I have erroneously accused Jeff Wise of improper behaviour on a reporting trip that he did to my flying ranch in New Mexico. I finally received the photos from that trip and was going to publish them, and when I looked at them, to my horror, it was a different reporter (whose name I will obviously not release) from a different magazine, on a different trip. I wish that I could excuse myself due to the fact that I did dozens of interviews and appeared in dozens of magazines during my flying times in New Mexico, and could be expected to be confused, but that is no excuse. Jeff’s trip did not even include a camp-fire session.
I was wrong. I apologize. I know that that does not help, but I am truly sorry.
Postscript edit:
As for the gentleman who showed up in the photo, I offer this response that I gave to a comment to this post:
John McAfee on said:
My heinous error notwithstanding Jeff has painted a far worse picture of myself, in multiple articles spanning more than two years. In all sincerity the events on the camping trip (erroneously contributed to Jeff), were the only events that I could remember that could possibly explain his bulldog approach to sniffing out my life. Since I was wrong, I cannot even guess at what twisted motives move this man. My “horror” at my mistake, was more for the gentleman who, now, by process of elimination, may have been outed by myself. That gentleman treated me fairly and was a genuinely decent person. If he is reading this, please know I am hanging my head in shame.
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Three of my friends are still being held in prison on trumped up charges. They are:
Eddie Ancona:
Cassian Chavarria:
William Mulligan:
They were charged and have been imprisoned because three legally licensed firearms were found in the incorrect rooms on my property (stretching the law to the extreme). I would ask you to please email the following and demand their release:
| [email protected] | |
| [email protected] | |
| [email protected] | |
| [email protected] | |
| [email protected] | |
| [email protected] | |
| [email protected] | |
| [email protected] |
38 responses to “An Apology to Jeff Wise”
I hope to get a response John. Do I have u figured out or not?
John is not a nutcases, he is pretty smart actually. He came up with a way to make millions doing something that he obviously enjoys. “Writing “. He is using our country, Belize as his playground. Our well learned Prime Minister The Honourable Dean Oliver Darrow gave him more ratings when he found it necessary to address him on television. McAfee is well aware that our police and our people responsible for prosecuting offenders lack the capability to convict someone sometimes even with an eyewitness. Anyway, to cut a long story short, McAfee will soon be free staring in action thriller movies and selling millions of copies of books he will write about his pathetic life and his experience while living in a small thirdworld country in the Caribbean when he was a murder suspect
Hi John – you must get out of Belize now! Having familiar knowledge of the GOB and Belize culture, you stand no chance there. I know it is easier said than done, but you must get to the US asap. It must be by non scheduled sea or air transport. Sea is the safest and you must remain in international waters until you are in US waters. Yes, I know how close the GOB and US governments are but you stand a better chance in the US. Think…there is a charter sailboat that’s been tied up and for sale for a few years. It or something like it can make the trip.
Hey John, I too had been on the run with my father who was railroaded through a “trial” if u could call it that against the well seated greedy in New Mexico. He was diagnosed with colon cancer during the trial and saw that he was going to be buried through a corrupt Judge and system so he fled and I chose to be with him to help care for him during this time. He eventually passed and I surfaced. It cost me $400k to clear my name and avoid jail for harboring. I wish u well and am praying for ur safety. It is no fun what u r doing now. Scared every minute of the day by every noise and every look…that u have been found or recognized. Line up the attorneys. The day will come when it will end. All my best.
Regarding your confusion about what Alex is saying, it basically amounts to this: There are two sides to the coin. From the perspective of John’s supporters, Jeff has stated nothing but lies and painted John as a complete nut. From the perspective of Jeff’s supporters, John is a nutcase and the articles were fairly reported and now he’s being painted as a liar and shoddy journalist by John & some posters on this site.
Note, I am neutral in this feud; I’m merely trying to explain what this poster was saying, make it even more obvious.
Lol! B-)
Well, we don’t know that the “real story” is 100% real because we don’t have an independently verified account of what’s happened. It’s hard to get that on any story IMHO, but I fully appreciate your point 🙂
Possibly, that’s why I find this situation so captivating…everyone forms their opinion in the absence of “perfect” information. What we each base our opinion on may be very different (even with the same outcome) but likely includes our personal values towards both our own liberty and that of others; identification with political corruption as a worthy cause to fight against; our experiences of travel, or simply life in general, within countries such as Belize; our tendency to dismiss things we have not directly experienced as “crazy”, “paranoid” or untruthful; our interpretation of information relating to John which we may feel renders his account more or less credible including previous media coverage, employment track record, his personal responses on this blog (both tone and content), other forum activities; what we see as the most relevant key to (or point of) the “real story”…and so much more.
That’s what makes it interesting for me. I personally believe there is a vast amount of truth in what has been shared here…but that’s just my opinion.
I agree with your smoke and mirrors comment…just that a lot of the smoke and mirrors comes from within each of us too, if that makes any sense.
