Ex-USA TODAY reporter faked major stories

[hang a left]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-03-18-2004-03-18_kelleymain_x.htm?csp=15


By Blake Morrison,USA TODAY
Seven weeks into an examination of former USA TODAY reporter Jack Kelley’s work, a team of journalists has found strong evidence that Kelley fabricated substantial portions of at least eight major stories, lifted nearly two dozen quotes or other material from competing publications, lied in speeches he gave for the newspaper and conspired to mislead those investigating his work.
Perhaps Kelley’s most egregious misdeed occurred in 2000, when he used a snapshot he took of a Cuban hotel worker to authenticate a story he made up about a woman who died fleeing Cuba by boat. The woman in the photo neither fled by boat nor died, and a USA TODAY reporter located her this month. If Cuban authorities had learned she was the woman in the picture, she says, she could have lost her job and her chance to emigrate.

How USA TODAY is conducting the investigation
A team of reporters spent seven weeks examining the work of former USA TODAY reporter Jack Kelley. The reporters read about 720 stories Kelley filed from 1993 through 2003. Each of the stories was read and discussed by at least two members of the team. Hundreds were relatively routine news reports. But about 150 stories stood out to the group for a variety of reasons.

At least 56 were based on exclusive, eyewitness reports, usually reported overseas. Dozens cited anonymous intelligence officials. Others were human-interest stories that offered poignant details about the suffering of war, illness and oppression. In at least 10 cases, Kelley wrote that he watched someone die.

To verify the stories, members of the team interviewed dozens of people; reviewed scores of Kelley's expense reports; traveled to Cuba, Israel and Jordan; scoured records from Kelley's hotel, mobile and office phones; reread transcripts of speeches Kelley gave; ran at least 150 stories through plagiarism-detection software; and examined the contents of the laptop computer Kelley was issued by the company. Phone records were incomplete, and most of the documents on the laptop had been deleted before Kelley left the newspaper in January.

[mistertrickster]

1. He also lied to the "Evangelical Press Assoc." -- which sounds

pretty right wing to me.

Was the guy a religious fundie? The descriptions of his stories seem to be all about how poor, innocent Israeli children were killed by Palestinian bombs . . .

(Implying that Israeli bombs never kill Palestinian children?)

[Judi Lynn]

10. Jack Kelley, "God's" reporter!

In his own words:

He thinks that me being a Christian gives me a different perspective on things. I certainly hope so, because I pray which stories I shouldn't take, and hopefully that helps. … Prayer is a daily, daily, if not an hourly part of my job here. In my entire life, I cannot separate my faith from my profession. If I did, I wouldn't be in this profession. I wouldn't have had the success that I've had. I think it's a gift, and I can tell when I'm in tune with the Lord. Circumstances just happen. Stories just fall into my lap. I kid you not. Stories just fall into my lap when I'm in tune with the Lord. That's probably because the Lord knows I'm too dumb to go out and find them myself, because I never find them. It's just unbelievable. You sit back each night, and I feel his pleasure when I report, and there's no greater feeling.
(snip/)

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/101/51.0.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's an example of his writing "style:"

In Hamas-run kindergartens, signs on the walls read: ''The children of
the kindergarten are the shaheeds (holy martyrs) of tomorrow.'' The
classroom signs at Al-Najah University in the West Bank and at Gaza's Islamic
University say, ''Israel has nuclear bombs, we have human bombs.''

At an Islamic school in Gaza City run by Hamas, 11-year-old Palestinian
student Ahmed's small frame and boyish smile are deceiving. They mask a
determination to kill at any cost. ''I will make my body a bomb that
will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys,'' Ahmed says.
''I will tear their bodies into little pieces and cause them more pain than
they will ever know.''

''Allahu Akbar,'' his classmates shout in response: ''God is great.''

''May the virgins give you pleasure,'' his teacher yells, referring to
one of the rewards awaiting martyrs in paradise. Even the principal smiles and
nods his approval.

''You don't start educating a shaheed at age 22,'' says Roni Shaked, a
terrorism expert and former officer in Israel's Shin Bet secret service.
''You start at kindergarten so by the time he's 22, he's looking for an
opportunity to sacrifice his life.''

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/june01/2001-06-26-suicide-usat.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At age 21, Kelley had a story in the first edition of USA Today in 1983. So, he's a real veteran, not only of the world's most dangerous war zones, but also of spiritual warfare as well. For Jack Kelley is a committed Christian. At this year's Evangelical Press convention, he mesmerized his audience with his experiences--scrapes with death, miraculous escapes, interviews with the world's elite.

