Six years ago I wrote about a highly questionable online news site that went by the name of  Las Vegas Herald. “First published 1900,” it declared on its website. This was an obviously bogus claim since the population of Las Vegas then was only 18 (the city would not even come into existence until 1905). The site consisted of rewritten press releases and occasional stories under what seems to be phony bylines. Even before AI was well known, I suspected computers played a big role in generating the copy.

I discovered “Las Vegas Herald” was part of a worldwide network of websites with similar, almost legit-sounding names run by an organization in New Delhi, India. Its unexpected goal, I wrote then, was to “amplify favorable coverage about India and negative coverage about Pakistan.”

“Las Vegas Herald” is still around (I refuse to link to it). But now there’s a new dubious entry in the Las Vegas-as-a-pit-stop-in-sketchy-news-enterprises business. It’s called “Las Vegas Today.” It’s part of a network of sites owned by a PR firm that steals journalism produced by legitimate operations.

Futurism, a respected New York City-based tech news website, published a story yesterday blowing the lid off the collection of more than 50 websites branded as National Today. The lengthy article by Maggie Harrison Dupré flatly called the operation a “plagiarism machine” filching “original journalism at incredible scale,” with no credit to the original authors or writers. Much of National Today’s copy appears generated by AI, which means it contains errors. Although not specifically mentioned in the story, “Las Vegas Today” is one of those websites. (I am grateful to CNN’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter for highlighting the Futurism story.)

According to Futurism, the National Today network is the brainchild of TOP Agency. That’s a public relations and digital marketing firm that seems to have gotten its start promoting obscure industry-specific holidays. (Futurism amusingly pointed out that one of those pseudo holidays is “Prevent Plagiarism Day.”) The agency is based in Austin but also lists a Las Vegas office.

From the New To Las Vegas world headquarters, my review of  “Las Vegas Today” posts showed no original stories, no bylines over what did appear, and usually no credit. However, I spotted one reference citing a local news outlet, in a story about Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo being a no-show at a recent Las Vegas appearance by President Donald J. Trump. The liberal online site Nevada Current was mentioned as the source for one statement, although it seems the entire story came from the Current.

What “Las Vegas Today” appears to do using AI is reformat copy it steals largely without credit to re-structure facts in a different format under standard subheads like “The Details,” “Why It Matters,” “The Players,” “What They’re Saying,” “What’s Next” and “The Takeaway.” Plagiarism is generally defined as appropriating someone else’s words or work and passing this off as your own. The evidence usually is showing substantially identical language before and after the deed with no effort at attribution, such as a citation or link. The re-writing that “Las Vegas Today” and the other National Today sites do might eliminate that easy-to-see proof. But it does nothing to deal with the underlying ethical issue of freeloading off the expensive efforts of others without proper credit.

Since TOP Agency is a P.R. firm, one might think the way it presents its news over the National Today network could be influenced by undisclosed paying customers or backers (not unlike the hidden interest behind “Las Vegas Herald.”)  My quick review of “Las Vegas Today” revealed no obvious news bias other than the online business imperative of generating clicks for advertisers. However, it is not clear why a public relations firm that cared about a reputation for credibility would even want to go down this route.

For its story, Futurism sent requests for comment to National Today and TOP Agency, but reported it did not get a response. I sent my own request for comment through one of the submission portals on the “Las Vegas Today” site and will update this post if I hear back. The “Las Vegas Herald” crew stood mute in 2020, and I don’t expect “Las Vegas Today” will be any more forthcoming now. That’s how AI works.

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