Fear and Lying at USA Today. Writer Says Panic Led to Deception, Then Resignation

Washington Post ^ | January 11, 2004 | Howard Kurtz

[John Jorsett]

When USA Today correspondent Jack Kelley resigned Tuesday after an investigation of his work, many colleagues wondered why he had quit if, as he adamantly maintained, his reports from around the world had been accurate.

The reason, Kelley now acknowledges, is that he "panicked and used poor judgment" during the probe.

In an effort to prove that he had spoken with a human rights activist in Yugoslavia, Kelley said in an interview, he encouraged a translator who was not present during the 1999 sit-down to impersonate another translator who was there. The woman who agreed to help Kelley called the USA Today journalist assigned to investigate the matter last fall and verified Kelley's account as if she had been there.

About two weeks later, Kelley said, he realized the magnitude of his error and confessed to the paper's publisher, executive editor and reporter Mark Memmott, who had received the bogus call.

[martin_fierro]

Releated thread

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[M-cubed]

more of the same ol' arrogant liberal think....to a liberal..The ends always justifies the means!...or...In a nut shell.. liberal morals are governed by their politics...as opposed to conservitives whose politics are governed by their morals...

[cake_crumb]

So...his defense is that he lied during a probe investigating him for lying

[heighduke]

Is he a liberal? The article says he's an evangelical Christian.

[skinkinthegrass]

...as opposed to Conservatives whose politics are governed by their morals...

So true, So true...Only one thing defines them, Domestic Political Victories!...

unfortunately GWB..is following their example...more non-defence $$$$, the Geezer Drug Bill, "Swimmer" Kennedy's Education Bill...(N.E.A. Enhancement Act)...McCain/Finegold CFR Bill, (Incumbent Protection Act)...PBAB, one of the few bones thrown to his supporters...very small potatoes in the scheme of things.

[Reactionary]

This can't be. Yugoslavia was experiencing ethnic cleansing. The Serbs were killing Albanian Islamicists by the bushel.

Clinton told us so. Weasley bombed a passenger train and old men on tractors to prove it.

[M-cubed]

Do evangelical Christians ever make mistakes?...do they ever fall into the trap of liberal think?...do they ever put personal gain ahead of their religeous beliefs?..Of course they do..they're only human!..IMHO..his professed religeous beliefs are not a factor other then his personal failure to adhere to them...if he truly is an evangelical Christian, he will gain from his mistakes...which was precisly my original point...He has something positive to fall back on, a moral base!!..What does a liberal fall back on when his politics fail him?

[Publius6961]

Is he a liberal? The article says he's an evangelical Christian.

What difference does it make? A liar and a fraud is a liar and a fraud.
I don't cut any slack to anyone on account of party affiliation, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or anything else.

[M-cubed]

*LOL*..Damn! .. there's some terrible spelling in that post!..Need to take my own advice and proof read at least once before I hit that post button!!...

[M-cubed]

"A liar and a fraud is a liar and a fraud."<<<...Bingo!.. goes right back to the basics!...morals should be the governing factor!!!..

[cake_crumb]

While campaigning, he promised education reform, Medicare Reform and campaign finance reform. He kept those promises.

[cake_crumb]

It was a good post, typos and all. And you're right. Look at the WCC.

[joan]

In a front-page 1999 report, Kelley wrote that Kandic, whom he quoted but did not identify, had obtained "a Yugoslav army three-ring notebook" that "contains a direct order to a lieutenant to 'cleanse' the village of Cusk" in Kosovo.

...In October, Kelley said, Kandic told him and Gallagher in Washington that she did not remember meeting Kelley before...

...He [Kelley] said Kandic confirmed the existence of the notebook cited in the story, while Gallagher concluded she had not.

If there really was such a notebook in Natasa Kandic's possession, you'd think that she would be at the Hague with it. This doesn't appear to be happening.

[Paulus Invictus]

USA Today is a left-leaner from its start and I take most of their political commentary as severely biased leftwards. They are like the NYT in their inability to be "balanced."

[ConsistentLibertarian]

"to a liberal..The ends always justifies the means!...or...In a nut shell.. liberal morals are governed by their politics...as opposed to conservitives whose politics are governed by their morals..."

That explains what happened with Ambassador Wilson and Valerie Plume? You're thinking Nixon was a liberal?

Just checking.

Sometimes people get carried away and want to feel good about their home team and so they say outrageously false things, but if you talk them down a bit they start to come back to reality and shrug it off with a sheepish grin as hyperbole borne of enthusiasm gone wild. Good to have friends who can do that for you.

Other times people like the fantasy so much, they can't be talked down. They tend more than most to engage only with like-minded people. You can find them on the left. You can find them on the right. You can find them in Church and you can find them in front of the TV on Sunday.

I wonder if there was ever a time when that wasn't the sort of person they wanted to be, or whether they just never reflected on the question and drifted into bad habits that blind them to their present circumstances.

[Wilhelm Tell]

...Weasley bombed a passenger train and old men on tractors to prove it.

I hadn't thought of it before, but Clark and Kerry could debate on who has the better civlian kill ratio.

[freeangel]

Another case of "I didn't REALLY do that--the fear and panic made me do it." The left always uses that excuse.

[185JHP]

Bob Kerrey, accused of an atrocity, or Ketchup John Kerry?