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Kelley's Phony Contrition
April 22, 2004
An investigative panel's report lays blame for extensive journalistic fraud by fired USA Today reporter Jack Kelley squarely on the paper's management. The veteran scribe was found to have plagarized 100 passages, and faked parts of 20 stories. His misdeeds date as far back as 1991. Editors should have acted on early warnings but didn't, according to the report. USA Today has aired the dirty laundry, and a top editor resigned earlier this week. And while you can't fault the paper if they played a part in wringing the following statement out of Kelley, as a journalist (even a disgraced one) he must know how lame this sounds. The words would've never been uttered if his scam hadn't been exposed. ...in a statement issued to the paper through his lawyers, Kelley (said)....'I recognize that I cannot make amends for the harm I have caused to my family, friends and colleagues. Nor can I make it up to readers who depend upon good journalism to understand a chaotic and confusing world. I can only offer my sincere apology to those I have let down,' Kelley said. The latest journo-fakers nailed include Jayson Blair (NY Times - book deal), Stephen Glass (The New Republic - book and movie), and Bart Ripp (Tacoma News-Tribune restaurant reviewer and features writer - uh, any takers?). Dunno whether Kelley will be shopping a deal or not. Perhaps a fictional treatement, like Glass? Anyway, USA Today is still a good read; although there's now one less reason that's true. Posted by Matt Rosenberg at April 22, 2004 03:28 PM Trackback Pings TrackBack URL for this entry: Comments:
Matt, you read the USA Today? Posted by: James Na at April 22, 2004 10:52 PMYeah, James, I actually do check out the online version of USA Today on a semi-regular basis. Despite the presence of feature-y stuff that's at least as bad that published anywhere else, they have fairly consistently had worthwhile news content. One example was a recent article (which I blogged) about the excellent track record of the K-12 schools on U.S. military bases, and how, by implication, public schools could learn a lot from their approach. Their opinion page is worth a look too, despite the rantings of columnist Juliette Malveaux. Posted by: Matt Rosenberg at April 23, 2004 08:28 AMPost a comment
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