AI, Artificial Intelligence, isn't intelligence at all -- it's stealing

AI, Artificial Intelligence, isn't intelligence at all -- it's stealing

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X have taken all public posts, photos and comments and put it in their AI machines to be mixed and thrown back up in any way they choose. Most users were unaware of this. It is a violation of the public trust.

It's called "data scraping" and the new AI search chats have scraped all your public posts, comments and photos on social media, and dumped them in their money-making machines. Twitter/X's Grok, an AI search, confirms that it is using copy-righted news articles. Meanwhile, authors are in court, suing over the theft of their online books. There are hundreds of major lawsuits. And the AI, artificial intelligence, data centers are guzzling water and electricity, even in desert regions, and making the water in rivers too hot for the salmon. AI is not intelligence it is theft.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Updated July 23, 2025

For the billionaires, and the plagiarizers, stealing seems the easiest way to go.

Whether its lithium you're after for your sinking electric car business, or you're a stay-at-home 'reporter' stealing other peoples hard work, or engulfed in the hype of the new AI search engines, stealing seems to be the easy way.

"Everyone is doing it," says one editor, as he grabs others hard work to rewrite it.

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas: The Pirates Who Stole My Words

Ofelia Rivas on her homeland. Photo by Jason Jaacks copyright, Censored News

Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas: The Pirates Who Stole My Words

White privilege and piracy permeates university professors and dissertation writers, says Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, pointing out that today more than 20 books use her words about O'odham and the border without her permission. The pirates range from the United Nations and book authors, to non-profits and corporate-paid activists.

By Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, Censored News, August 13, 2024

Pirates

In 2003 the Elders from my fathers community and the ceremony Elders from my mothers community appointed me by consensus to be their voice.

Prior to 9-11 hundreds of heavily-armed border patrol soldiers invaded O'odham lands violently attacking O'odham in their yards, homes, communities, on reservation roads and state highways.

Google and Facebook reap news revenues, while reporters become destitute

Google and Facebook reap news revenues while real reporters struggle to survive

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

The Wall Street Journal is hardly the voice of the people, but it makes an important point here -- Google and Facebook are receiving most of the revenues from news these days, and reporters are receiving almost nothing.
The article does not mention the fact that reporters in Indian country are usually paying out of their own pockets to go out on news stories, and the thieves on Facebook and websites shared by Google, are making about three-fourths of the money.
Most of the news websites on Facebook are not alternative news sites at all, they are stolen news. These are operated by plagiarizers who copy and paste, or rewrite, the hard work of the real reporters struggling to survive.
For real reporters, there is the cost of travel -- cars and lodging -- along with computer, photography, cell and video equipment. All this makes it nearly impossible for most freelancers to keep going.
And in Indian country, the few remaining reporters who are present are usually freelancers, which means no expense reimbursements, no insurance, and of course, no bail money during protests.
There must be a way to turn this around, and return salaries and expenses to honest, hard working reporters.
It probably would help if readers would not share stolen rewrites and stolen photos by those who are illegally profiteering. They are seizing this content without permission, and placing it on a webpage to illegally make money off of it.
These are often obvious because the webpages are loaded with advertising, so just scroll down to the bottom and look. On Facebook, the pages say "shop now" at the top.
Many fake site use the word 'Native' or 'Indigenous,' or use progressive words like 'Free Thought,' 'Freedom,' or 'Progress.'
Clickbait and Adwords are hard to determine. These are about getting traffic to websites of stolen work. They want 'clicks' on their links, and 'likes' on Facebook.
Here's what readers can do: Before posting or sharing, message the reporters and photographers and ask them if this is their original work and if they were actually present.
Readers can carry out a web search by copying and pasting the first portion of the news story into a search, in order to see if a reputable news organization, or reporter, actually wrote the article.
Meanwhile, those brilliant new reporters and publishers can work on a means of creating the new journalism for future generations -- where news professionals can make a living and prosper for their hard work. And remember, many risk their lives to do this work.
Thanks to all of you, Brenda, Censored News.

