Does Glenn Beck Steal My Stuff? Why Did DC Ignore The OTHER Side of the Story?

I read with interest Matthew Boyle's "exclusive" in the Daily Caller this morning "TheDC Exclusive: Conservatives hit Beck for taking content without attribution.  In the article Boyle gives a list of bloggers who have had their work "ripped off" by Radio and TV host, used without retribution.

A number of conservative activists and bloggers say they’re furious at media magnate Glenn Beck for what they call content theft. Over the past several years, Beck has relied on video, audio and written content from others to fill his radio and television shows, as well as his websites. Often he has credited his fellow conservatives for their work. Yet in many other instances say dozens of conservative journalists who spoke to The Daily Caller, he has not, often taking elaborate steps to cloak the origins of the material.

The reason, I found the piece so interesting is that I was contacted by Boyle and my statement which did not blast Beck was not used.

Three weeks ago I was contacted by Mr. Boyle and told that he was working on a story about Glenn Beck "stealing" content from conservative bloggers. I replied to him two days later saying that I saw that as something O' Reilly does (he once ran an exclusive Helen Thomas video of mine and cut out the logo). Other people have given me examples of other radio and/or TV hosts who have ripped them off.

Mr. Boyle replied, yes but has Beck ever done that to you.   I answered yes sometimes, but he makes it up to me by sometimes mentioning my blog out of the blue and sent him the link to a video showing Beck looking for some information about Israel and saying, "Let me go to Yid With Lid, He Usually has that information" or something like that (I usually send him my important research anyway). The email trail is posted at the bottom of this post.



Funny how Mr. Boyle did not want to discuss other hosts who "steal" people's work, nor did he feel obligated to point to the fact that I told him that Beck makes up for it. It is also interesting that Mr. Boyle's story about Beck taking the watermark of of someones video, is almost exactly the same as a story I told him....about Bill O' Reilly

The truth is that Beck does sometimes use my stuff, most recently was his video description of the Fogel family massacre in Itamar parts of which seemed to be adapted from my prose.

But in that example is the reason why it is so easy to single out Glenn Beck.  Most of the time when a TV/Radio host uses someone's material, they read the blog article aloud, saying I read this article called xyz at the blog abc. Beck takes the material and integrates it into his show, which at times can include monologues 20 minutes at a shot.  Beck doesn't read material, he adapts it. Sometimes he mentions all the sources, sometimes he doesn't.
 
Is that bad?  Yes and its just as bad when my work has been borrowed by other TV and/or Radio people, people at other websites, the ones who have used my research or prose without attribution or a link or even the hijack sites who just reprint my articles, give me a bi-line and make their readers assume that I am one of their correspondents. And its not just broadcast and internet, newspapers steal content too, trust me it has happened often. The truth is most of the time when a site or a radio host forgets to give credit it is an error of omission. Sometimes it is because they have found out the same information from their sources at about the same time.  When the lack of attribution happens on purpose..well trust me you can tell the difference (and I remember each and every case).

The real question is why is Boyle going after only Beck when it is such a common occurrence and why did he refuse to mention the other side of the story especially after I sent him proof.

Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 4:16 PM
Subject: Re: URGENT: Talk about Glenn Beck and content he's taken from you?

Jeff,

Wanted to see if you were able to talk to me about this?

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 1:29 PM, Matthew Boylewrote:

Jeff,
XXXXXX recommended I get in touch with you to talk about Glenn Beck "boosting" content from bloggers/other sites for his shows and not giving out credit -- I wanted to see if you would talk to me about it -- If so, what's a good number to reach you at?

Thanks!

--
Thanks,
Matthew Boyle

My Reply:

Its O’Reilly who does that he once took one of my videos clipped off the part with my logo and ran it on TV

Mr Boyle Replied

Has Beck ever done it to you?

My Reply

Sometimes, but sometimes he mentions me.. also with Beck he also mentions my blog for no reason like this for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K73WjDTGUlk&feature=player_embedded

So it evens out.

in the end it evens out he has never like O’Reilly has done, cut my logo out of a video

Sadly those comments never made it into Matthew Boyle's story