Tag: Natasha Bertrand

The Atlantic Stole My Work

The publication refuses to credit me after copying whole sentences and paragraphs from a freelance pitch I sent to reporter Natasha Bertrand.

This item was edited by Atlanta, GA investigative blogger Peter M. Heimlich.

source

Here’s an excerpt from Bertrand’s article, “The Enigmatic Russian Paying Maria Butina’s Legal Bills,” published March 20, 2019 on the Atlantic’s website:

Ionov runs Ionov Transcontinental (IT), which provides access to Russian government agencies by helping clients “realize the potential opportunities of their business through its participation in political activities,” according to its website. There is no evidence that Ionov works directly for the Kremlin. (IT’s vice president is Roman Khudyakov, a former Russian government official and a member of the Right to Bear Arms.)

And here’s an excerpt from a draft of the story I sent Bertrand earlier that month:

In addition to his legal and advocacy work, Ionov runs Ionov Transcontinental (IT), which […] provides access to Russian government agencies by helping clients “realize the potential of opportunities of [their] business through its participation in political activities.” IT’s Vice President is Roman Khudyakov, former deputy of Russia’s 6th State Duma and a member of Butina’s Russian gun lobby group, the Right to Bear Arms.

By my count, Bertrand’s article contains at least six unequivocal examples of direct copying and revisions of my work. (Bertrand, now at Politico, declined to comment on-the-record for this item.)

On November 1, 2020, I compiled and sent detailed supporting evidence to the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, asking him for a co-byline credit and freelance fee. After a month, Goldberg had still not replied, so I forwarded my request to Atlantic Media’s vice chairman Peter Lattman.

Here is Lattman’s December 17 reply:

Hi Dean, Thanks for the follow-up. I forwarded this to the appropriate people and I know they’re looking into it. PTL

As of publication, I have still not heard anything from the Atlantic and Lattman has not replied to my subsequent inquiries.

Jeffrey Goldberg (source)

It’s unclear how my writing made it into Bertrand’s article. But here’s a timeline of our correspondence:

• On March 8, 2019, I sent Bertrand an email pitching the story and requesting that I receive a co-byline credit. She expressed interest and conveyed that she’d talk to her editors.

• On March 11, 2019, Bertrand sent me an email stating that a “co-byline won’t be a problem.” That same day, I gave her access to a draft of the story I’d written on Google Docs containing all of my research. I also helped put her in contact with the subject of the story, Russian businessman Alexander Ionov, who’d agreed to speak with me on-the-record.

• On March 20, 2019, Bertrand sent me an email stating:

So my editor in chief isn’t comfortable doing cobylines with people who don’t write full time for the Atlantic, and told me that since the Russian fundraising website is publicly available online and therefore open source, it wouldn’t be the Atlantic’s policy to note a tip in the piece itself […] I’m really sorry about this […] I haven’t used your writing that you sent me in the google doc—I’ve just framed the piece around the fact that the fundraising website exists, which I can hat tip you for on Twitter.

The story was published later that day without my byline, although the Atlantic did eventually agree to credit me within the text of the article (albeit reluctantly and without offering an apology or an explanation for axing me from the story). I didn’t realise my work had been lifted until October 2020, when I was inspired to reinvestigate by the Atlantic magazine’s 800-word correction — and subsequent retraction — of a story by freelance journalist/serial fabricator Ruth Shalit Barrett.

As I told Bertrand in an email, the Atlantic’s refusal to add my byline to the story hurts both of us. I lost out on a writing credit and freelance fee; as a result, her name now sits atop an article that contains copied material.

Being a freelance journalist has its ups and downs, but getting stomped on by a big publication like the Atlantic deserves to be called out, hence this item.

Any other writers out there with similar stories? Feel free to drop me a line at stm1989@protonmail.com.

Round-Up: Maria Butina’s Russian Fundraiser

Round-up of news coverage re: Shooting the Messenger story about the Kremlin-backed company paying for Maria Butina’s legal expenses

Via “The Enigmatic Russian Paying Maria Butina’s Legal Bills” by Natasha Bertrand, The Atlantic, March 20, 2019:

Maria Butina, the first Russian to plead guilty to seeking to infiltrate and influence American policy makers in the run-up to the 2016 election, remains somewhat of a mystery. But her prosecution in Washington, D.C., last year shed light on yet another avenue through which Russia tried to influence American politics in 2016: namely, via an old-fashioned, on-the-ground operation, conducted not by experienced spies but by disarming political operatives. New revelations about Butina’s legal-defense fund in Russia shows that one of her backers has been trying to promote fringe separatist movements in the U.S. since well before 2016.

In 2018, Alexander Ionov, the founder of the NGO, called the Anti-Globalization Movement, began raising money for Butina through a fundraising website that says all proceeds will be “used to finance legal protection and to improve the conditions of Maria’s detention in prison.” The website was first discovered by freelance journalist Dean Sterling Jones. To date, Ionov has raised about 2 million rubles (approximately $30,000) to help pay her legal fees, he told me in a recent interview. The Russian embassy, which has been advocating for Butina’s release, did not return a request for comment.

Click here to read the full story.

Via “New Details Revealed About a Mysterious Russian Who Funds Maria Butina’s Defense” by Tana Ganeva, Raw Story, March 20, 2019:

Maria Butina, the Russian woman who’s alleged to have infiltrated gun rights and conservative circles to sway the outcome of the 2016 election, is still in custody awaiting her sentencing. She’s been in jail since July. According the Washington Post, Butina is cooperating with authorities…

Ionov is raising money for Butina’s defense through a group called the Anti-Globalization Movement. The website, peppered with glossy photos of Butina, purports to tell “Maria’s story.”

“Help me change my situation,” it reads in Russian.  Freelance journalist Dean Sterling Jones first unearthed the site and detailed Ionov’s history and potential Kremlin ties.

Writing on his blog Shooting the Messenger, Jones observes that the group that’s hosting the site for Butina’s legal bills got a Russian presidential grant of 3.5 million rubles (approximately $53,000) to bring members of Texas and California secessionist groups to a Russian conference in September of 2016.

Click here to read the full story.

Investigate Russia and Law & Crime also picked up the story.

Update, via “Here are all the Russian interference efforts that didn’t make it into Barr’s letter” by Casey Michel, ThinkProgress, March 27, 2019:

Special counsel Robert Mueller may not have found the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but plenty of Americans — wittingly or otherwise — have helped Moscow’s election meddling efforts in recent years. Secessionists, Jill Stein and her campaign, and members of groups organized around gun rights and far-right Christian movements have spent the past few years cultivating ties with those close to the Kremlin and using their platforms to promote Russia-friendly ideas.

None of these groups were mentioned by Attorney General William Barr, who issued a letter on Sunday confirming that Russia conducted coordinated campaigns to interfere in America’s elections…

Russian cultivation of American secessionists — for example, groups who look back fondly on the days of the Confederacy or advocate for states separating from the U.S. to form their own country — date back to at least 2014, in the midst of the Kremlin’s attempts to disintegrate Ukraine. Multiple conferences held in Moscow in 2015 and 2016 brought separatists from places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico to Russia, gathering supporters with other secessionists from Italy and Spain. They were hosted and feted by Alexander Ionov, the head of an organization called the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR)…

Ionov, meanwhile, has been busy. Not only has be apparently gained more cachet in Moscow — he recently had a meeting with the Venezuelan ambassador — but as journalist Dean Sterling Jones recently uncovered, he’s been helping raise money for Russian agent Maria Butina.