Wall Street Journal Article

https://www.wsj.com/articles/protect-the-news-from-google-and-facebook-1519594942


Brenda Norrell created Censored News in 2006, after being censored and terminated as a longtime staff reporter at Indian Country Today. She began her lifelong career as a reporter at the Navajo Times, during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. As a freelancer, she worked for The Associated Press for five years, covering the Navajo Nation and federal courts, and USA Today for seven years. Since moving to the borderlands, she has traveled with the Zapatistas in Mexico numerous times, and reported from the mountains of Bolivia, and Indian lands throughout the West.

Censored by Twitter
Twitter has blocked the links of Censored News since September of 2016, when Censored News exposed the police and Dakota Access Pipeline security officers responsible for attacking water protectors at Standing Rock with dogs.

Plagiarizers Privilege: The Death of Journalism

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS at: 
http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/privilege-van-plagiaatplegers-de-dood-van-eerlijke-journalistiek

This week many websites seized our content without permission. It only takes a minute to e-mail for permission to use our content. It only takes a minute to be courteous, and to do the right thing. It only takes that minute to abide by copyright law.

With total disregard of the copyright notices on Censored News, many websites seized our content in blatant acts of 'plagiarizers privilege.'

Those stealing our content without simply asking permission include The Free Thought Project and Counter Current News. Of the many who seized our content, not one asked for permission.

The Free Thought Project has refused to comply with two copyright violation notices and continues to profiteer by using our article without permission. The Free Thought Project seized our content for profiteering. It illegally placed our article on a web page with a large amount of advertising to profit from it. The article is 'Navajo water more polluted than Flint's.'

Censored News has no ads, revenues, salaries or grants and forbids the content from being used on web pages with advertising or for commercial purposes. Censored News has published writers for 10 years without pay.

Nativeamericanpress(org) also violated our copyright and used the content for profiteering with advertising.

Meanwhile, in Indian Country, the collapse of journalism began when the casino industry took control of the national news. Plagiarism, rewrites and copy and paste became the standards at Indian Country Today, Indianz and other national 'Native' news websites.

Indian Country Today owners are extremely wealthy. There is no need for the owners to rely on plagiarism. However, in 2006, ten years ago, the newspaper began firing staff reporters, who actually went out on news stories, and began relying on stay-at-home plagiarizers and re-writers. Their scheme was to plagiarize or rewrite others hard work, without ever leaving their homes. They sometimes add a quick phone call to disguise the crime, and often use stolen copyrighted photos to make it appear the reporter was present.

The real crime is that there are hard working reporters and activists who make sacrifices to go out and report the truth. They take the risks, do the work and put in the time. They usually pay for the expensive travel out of their own pockets.

The plagiarizers -- the reporters and their editors -- are sitting home. They are opportunists who seize the content for their paychecks or glory.

These plagiarizers proliferate on Facebook. Facebook is now home to vast media mills stealing content for profit. They seize the content illegally, post it with advertising for profit, or use AdSense for secret revenues.

We are asking our readers to be vanguards of truth and honesty.

Those who sacrifice to report the truth should not be the playthings of the profiteers.

The article that was plagiarized for profit, "Navajo water more polluted than Flint's," was first published at Censored News. I also wrote this expanded article for Narco News, where I am a columnist. The article at Narco News appeared on Google News.
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2016/01/navajo-water-contamination-more-horrific-flint-michigans

brendanorrell@gmail.com
Copyright Censored News


Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 34 years. During the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation, she was a reporter for Navajo Times and stringer for AP and USA Today. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored and terminated in 2006. Censored News was created as a platform for the voices of grassroots Indigenous Peoples and human rights activists. Now in its 10th year, Censored News has no advertising, salaries, grants or revenues. Norrell has traveled with the Zapatistas through Mexico and provided live coverage, with Govinda from Earthcycles, from Bolivia and across the western United States. The live coverage included the live five-month Long Talk Radio on the Longest Walk 2 northern route across America in 2008. The Leonard Peltier and Boarding School Tribunals in Green Bay, Wisconsin, were also covered live. 