We won't forget his stories, but I hope the principles he espoused have a more lasting impact. Again and again, Kelley emphasized that it is imperative for Christian journalists to be people of integrity, writers who are certain of every detail, believers who stay the course set by Christ Himself. It's a principle that should be true for any believer in any career. But we in activist ministries, if we let our calling become a crusade, are vulnerable to the temptation to shape Truth to fit our will, not God's.

Kelley says his professional role models are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--"four of the best journalists ever." Journalism is a calling, he says. I wonder how he would critique the way I've handled my calling.
(snip/)

http://www.afajournal.org/cover/media_3.asp

[Supormom]

2. So what's the big deal?

Faux news fakes major stories everyday.
:evilgrin:

[flaminbats]

5. Why let lies to be sold as news, but ban the F-word on broadcast networks?

Thank the Federal Complacency Commission...

[Mountainman]

12. He'll probably get a job at Faux

[dusty64]

15. Exactly, the entire

mainstream news media has become nothing but a propaganda arm of the rethug party. Why make a big deal out of this?

[The Zanti Regent]

3. We know the American Whore Press lies to us all the time

That's why we go to DU, Buzzflash, Bartcop, APJ, the BBC, UK Guardian, Take Back The Media and other web pages to get the truth!

[cybildisobedience]

4. there was a discussion about this on C-Span this a.m.

Of course, a few right-wing idiots called in to complain about how the media is too liberal, but a couple of callers who got through actually noted how so many of the mainstream news sources rely heavily on unnamed sources that often misrepresent the truth. One caller, the last one, even mentioned the fake reporter reading the fake news that was part of Bush's Medicare ad.

[PATRICK]

6. Newsflash

The investigation of Kelly is a hoax to discredit Kelly who is about to discredit CIA backed journalistic hoaxes.

Note that this unsubstantiated claim is itself a fictional hoax and is part of a discredited conspiracy theory.

I will be willing in the future to freelance stories such as this to the highest bidder, before I too am nailed and have to write a book about my tragic career.

I can back up all of the above with Photoshop.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. LOL

:D

[myomy]

7. Isn't this the way it works in real life?

.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Boston Herald story on Jack Kelley

(snip) For one of the stories that helped make him a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2001, Kelley wrote that he was an eyewitness to a suicide bombing in Jerusalem and described the carnage in graphic detail. But the investigation showed that the man Kelley described as the bomber could not have been the culprit, and his description of three decapitated victims was contradicted by police.

The newspaper also said ``the evidence strongly contradicted'' other published accounts by Kelley: that he spent the night with Egyptian terrorists in 1997; met a vigilante Jewish settler named Avi Shapiro in 2001; watched a Pakistani student unfold a picture of the Sears Tower and say, ``This one is mine,'' in 2001; interviewed the daughter of an Iraqi general in 2003; or went on a high-speed hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2003.

Hotel, phone or other records contradicted Kelley's explanations of how he reported stories from Egypt, Russia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Pakistan, the newspaper said.

The three former newspaper editors brought in to conduct the investigation - Bill Hilliard, Bill Kovach and John Seigenthaler - called Kelley's conduct ``a sad and shameful betrayal of public trust.''
(snip/)

http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=1446

[NewHampster]

11. Are there any Journalists Left in this world?

Are there?

[theHandpuppet]

13. Yeah...

We corral the few that are left into hotels and then let loose the tanks for some target practice. <sarcasm alert>

Seriously, too many legit journalists and cameramen seem to be getting "accidentally" killed by our own military. Coincidence? How many journalists have been killed by the U.S. as opposed to those killed by Palenstinians? Iraqis? Anyone else? We surely seem to have earned the dubious distinction of being the journalist-killers, haven't we? No wonder some of these guys just make up flag-waving stories and phone them in. It's a lot safer that way.

[lostnfound]

14. Amy Goodman. Seymour Hersh. Greg Palast. nt

[w4rma]

16. And the mainstream media, in the U.S., won't touch them. (n/t)

[Blue_Tires]

17. i'm one

making a fraction of what the big boys make....lol

[UTUSN]

18. Passing the Plagiarism Test, He's Eligible for

(like BARNICLE) fawning over by Tweety, G.E.RUSSERT, SCARBOROUGH, and IMUS. His opinions will be highly valued. He can join Gordon LIDDY, NORTH, Dick MORRIS, et al., with a lucrative career, plus fundraising tours sponsored by the Salvation Army.