Sorry you took me seriously. It was a joke. Human nature makes true world autonomy virtually impossible. Everybody lies.
How do you know that the “real story” is real? Smoke & mirrors.
Definitely the work of the Illuminati
If you spend enough time in a third-world country, you’re going to eventually attribute a smear campaign to the wrong motives and get left snooping for the REAL problem, an invisible threat the seems to defy the laws of relationships and emotional physics. Paranoia is like breathing. After doing it over and over for months on end, it begins to feel tedious, but it is necessary in order to survive in a world where we are surrounded by unseen threats propelled to character assasination by unimaginable motives amiright?
We all get paranoid sometimes and associate smear campaigns with the wrong perceived motivation now and then. Paranoia is like breathing. It starts to feel tedious after doing it every day for months on end, but it’s just one of those things you have to do.
People tend to concentrate on where they live. John lives in Belize, so he doesn’t really have the desire to tackle the world. He is also being persecuted by the government of Belize, so that kind of defines his focus for now. Saving the world is a tall order but saving Belize might be doable for a man with John’s talents. Belize is a very small country with very basic infrastructure. I wouldn’t mind going to Belize on vacation after it gets liberated from John’s enemies. Sounds like a colorful and adventurous place to live when you are not on the receiving end of all the corruption.
Never read Bad Medicine so I can’t speak to that.There is corruption everywhere but what is even worse up here are all the taxes. Who wouldn’t want to be like John if they had some money? I would get the hell out of here in a heartbeat if I had the dough.I admire his search for freedom in a tropical paradise. But, after reading all of this, I doubt I would go to Belize. Unless John can straighten out the mess there. Belize will be a no-go zone on a lot of people’s lists.
I have an idea. Let’s each take a country &report on all of the corruption & bad governing & crime & general badness. Then we can all together undo the evils of the world. That way we won’t just be helping Belize, but every country & all the people. Oh, and we have to go after all of the drug dealers, because I think they’re behind it all. World autonomy. Anybody interested?
Everything in the media is a biased mess. In the US, politicians just need to spew some crap about weapons of mass destruction and everyone starts running around printing it like it was the gospel truth. Britain even fired the head of the BBC because he would not tow the line with the manufacturing of consent for the war with Iraq. Reporters now are just shills for corporations, governments, and special interest groups. John would be lucky to find a decent one to take on his story in a real way. No surprise that he got some sensationalist idiots who acted like teenagers at a spring break party in Guadalajara and went to town on drugs, sex, and guns instead of concentrating on what he was trying to tell them. If they wanted to sell copy, they could have at least done half and half but these guys did not even do that. Basically they were just down in Belize on vacation and wrote some easy garbage that they knew would sell.
Let’s put the challenge out there to the mainstream media to do a documentary about crime and corruption in Belize. Interview people who have lived there, and talk to the people in the streets about the things the tourist brochures never mention.
The media these days is just programmed to sensationalize things. Reporters would rather get an easy story about a madcap gun toting millionaire than having to investigate, on their own, the deep underbelly of corruption in a third world country. That is too scary for them. What passes for journalism in today’s world is crappy human interest stories and biased verbiage gleaned from other people. The reporter who actually suffers and gets into the real dirt of things may endanger his or her own life. That is why you get a media filled with MTV type clownery.
John apparently has quite a story to tell and the fact that no US journalist could focus on the facts of the story is astounding but tells me that the US is way too far gone into the wormhole of MTV and Facebook realities to be serious about investigative reporting anymore. Shows like 60 Minutes are the exceptions rather than the rule nowadays. John apologized for his mistake but I am not all that sure it was even necessary. The reporter obviously is a jerk and doesn’t know how to tie together a decent story that remains true to the subject matter.
If you read the book “Bad Medicine” by Judge John Reilly you will also get the distinct feeling that Canada is out of control. There is also the infamous Colonel Russel Williams convicted serial killer. Corruption happens everywhere, even in Canada eh!
I think yo did it!
My comments loaded late I guess. I see who you were responding to John.
Disregard my previous comment.
James,
Sadly the (Western) mainstream press is no longer interested in journalism in the slightest. The only the that matters is distribution. It all boils down to readership or viewer numbers.
Being based in the UK, I often catch the news over breakfast or whilst driving to work. It is now very rare for a day to pass without hearing a (BBC) presenter state: “Later today {Insert MP/Minster Name here} will give a speech and say that…{insert nonsense of your choice here}”.
In their desire to “get their story across”, political parties have taken to cosying up to reporters and offering them stories. Over time this has resulted in an entire generation of journalists for whom “investigation” means something that the police do.
It is very, very rare to find a tough, resourceful and principled journalist these days. So I understand why you might be confused about the apparent laziness of (most) reporters, but the sad truth is that we helped make them that way: by allowing the politicians to buy them out, and then continuing to read/click/absorb the duly peddled clap-trap.