Journalists: The Gift of Being Present

For journalists, the gift of being present is the greatest gift

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Photo: On the road to Zapatista Stronghold by Brenda Norrell

It is often the simplest memory, the simplest truth, that is the most profound: Riding in the back of a cargo truck through Zapatista country in Chiapas, wearing our red bandannas; driving into Pine Ridge from the south, with the sky as a painter's palette; and hiking outside my log cabin in the Navajo Chuskas, watching for wild turkey, black bear and acorns.

It is often the simplest truth in a news story that returns to our minds in the years that follow: Hopi and Japanese revealing how water has intelligence and changes its appearance in response to positive words, or Navajo elder Howard McKinley remembering eating wild baked yucca bananas in Tse Ho Tso and how the ice from Blue Canyon was cut, hauled by wagon, and stored in the rock houses of finely chiseled stone.

This is why it matters to be present as journalists. The new cyber journalism, with editors telling journalists that it is OK to stay home and plagiarize the web, or rewrite others hard work and add a phone call interview to disguise it, are committing a crime of journalism. Besides being paid for others work, and publishing articles with content errors, these editors are denying journalists a precious gift.

It is the gift of being present. It is the gift of great and beautiful memories. It is the gift of sharing some vital truth when you see the speakers eyes, smell the blue corn cooking for lunch, taste the tamales steamed in banana leaves, and see the resilience within the young mother grinding corn.

It is the gift of riding horseback on Arapaho's Wind River, and on the back of a Harley in Green Bay. It is the gift of crossing the border one more time, going beyond the saguaros at sunset and seeing just one more time, where the desert meets the sea. It is the gift of smelling the damp red earth after a great rain and hearing words spoken which may never be spoken again.

It is the gift of swimming in rivers.

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Brenda Norrell has been a reporter in Indian country for 34 years, beginning as a staff reporter for Navajo Times and stringer for AP and USA Today. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was censored and terminated. As a result, she created Censored News, now in its 10th year with no ads or grants. She is blacklisted by all the paying media.

For permission to republish this article: brendanorrell@gmail.com

Please share our links.

Photos by Brenda Norrell: Photo 1: Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham and Mark Maracle, Mohawk, Indigenous Border Summit, San Xavier, Tohono O'odham land in Arizona. Photo 2: Bolivia, in mountains and home community of President Evo Morales as Morales played soccer, during Mother Earth Conference 2010. Photo 3: Dine' (Navajo) relocation resister Roberta Blackgoat protesting Peabody Coal mining and aquifer theft on Black Mesa, during Flagstaff, Arizona, protest. Photo 4: Jean Whitehorse, Dine', exposing the sterilization of American Indian women during AIM West Conference in San Francisco. Photo 5: Comcaac (Seri) in Sonora, Mexico.

Photos below from Sonora, Mexico by Brenda Norrell

Economic Blackmail: The New McCarthyism in Indian Country News

John Kane, Mohawk

Does truth-telling in the media now mean that you have to work for free in America?

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS Gazette

It is sad that John Kane, Mohawk, can not find any sponsors to keep his radio show, 'Let's Talk Native,' going.

Is this what happens now to the truth-tellers in the media? Does telling the truth in the media now mean that you have to work for free in America?

During the Boarding School Tribunal in Green Bay, Wisconsin, it was John Kane who called in to provide radio coverage. The only media there was Govinda of Earthcycles and Censored News. None of us are paid for our work. In fact, as John's message below shows, we can't even attract enough donations to cover our expenses to keep going.

The point is that the media has collapsed and a form of economic blackmail is present. It is just as serious as the blacklisting of McCarthyism. It is just carried out in a different manner.

At the same time, this black hole of journalism has created a door for heroes to walk through. It offers us the chance to be present and cover the stories that no one else will, a chance to broadcast the ideas that could transform this planet.

Surely future generations will look back for kernels of truth, and will celebrate those that survive.

With the high costs of travel, equipment, radio airtime and more, the truth-tellers, even when they offer their labors of love for free, are finding there is no way to keep going.

