Report Conclude USA Today's Newsroom Culture Enabled Reporter to Fabricate

[NNN0LHI]

Yep. Lying all the time just creates more liars. USA Today reminds me of Newsmax.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAJFRVPCTD.html

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - A former USA Today reporter was able to fabricate and plagiarize stories for more than a decade because of lax editing and newsroom leadership, a star system and a workplace climate of fear, the newspaper reported Thursday.

USA Today devoted an entire page to detailing the findings of two investigations into the work of Jack Kelley, who resigned in January after a company investigation into his stories. The paper also published a statement from its publisher, Craig Moon.

Initial findings from one investigation, done internally by a team of reporters and editors, had been reported previously. The report of the other investigation, conducted by three respected editors from the outside, was delivered to Moon last week but kept under wraps.

The scandal brought down Editor Karen Jurgensen, 55, who retired abruptly Tuesday. She had been held her post since 1999.

more

[boobooday]

1. Where is the truth?

Here, at DU. It sure as hell isn't out there in the mainstream press.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[ixion]

2. Do you think this shake up will improve the journalistic standard

of USAToday? Since day one they have been a 'lite' news paper, conservative and banal.

I think they might throws some veiled attempts at improvement, but I would be wildly suprized if they actually became a newspaper with integrity. :eyes:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. The problem is...

That said "Newsroom Culture" has been tainted by reporters being hired on the basis of their ability to deliver and intended effect. In this case, a conservative effect. They were hired to deliver news with a right-wing perspective, as opposed to just deliver the news in an unvarnished fashion.

Reportage is delivering the truth, warts and all. Journalistic cosmetologists of the right do not deliver the truth.

[UpInArms]

4. related article: Kelley issues apology as more fabrications emerge

http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-04-22-seigmain_x.htm

excerpts:

The subsequent review shows that substantial parts of at least 11 others, including most of Kelley's many notable stories, are simply untrue.

Among them: Kelley's accounts that he found diaries alongside the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 1991; traveled to a village in Somalia to interview an aid worker in 1992; discovered matches made from napalm that could burn through glass ashtrays in 1993; trekked into the mountains of Yugoslavia with the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1999; listened to a tape that captured the downing of a missionary flight over Peru in 2000; visited with Elian Gonzalez's father inside the father's house in Cuba in 2000; visited Osama bin Laden terrorist camps in Afghanistan in 2001; and spent time near the cave complexes of Tora Bora in 2001.

In addition, there appears to be no basis for a 2002 Kelley story that said U.S. forces in Afghanistan found evidence linking two Chicago-based Islamic charities to al-Qaeda.

<snip>

Why Kelley — a devout Christian who once told a magazine that he was drawn to journalism because "God has called me to proclaim truth" — perpetrated such frauds remains a mystery. In his statement e-mailed to the newspaper Wednesday, he seemed mystified himself.

...more...

that his lies were passed on to the reading public is disgusting.

:mad:

[Joanne98]

7. He's mystified himself? You got to be kidding.

A devout christian. That's probably the problem. The faithful seem to have waged a war against the truth lately. especially against science. It doesn't say what they believe so they want it changed. What a bunch of selfish brats.

[UpInArms]

5. related article: Report Criticizes USA Today Newsroom Culture

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33511-2004Apr22.html

USA Today's editors ignored repeated warnings about problems with Jack Kelley's reporting for a decade and a newsroom virus of "fear" prevented many staff members from speaking out about what became the worst scandal in the Gannett paper's history, says an investigative report made public today.

<snip>

Kelley, who had steadfastly maintained he had done nothing wrong in interviews with USA Today and The Washington Post, has finally apologized. "I have made a number of serious mistakes that violate the values that are most important to me as a person and as a journalist," he told his former newspaper in a statement. "I recognize that I cannot make amends for the harm I have caused to my family, friends, and colleagues."

<snip>

The report amounts to a sweeping indictment of the newsroom culture of the nation's top-selling newspaper, whose daily circulation exceeds 2 million but which, despite vast improvements, has never gained the reputation for serious journalism that it craved. Kelley, 43, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, gave USA Today some badly needed cachet.

...more...

[Joanne98]

8. What do they mean by a "climate of fear"

More conservative bullying?

[THUNDER HANDS]

6. you mean USA Today isn't the pinnacle of journalistic excellence?

Boy those 200-word stories really fooled me!

[Bill McBlueState]

9. Jack Kelley

Does anyone know if Jack Kelley also wrote for the (Toledo) Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette? There was someone who wrote for both papers; it was either him or someone with a similar name.

[Bill McBlueState]

10. "Newsroom Culture"

Blaming the "culture" seems to be the popular way to diffuse blame these days. This reminds me of how the Columbia disaster was explained as a result of the "culture" within NASA, rather any specific person's inaction or incompetence.