Timothy Williams Mod • 31 minutes ago

“You better believe I know a thing or two about data collection, and how it is often times nefariously used. A newspapers comments section is the perfect example. Everything is tracked.”

May I suggest we resume discussing this by email and remove this thread then?

At any rate, you are correct that I have not worked your story. Honestly, I get flooded with so much material on a daily basis that sometimes things just get buried, especially complex cases such as yours, unfortunately. I know what sort of time and effort is required to properly cover such a story, so it sort of ends up in my “when I have time for a full investigative piece” pile, and meanwhile there is a daily flow of “current events” that I also have to cover. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to, and won’t, though.
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“Stay tuned. We are working on the other side of the coin ourselves right now.. (regarding Baldi.) Your situation is more difficult given our limited resources, unfortunately and to be honest, but I haven’t shelved it. But since you felt the need to call me out, let’s keep in mind however the circumstances of your case and the fact that you admit to your wrongdoing (which given the quantities involved, in Costa Rica, is a very, very serious offense). As you have now learned, doing what you were doing while in a foreign country is a bad idea (or anywhere else that it is illegal, for that matter). I think you can agree that you could have avoided the situation altogether, unlike the case of Mr. Baldi, above, where previously secret intel documents from 2013 and 2014 regarding the man are suddenly being leaked to the press.

I don’t agree with certain laws here (and many other places) either, but I have enough sense to not break them (though if I did, I would want to be treated justly and fairly, which seems to be your primary complaint).

While I certainly believe there was some corruption in the way your case was dealt with, it doesn’t rise to the level (of a story, from a journalists’ perspective) of what is happening here with Baldi, especially for someone who admits they broke the law, as you have previously admitted, and to an excess by most reasonable standards.

Regarding our RoR (reporting of reporting) of these leaks by Diario Extra, we believe it is newsworthy, though we have just added an editor’s note to the top of the article to clarify that these are simply leaked intel documents, and that no formal accusations were ever brought against Mr. Baldi.

We are working on other possible angles, and of course the fact that these intelligence reports occurred only shortly before former president Chinchilla’s defamation suit against Baldi is of great interest. However that would beg the question that if this was a political hit job, why these reports would not have been “leaked” three years ago, around the time they were written and the time that Chinchilla sued Baldi and Baldi was on a serious attack campaign against the administration.

Regardless (thanks, Ken), it seems no one had enough evidence then or now to charge Baldi with any crime, and he still hasn’t been charged with anything, so of course should be presumed innocent until proved otherwise.

Hopefully, no hard feelings (but if you call me out in public, expect a response in public in kind)”.

At any rate this is getting pretty absurd. I removed them because you yourself expressed your concern about having my comment public here in the comments, so I removed the thread, not to try to “bury your story.” That is an absurd claim. You honestly believe we are in cahoots with the government here to try to keep your story silent? You are entering tinfoil hat territory if so. We are a handful of people who struggle to find enough time, money and energy to just keep publishing current events, let alone work on more than one or two investigative stories per year. I don’t know what you have in your mind’s eye, that we are some big powerful media organization in bed with the government and political elites or something, but if that is what you think you would be shocked by the actual reality of the situation. We will get to your case if, and when, we can. That’s it.

Likewise, if you think our little English-language news site has the influence to truly put pressure on anyone outside of the English-speaking population here, you’re mistaken. You might try Diario Extra, seriously.

If you don’t feel like waiting until we feel we have the bandwidth to properly examine your case (it is more involved than you think to do it right – I estimate about a week’s worth of what we call publishing time) I would suggest taking Ken’s suggestion and send us a letter to the editor telling your story. We’ll publish it.

At this point, I am not going to keep going back and forth with you over this, I honestly have other work to do.