The problem with grants and advertising is that neither are free. Each comes with a price.

As Hopi elder Dan Evehema told me years ago, "Don't ever take grants, or they will own you."

As for big money advertisers, look at the effects that casino, mining and CIA ads have had on Indian country news. The majority of what you have today is either plagiarism by stay-at-home reporters, or fluff by writers surfing and re-writing the web. 

Those stay-at-home reporters have also found cash bounty in the good-hearted activists who pay their own way to share the news. Those stay-at-home plagiarizers get a paycheck from what they seize from the web.

What you have today in the news is the void remaining from the issues that are censored.

• 
  

John Kane posted this message on Sunday:

Tonight is to be my final "Let's Talk Native…" program. WWKB would like me to stay on but the cost of paid programming has always been a challenge and the lack sustainable funding has made the show in its existing form and location unsustainable as well. I will make a plea tonight to continue to support my costs associated with travel to NYC for my show there and I will make what will likely be my final pitch to cover the costs for the billing cycle I am completing with my show here in Buffalo. I have been asked if I would be willing to continue through the month of April and I will say that if there is support for me to continue through next month, with firm commitments to cover the airtime on a weekly basis I would consider doing so.
But join us tonight with your calls and thoughts as we look back on this show and look for future opportunities to keep the conversations going.
Let's Talk!

Contact John at jmkane1220@aol.com

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 33 years, beginning at Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She served as a freelance reporter for AP and USA Today covering the Navajo Nation and federal courts. After being censored and terminated as a staff writer for Indian Country Today, she created Censored News, now in its 9th year with 3.8 million pageviews.

brendanorrell@gmail.com

Failure of Indian country news is crime against humanity

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

It should be considered a crime against humanity for salaried reporters, supposedly covering national Indian news, to stay home and plagiarize instead of being present in DC. 

Those reporters are failing as watchdogs to prevent the theft of Indian water rights, and Indian land rights. Real reporters in Indian country could do a great deal to protect land and water rights for future generations. However, by deceiving readers, engaging in plagiarism, and focusing on fluff, they have no moral ground to stand on. These 'reporters' can only be viewed as violators of the ethics of journalism.

While Native American tribal leaders were engaged in photo ops, public relations spin and opulence at the Tribal Leaders Conference in DC this week, Congress was attempting to steal Apache land rights and Paiute water rights. Sen. McCain is pushing the legislation to steal Apache land rights for copper mining. Efforts are underway in Congress to steal Paiute water rights to Pyramid Lake. 

These are only two examples of what is going on in Congress, and much more is happening behind closed doors. A leaked document exposed former Interior Sec. Ken Salazar, and former Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, attempting to steal Navajo water rights. Grassroots Dine' (Navajos) halted the water rights theft and Salazar left office.

Don't expect Indian Country Today reporters to do the job. Don't expect those reporters to bend to the pressure and leave their homes in order to be present and cover the news. 

While I was a staff reporter at Indian Country Today, the editors censored issues because of the agendas of the owners and editors. Because of the pressure by politicians and the political agendas, both locally and nationally, issues were censored. There was also control by the gambling and casino industry. The censored issues included gambling addiction and non-Indians profiteering from Indian casinos. 

Bahe Katenay of Big Mountain was censored by Indian Country Today when he described the destruction of Dine' sacred places by the oil and gas industry. Louise Benally of Big Mountain was censored when she compared the forced Longest Walk to the US war in Iraq. 

Buffy Sainte Marie was even censored by Indian Country Today editors when she described how her anti-war stance led to US presidents putting her out of the music business. Lenny Foster, Dine', was censored when he described how Leonard Peltier's religious freedom rights were violated in prison.

Also censored was the fact that Raytheon Missiles has a factory on the Navajos' commercial farm, Navajo Agricultural Products Industry near Farmington, N.M. NAPI, which grows corn and other crops for commercial sale, also used the genetically modified seeds of Monsanto, affecting traditional Navajo crops in the area. The ICT editor told me, in writing, that I was forbidden to even research Raytheon Missiles and Monsanto on NAPI. 

