Comments on: NYT Argentina Story Lifted Material From Newsweek

By: Sheila Callahan

Sheila Callahan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:42:32 +0000

Great, great job. We just stumbled upon this post after glancing at Lee’s piece on 36 Hours in Warsaw in this weekend’s Times. We’re going to do our our digging into that reporting.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:10:57 +0000

Man, this piece is like a sharp knife cutting into the heart of what’s wrong with journalism in general and the Times in particular. Great job! Did the Times Public Editor say anything about this?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:34:00 +0000

The Times doesn’t own up to stuff like this because they’re old-school snobs. They just don’t get it, but they think they do. They think they set the trends, when in reality they are constantly catching up with trends at their tail end. This lame excuse of a feature is a classic example of that. I was in Argentina last month. And while I love the place, it is not the ultra cheap paradise that the story makes it out to be. And maybe it´s my own ignorance, but it didn´t seem to me that foreigners were running around dominating the place or adding anything of value that was already there.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:47:00 +0000

I’m a little surprised at the editor’s response…So both publications write the with the same broad brushstrokes, pathetic, really.

By: Debbie Carlson

Debbie Carlson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:56:00 +0000

Great stuff Taos. Glad to see you are keeping them honest, but of course I expect nothing less from you!

By: Erik Sherman

Erik Sherman — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:26:00 +0000

Excellent catch and work. A pity that the New York Times wants to pretend that nothing untoward happened.

By: Debbie Carlson

Debbie Carlson — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:58:00 +0000

Taos – it looks like you really did your homework on this one. A good and fair assessment of these two stories.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:49:00 +0000

Whoever Denny Lee is, that style of “journalism” appears to work very effectively for him — apparently he’s been doing that shit for the last 5 years at least. Check out http://www.thevillager.com/vil-Times.html

You would think that the NY Times would have learned after their big plagiarism/fabrication scandal a few years ago, but maybe travel pieces don’t count. Much more embarrassing to get caught making up “hard news” stories, like stories about the Iraq war.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:50:00 +0000

Hi there...first I've come across this blog.

I was also frustrated when I read this piece in the NYTimes. What bothered me--even before I read here about the Newsweek connection--was the story's utter lack of originality. I was so incensed that I wrote the following letter to the Times, though I doubt it will be published:

I was disappointed to read your recent profile of Buenos Aires (published March 16, 2008). Not only does the article invoke the most common and tired cliches associated with the Argentine capital--tango, comparisons to Paris, a penchant for meat-eating--but it shamelessly mines past articles published by the Travel section of the Times for its substance.

Faena Hotel + Universe has been cited in almost five--five!--previous articles in the NYTimes since 2004. Home Hotel has received at least three mentions. The restaurant, Olsen, has also received multiple nods. Even the article's title, "Argentine Nights," sounds oddly similar to an article published just over a year ago (published February 4, 2007 "Making the Most of those Long Argentine Nights.") And while it may be anecdotally interesting, the phenomenon of artsy expatriates flooding Buenos Aires to set up shop in the relatively cheap and trendy neighborhoods of San Telmo and Palermo has been written about in many, many places across the spectrum of travel writing, including within the pages of the New York Times.

To be sure, Buenos Aires is a grand city, with food and culture and art that could rival many cities around the globe. Such a place is without a doubt worthy of further coverage. That the travel editors and writers at the Times cannot accomplish much more than producing a feature with rehashed information and themes is unfortunate. Not only does it make for tedious reading, one begins to wonder if the Travel portfolio at the Times is simply irrelevant.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Interesting. But let’s call a spade a spade. The original article by Byrnes was not journalism but typical travel fodder filled with cliches. If you’re going to write travel pieces like these, then it’s hard to avoid such hackneyed expressions like comparing BA to Prague of 1990s. Surely, Byrnes was not the first to write that observation. That’s not plagiarism. It’s just BAD writing by both guys. Both Lee and Byrnes should be embarrassed to have their names associated with such fluff pieces.