USA Today editor retires in wake of reporting scandal

[Newsjock]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-04-20-statement_x.htm

USA TODAY Editor Karen Jurgensen retired Tuesday in the wake of an investigation that found evidence of fabrications by former reporter Jack Kelley.

President and Publisher Craig Moon announced Jurgensen's retirement in an e-mail to staff. Jurgensen, 55, had been editor of USA TODAY since 1999.

Her retirement comes a month after the paper published a series of stories detailing Kelley's deceptions. An investigative team of senior journalists found that Kelley had 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.

Kelley, who began work at USA TODAY in 1982, resigned in January amid an initial investigation of his stories.

more

[stepnw1f]

1. What Stories Did He Write?

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. "What Stories Did He Write?" - Step #1 - Clik on link to story

.
.
.

Step #2

Clik on link in story that reads: - "Related item: Story on Kelley fabrications"

Voila!:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Here's a great one from that section, showing there is truly one born

every minute!

Posted 3/19/2004 3:57 AM Updated 3/19/2004 4:29 AM

Woman who died in Cuba story alive in USA

By Blake Morrison,USA TODAY

When USA TODAY foreign correspondent Jack Kelley returned from Cuba in February 2000, he brought home an incredible tale — and a photo he took to support it.

The story was of a woman, Yacqueline, whom Kelley said he watched flee Cuba for the USA. Six refugees, including Yacqueline and her little son, drowned the next day when a storm sank their boat, Kelley wrote. Atop the front-page, eyewitness narrative stood the photo that seemed to authenticate the tragedy — a picture of Yacqueline that Kelley said he took just days before her fateful trip.

The story, reprinted months later in Reader's Digest, was a lie from start to finish, an examination of Kelley's work shows.
(snip)

And the woman in the picture — a woman who Kelley wrote was swallowed by the sea — is alive, married, pregnant and now living in the southeastern United States, where she arrived from Cuba as a legal immigrant one year ago.
(snip/...)



http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-03-19-2004-03-19-kelley-cuba_x.htm

Reminds me of something a WORLD CLASS DU'er wrote the other day, "WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT WHOPPER?"

[stepnw1f]

4. ooops

[Voltaire99]

5. Sorry, the real scandal at USA Today...

...isn't the minor fabrications. It's the major simplifications.

If you seek a reason for the pureed American mind, look no further than USA Today and its imitators.

[frylock]

6. multi-colored fish wrap