When the Denver Post exposed the fact that Sen. Ben 'Nighthorse' Campbell was Portuguese, and not Northern Cheyenne as he claimed, ICT refused to publish the facts. The two editors responsible for the censorship at Indian Country Today then left the newspaper and went to work for the National Museum of American Indians, and the Smithsonian, which Campbell had been raising funds for. 

San Carlos Apache were also censored, which brings us to today. Many of those censored defending Apache sacred land from the massive telescopes of the University of Arizona in Tucson and the Pope, have passed to the Spirit World. San Carlos Apaches continue to fight for their land today as Sen. John McCain and his corrupt circle target the theft of Apache land for copper mining. 

Today, Indian Country Today owners are extremely wealthy and can afford to have reporters present on news stories, instead of sitting at home and plagiarizing from the web, or focusing on distractions and fluff. Still, it has proven unrealistic to expect ICT to carry out authentic journalism. It has created a void and today there are no reporters present in Washington to expose the bottom line and report the truth.

Future generations depend on the creation of new Indian country media to be clear and present, and to report news with accuracy as it is happening. Future generations will suffer if the watchdogs of journalism fail and continue to violate the ethics of journalism.


Brenda Norrell has been a reporter in Indian country for 32 years, beginning with the Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today, she was first censored then terminated. As a result, she created Censored News, now in its ninth year. There are no salaries, grants or advertising at Censored News. Censored News is a whistleblower site for the media, human rights issues and Indigenous Peoples news.

Read some of the news articles by Brenda Norrell which were censored by Indian Country Today 2004 -- 2006: http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/ 

Top Most Censored in Indian Country Nov. 2014

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Vicam Yaqui Traditional Authority organizes water rights resistance
Photo Brenda Norrell Sonora, Mexico

Water rights protests: Navajo, Paiute, and Yaqui in Sonora/ Censored News

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Here's the Top Most Censored Issues in Indian Country:

Theft of Indian water rights by non-Indian attorneys, Congressmen and corrupt tribal officials
This is why we need more whistleblowers: Former Sec. Interior Ken Salazar resigned after this memo was leaked, exposing the scheme to steal Navajo water rights in Congress. It wasn't the Navajo government that halted the theft -- it was the Dineh people. Non-Indian attorneys, Congressmen, and corrupt tribal officials have been in this game for a long time. The states and US are desperate for Indian water rights to keep unsustainable cities and dirty coal-fired power plants operating.
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/11/leaked-documents-mainstream-media.html
Many Native American tribes in Arizona have already signed the so-called "water rights settlements" presented by their non-Indian attorneys. Currently, Paiutes are fighting to save water rights to Pyramid Lake in Nevada. Here's one of the rights that states and the US fear the most: Water rights guaranteed under Winter's Doctrine. It ensures water rights for future generations on Indian lands and the water mongers want those rights waived. In Sonora, Mexico, the Yaqui Traditional Authority has maintained a water rights blockade on a major highway on their land as Mexico steals their water.

Truth about cartels and the murdered and disappeared
While remembering the dead and 43 disappeared students in Guerrero, Mexico, remember that it was the US ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) who provided the cartels with assault weapons. Project Gunrunner began in Texas in 2005, according to US documents, and continued based in Tucson with Fast and Furious and Operation Wide Receiver. There was no outcry in the US when it was people in Mexico being killed, including innocent women and children. It was only when a US Border Patrol agent was killed with one of those weapons in Arizona that there was a public outcry. Indigenous Peoples in Mexico and along the border are victims of the heavily-armed cartels. The so-called drug war is just one more of the United States wars created with the aid of spin and fabricated news reports. Meanwhile, the US Border Patrol agents continue to be arrested for smuggling drugs, and continue to shoot through the border and kill citizens of Mexico.
Read more about the United States' role in weapons and drug running at www.narconews.com

Coal-fired pollution on Navajo Nation

With President Obama's announcement in China that the US will cut power plant emissions, the question remains: Will the Navajo Nation take action? The coal-fired Navajo Generating Station is one of the top polluters in the world. Will the Navajo Times cover this issue? The power plant uses coal that Peabody Coal rips from Black Mesa in Arizona. Peabody Coal's genocidal scheme to remove Navajos from Black Mesa is the real motivation for the so-called Navajo Hopi Land Dispute. The dirty power plant provides electricity primarily to southern Arizona, and the cities of Phoenix and Tucson. Another dirty coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation is the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico.

