with no cause given. Since that time she has published Censored News with no funding. During this time she traveled with the Zapatistas and to Bolivia for live coverage. The live coverage, with fellow volunteer Govinda at Earthcycles, included the Longest Walk Talk Radio, five months live in 2008, and the Peltier and Boarding School Tribunals in Green Bay, Wisconsin. At the Tribunals, none of the paid media showed up to cover the Tribunals.