Irresponsible Behavior:
Baja Safari Club, KFMB TV

by Marsh Cassady

The following is from “http://bajasafari.blog.com/,” and purports to be an official site or “blog” for the Baja Safari Club, headquartered in Baja California Sur:

Starting on March 12, the Club advises Members to avoid travel to Baja Norte, through Spring 2006. The recent rash of kidnappings of American citizens in Baja Norte compells (sic) the Club to issue the Travel Advisory.

All travel to Southern Baja continues to be promoted by the Club. The Club is now advising all Members who have travel plans to Baja Norte to reschedule them to Southern Baja.

Southern Baja Mexico continues to be the safest tourism location in the world for American citizens. Contact the Club directly for Travel Services to accomplish the safest Travel possible.

The above can best be described as untrue, and at worst as irresponsible.

Yes, there have been a few kidnappings of late: Two of them possibly in Tijuana and two in San Diego. I say “possibly” because there is speculation that one of these is not really a kidnapping. In other words, there has been no “rash of kidnappings” of American citizens! In fact, any kidnappings that occur almost always are connected with illegal drug activities, or particularly in the Federal District with the kidnapping of wealthy Mexicans, and not Americans. At least one has been employees targeting their employer --- not a tourist.

Besides the gross overstatement, there is the implication that the Safari Club of Baja Sur will be glad to make travel arrangements to Baja Sur.

Maybe I'm being just a little picky here, but what's going on with the group's statement that it can provide the “safest travel possible?”

How can anyone legitimately make such a claim? Can the group in reality guarantee safe passage to wherever they want to take you? Of course, they can't.

Of course, people wanting to sell something often exaggerate as did the Baja Safari Club. But what about news channels in San Diego accepting this group's word as the truth, as if the statement had been issued by an official government office.

Also acting irresponsibly was San Diego's KFMB, Channel 8, which, as of this writing, still has posted on its web site the following under the heading of “Americans Warned Not To Travel To Mexico”:

Avoid travel to Baja California Norte. That's the warning from the Baja Safari Mexico Club Thursday. The recent surge in kidnappings prompted the travel warning, which is in effect through spring....

The club says it's just too dangerous to travel there in light of the recent kidnappings, which they say are happening at an alarming rate.

Some...cases include tourists being kidnapped in Tijuana and taken to an ATM where they are forced to withdraw money and give it to the kidnapper, before they are released. Other kidnapping cases go on for days with the suspects demanding thousands of dollars.

In fact, kidnappings have become so common in Baja California Norte, that now the kidnappers are starting to cross the border and kidnap people in San Diego and take them back to Mexico…

The Baja Safari Mexico Club stresses that this warning only extends to Baja California Norte. They say that the southern part of Baja is very safe, and advise travelers to go ahead with their trips to that area.

It seems that someone in authority took the word of a totally unauthorized person, Mike Overcast of the Baja Safari Club, and ran with it.

This has caused great harm. As Ted Donovan said on Baja Talk Radio, the “self-serving misinformation” put out by the Safari Club is like advising people not to travel in California because a crime was committed in Los Angeles.

Mike Overcast and the Baja Safari Club owe the residents and business people of Baja California Norte a major apology. Their actions have caused hotel and travel cancellations and an unmeasurable amount of lost revenue. And television station KFMB should retract what they said. Incidentally, the same thing was also reported on another television channel in San Diego, but not played up to any great extent. The area's major newspaper, The San Diego Union Tribune, obviously dismissed the “report” as not worth mentioning.