Indian country news infested with plagiarizers and profiteers
National Indian country news is dominated by plagiarizers and profiteers. The victims -- besides those who do the original work and pay the expenses themselves -- are the readers. For years, Indian Country Today armchair reporters have been staying home and plagiarizing. When they don't want you to know who is doing the plagiarizing, they put as the byline at the top "ICTMN staff."
Further, the owners of indianz.com received a multi-million dollar contract from the US for domestic and international spying this year, with an office at the US Pentagon. What this means for readers is this: There aren't really reporters present on news stories and reporting the facts. Just ask those reporters if they have been present on the news stories they pretend to be covering.
Read Censored News: "Media Pimps: Hollywood isn't the only place where people sleep their way to the top." http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/10/media-pimps-hollywood-isnt-only-place.html

Homeland Security gives US border security contract to Israeli firm, includes US spy towers on Tohono O'odham land
Homeland Security gave the border security contract this year to the Israeli defense corporation Elbit Systems, responsible for Apartheid security on the Palestine border. The contract includes the US spy towers on sovereign Tohono O'odham land. See Censored News exclusive coverage of those spy towers on O'odham land: Tohono O'odham government approves 15th spy tower, more land for US Border Patrol: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/07/tohono-oodham-council-approves-15th-us.html

Bill Gates profiteering from private prisons
The power and money mongers are profiteering from the imprisonment of migrants, American Indians and other people of color in private prisons. The US system fills these prisons with the aid of the media hysteria about the border, and police officers targeting people of color.
Both GEO and CCA are prison for profit vulture corporations. Bill Gates is among the top investors in GEO and G4S.
Earlier, the notorious Wackenhut split into GEO, and Wackenhut Transportation -- for maximum profiteering from misery. Wackenhut Transportation was then bought by G4S, an international prison for profit contractor. Now, G4S has contracts for detained migrant transportation on the Arizona border.
Arizona and Texas are two states where prisons-for-profit vultures are making millions, while the rapes, tortures and murders increase.
See Native American protest in Washington state over Gates prison investments:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/04/seattle-natives-protest-and-support.html

The long arm of US Censorship
John Robles was censored at the Voice of Russia after his profound interviews, including those with Mohawk elders Kahentinetha Horn and Mark Maracle. Read the Censored News exclusive:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/11/long-arm-of-us-censorship-reporter-in.html

Boarding School Tribunal
Reporters in Indian country were a no-show for coverage of the Boarding School Tribunal in Green Bay, Wisconsin in October. See the original series by Censored News, with videos by Govinda at Earthcycles. Yes, we were there. http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/10/day-3-boarding-school-tribunal-watch.html

Behind closed doors, there is much more happening now, from the threat of the Keystone XL Pipeline and fracking, to drones and the militarization of US universities. There's far more truth hidden about Indian casinos and where the money really goes. That's why we need you, the grassroots public, the public, and more whistleblowers.

Do you have a most censored issue to add to the list? Contact us at brendanorrell@gmail.com

Brenda Norrell has been a news reporter in Indian country for 32 years. She lived on the Navajo Nation for 18 years and was a reporter for Navajo Times, and stringer for AP and USA Today. After serving as a longtime staff reporter for Indian Country Today in the Southwest, she was censored and terminated. As a result, she began Censored News, now in its ninth year with no advertising or grants.

Plagiarism at Indian Country Today: Depp and Wounded Knee

In the rush for glory, news reporters and newspapers rely on plagiarism, theft and deceit

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News, July 10, 2013

Plagiarism has become the accepted form of journalism at Indian Country Today Media Network. The most obvious example of this collapse in journalism and ethics is ICT's coverage of Johnny Depp's offer to purchase Wounded Knee in South Dakota and return it to the Lakota people.