Result? The string-pullers (those really in power, not the puppets) can do pretty much what they want, because they have the ability to “manage the news”. It rather reminds me of that line from “Good Morning, Vietnam”, where the broadcaster (played by Robin Williams) announced: “Dit, dit dit, dah, dah dah. Here is the news. All the news that’s new and approved by the US Army, the *sweetest*-smelling army in the world…” Coincidentally, he was waging a one-man campaign to get “the truth” told as well…
I am actually surprised that you’re surprised. Must be the cynic in me!
John I don’t know if your reply was towards me directly but I was just quoting an above poster who said: “A good example of this is your continuing to disparage his name & reputation”
I’m not sure, but I think he was talking to me!?
I don’t know what I have ever really said bad about Jeff other than “misleading headlines” or him “portraying you in a negative way via his articles he has written”…
Other than that I’m kinda at a loss as to what “Alex” is talking about…
I am just reading this whole blog from up in Canada and it is blowing my mind. Belize sounds out of control. I wouldn’t worry about some little tiff with a bad reporter. You have lots of other fish to fry, it sounds like. The guy dissed you from the beginning anyways. Bad about the other dude, but you need to concentrate on staying alive and get the message out there. You are doing a great job so far. You have me on the edge of my seat, so keep up the good work and don’t let little stuff take you away from your focus. Stay clear and alert and keep the story going!
I can’t say that I feel all that much sympathy for the reporter in question but an error is an error. A public apology should suffice in this case. To prolong everything with bitter recrimination and animosity probably won’t lead to anything better. John made a mistake. John is a human being— that’s what we do much of the time. The key is that he dealt with it in a fair way and felt remorse. Many people see John as a larger than life tycoon and forget that he is just a human being with all of our weaknesses and foibles.
My heinous error notwithsdanding, Jeff has painted a far worse picture of myself, in multiple articles spanning more than two years. In all sincerety, the events on the camping trip (erroneously contributed to Jeff), were the only events that I could remember that could possibly explain his bulldog approach to sniffing out my life. Since I was wrong, I cannot even guess at what twisted motives move this man. My “horror” at my mistake, was more for the gentleman who, now, by process of elimination, may have been outed by myself. That gentleman treated me fairly and was a genuinely decent person. If he is reading this, please know I am hanging my head in shame.
This keyboard auto corrects, so just please use mental editing!
By once again stating that Jeff has painted a terrible picture of John in the media. As John has often stated, one’s reality is often quite different than another’s. Some believe all of what John is true, some believe the Press, some are little of both, & others take it all with a grain of salt. I, for one, need more than just somebody’s saying so, including John, to accept it as the truth.
Everyone can make a mistake but it takes a good man to admit to it. Also, being 67 and on the run with armed people after you, while creating a magnificent blog with all this material on it, really is a decent enough excuse for anyone to have trouble remembering all the details of everything. Don’t take it hard on yourself, man. The guy will get over it. Trying to do a thousand things at once while on the run is not easy. Get some rest and have a candlelight dinner with Sam of souffle iguana or whatever it is that people on the lam in Belize eat.
In general, the majority of “news” and press reporting these days is all about sensationalism, and is not very concerned with classic fair, impartial reporting of true facts. What once was negatively referred to as yellow journalism/muckraking has now become a widely accepted norm by most “news” agencies. The advent of the internet, and the concept that anybody with an opinion, or personal agenda, can post a op-ed and claim it to be a credible report, has only further eroded the standards of news reporting. It doesn’t help that the general public has shown a willingness to accept unethical reporting as a primary source of news, so there’s no real motivation for the media to reform.
Please note that I am in no way referencing any particular agency or reporter related to Mr. McAfee’s saga, but merely sharing my view on why news reports seemingly cannot be taken at face value anymore.
“A good example of this is your continuing to disparage his name & reputation”
How so, sir?
John is man enough to admit to a mistake on a public forum read by hundreds of thousands of people. That says a lot about him as a person. If everyone who made a mistake was honorable enough to admit to it and own up to their errors, the world would be a lot better place.
And John has painted a terrible picture of Jeff repeatedly on this blog, something that many readers will never, especially subconsciously, ever forget. A good example of this is your continuing to disparage his name & reputation. What a mess & a complete shame. This is his livelihood & John McAfee is only a very small part of his reporting. Please stop the witch hunt.
I don’t know why those reporters did not just get the real story about John’s life and had to invent a whole alternate reality to sell copy. If they had investigated Belize a little bit more and spent less time looking for ways to portray John as a drugged out psychopath, it might have boded better for their eventual careers. The real story confirms that the truth is often stranger than fiction.
Wrong article or not, Jeff has painted a terrible picture of you in most peoples eyes.
Most reporters have actually.. I cant even tell you how many “WANTED FOR MURDER” articles I read..
It seems in that business, I suppose it’s all about getting “clicks” on your story..