Even newspapers that should have known better were quickly quoting the plagiarizer Indian Country Today, rather than the source, the Daily Mail.

In a second example of plagiarism, Indian Country Today plagiarized an article on horses dying of drought on the Navajo Nation. The article is plagiarized from Navajo Times, but has an Indian Country Today byline on it. It appeared on Google News under the name of Indian Country Today, rather than Navajo Times.

Martyn Palmer at the UK's Daily Mail actually wrote the Depp interview:

Palmer wrote, "Such is Depp’s commitment to the Native American cause, he is planning to spend millions of his own money to return land, Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, to their ownership. 

"The site, the scene of an 1890 massacre, is up for sale for $3.9 million. Local Native Americans say they cannot afford to buy it. Depp is outraged."

Read more of Depp's interview at the Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2356133/Johnny-Depp-life-Vanessa-Paradis--cheating-death-The-Lone-Ranger.html
 
In South Dakota, Last Real Indians has an update on Depp's offer to buy Wounded Knee. Read it here:
http://lastrealindians.com/explosive-white-clay-walking-out-on-nebraskas-gov-johnny-depp-buying-wounded-knee-oglala-president-bryan-brewer/

Brandon Ecoffey at Native Sun News first reported the news of the sale of the Wounded Knee site. Ecoffey reported that talks were underway to purchase the 40 acre tract of land at the national historic site of Wounded Knee and another 40 acre lot at Porcupine Butte. The two sites were put up for sale by land owner Jim Czywczysnki for a total of $4.9 million on Pine Ridge Oglala land.

Read Ecoffey's articles: http://www.indianz.com/News/2013/009888.asp

http://www.indianz.com/News/2013/010063.asp

Meanwhile, the Rapid City Journal's article on Depp and the Wounded Knee sale is not written by Rapid City Journal. In tiny letters at the top is the real author and credit: Kevin Abourezk at Lincoln Star Journal.

The Lincoln Star Journal reported the land owner has greatly inflated the price. “We just hate to see that guy get rich off us,” Oglala President Bryan Brewer told the Lincoln Star Journal. Read it here: http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/tribe-johnny-depp-wants-to-buy-wounded-knee/article_5d823cc8-d972-5198-8ecd-4ceefa477317.html

There are actually Lakota reporters in South Dakota who are present and cover the news. Among those newspapers is Native Sun News, which is often plagiarized online.

Meanwhile, writers who sit home and plagiarize the hard work of others for money are not reporters. They are opportunists and profiteers. Indian Country Today is still using a reporter/editor in the west that I haven't seen out on a news story in the past 30 years. I have seen her plagiarize.

Real reporters sacrifice huge amounts of time doing research, and actually showing up on news stories. These days reporters are often using their own money to travel to do real news. Then someone comes along like the 'reporters' at Indian Country Today, and either totally plagiarizes their work, or does a rewrite with a quick phone call in a few minutes time and collects a big paycheck for it.

Don't fall for plagiarism and the theft of others work. Since yesterday when the plagiarism was exposed, Indian Country Today has been busy having their armchair journalists do phone call interviews to cover their tracks on the plagiarism.

Internet's New Highway: Writing for free takes a detour

Huffington Post slam-dunks writers, as journalists search for higher ground
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Just when you thought you knew your way around the Internet, everything changes. This includes three areas: Who you can trust, the danger of ignoring copyrights and giving your carefully-penned word songs away for free, for the sake of the cause, any cause. Although Wikileaks claims most headlines these days, the sale of Huffington Post, made popular by writers working without pay, and new copyright lawsuits for posting news stories on blogs without permission, are important developments for writers, bloggers and everyone on the web. Writing for free quickly became known this week as the way to get duped by big business on the Internet, as AOL announced the purchase of Huffington Post. Read column:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2011/02/internets-new-highway-writing-for-free.html