Posted on 09/11/2005 3:11:10 PM PDT by Liberty Wins
So, I’m the guy who hired the person whose name is associated with creating the biggest print journalism boner in the country since New York Times’ reporter Jayson Blair filed his “out-of-state” stories from his Brooklyn apartment.
This week, an avalanche of stunning material has surfaced concerning Michael Brenner, who resigned and left the East Oregonian on July 16. (The former sportswriter spent exactly 164 days employed at the EO, 148 of them while I was still sports editor.)
It seems as though Brenner played a part in one of the longest ongoing hoaxes ever played out in journalism while he was working for the student newspaper at Southern Illinois University.
Not only did the ruse break the confidence of every person who ever read the Daily Egyptian, the hoax also belittled every man and woman who serves in our armed forces and their families.
Back in 2003, somebody — and the jury’s still out if Brenner played a role or not — concocted a scheme to invent a motherless 8-year-old girl who was dealing with the emotions of having her only known living relative — her father — called to war in Iraq.
While the scheme was soulless, the story Brenner wrote concerning the saga was heart-wrenching.
The piece was included in Brenner’s writing samples and played a role in his being hired at the EO ... I even gave the story to my wife to read, as I went through the rest of his clips at home.
While the piece had a few holes, it was extremely detailed concerning the little girl’s fears and her father’s emotions.
One of the first questions Brenner asked me while speaking to him on the phone was if I’d read “Forced Apart.” After I confirmed I had, he went into even more detail, giving updates on the pair 20 months later.
Brenner’s former paper had continued to cover the girl and her father until last week, and even published her writings, essentially giving her a column.
While he was here, Brenner received three to four calls a week while at work from a person he identified as Kodee, the little girl he wrote about. And the young voice on the other end of his cell phone seemed to support his claim.
Brenner eventually left Umatilla County, saying he missed his family and felt he needed to be in a situation where he could give the war-torn now-10-year-old emotional assistance.
But a not-so-funny thing happened after Brenner returned home to Chicago. Kodee’s dad supposedly died in Iraq and the Chicago Tribune thought it’d do a follow-up piece on the girl, who’d won over most of the hearts in southern Illinois, as she grieved for her fallen father.
Come to find out, there never was a father in the Army. Not one in the Navy, the Air Force, National Guard nor the Marines, either.
Jaimie Reynolds — the woman who acted as the girl’s guardian — says she reported Kodee’s father as killed in action, to stop the hoax she and Brenner cooked up.
But, Brenner says he’s an “idiot” for believing the story and that he was ignorant for not calling the military to check the father’s story. Brenner says Reynolds set him up, but she counters he was the “mastermind” of the entire ruse.
And a large segment of the nation is interested in Brenner. There’s been several columns and editorials written about him. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and CNN all wanted to speak with him earlier this week, and there are portions of at least two message Web sites dedicated to Brenner, one with hundreds of responses.
Now the police are intrigued, too, and Brenner contends he really didn’t know the folks involved in the story all that well because he used the telephone to obtain most of the quotes he ran in the original story.
Kodee says she’s never spoken to Brenner on the phone, though.
Which is what struck me as the oddest part of Brenner’s story: those phone calls he apparently received from Kodee for a few moments nearly every night he came to work.
Much like the Michael Brenner saga that’s unfolded this week, it doesn’t add up.
More than once, Brenner said people have referred to him as being naive. But to believe Brenner — that he spoke to a fictional character for more than two years on his cell phone — is a bit of a stretch in itself.
Is he indeed the most exploitable person I’ve ever met, or was he continuing his hoax and lying for some abstract reason?
While Brenner did believe a few tall tales we fed him from time to time in the newsroom, I never thought he was stupid, which can be an explanation in itself.
From where I sit, irony slaps me hardest knowing I hired Brenner in part because of “Forced Apart.” But the most blistering piece of irony for Brenner must be “Forced Apart” helped him land his first — and what will most likely be his last — job in journalism.
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News Editor Lance Ogden can be reached at 966-0835 or at lance@eastoregonian.com.
Think about this and the Jason Blair case a second. It would seem that the job qualifications for a journalist appear rather consistent without reference to whether one is a discovered charlatan or not. It all has to do with a modicum of writing skill, exploitation, drama, self-aggrandizement, and no small amount of exaggeration. And this is a profession?
Think about this and the Jason Blair case a second. It would seem that the job qualifications for a journalist appear rather consistent without reference to whether one is a discovered charlatan or not. It all has to do with a modicum of writing skill, exploitation, drama, self-aggrandizement, and no small amount of exaggeration. And this is a profession?
I suppose that someone without the talent to write a decent work of fiction – say a short story or novel; can always find work in the field of journalism.
I mean really, writing quality fiction is very difficult. I know because I’ve made a few feeble attempts over the years and recognized I have neither the talent nor the patience to follow through. I now stick to emails, business letters and Free Republic Postings.
But why go to all the trouble to write a piece of fiction under the guise of journalism? A deception of this magnitude takes a considerable amount of time and effort and I guess a certain kind of talent to pull it off for as long as he did. Why not devote that to either being a good journalist or being a passable author?
Oh and when I took a few journalism courses I seem to recall there being something called a “Fact Checker” and for a few minutes I thought that would be a really cool job.
Even prostitutes are more aware of their own sins than journalists. And cleaner at the point of business.
As a longtime actual journalist, this stuff steams me to no end.
I can only "take heart" that the integrity of nearly every profession has been steadily sliding downhill over the past decade or so.
Which is not a good thought at all.
Yep. As someone in the accounting profession, seeing the results of Enron, Arthur Anderson and such, I have to concur.
[Stealing from the tourism bureau's slogan...]
"Welcome to Oregon, things look different here."
A.A.C.
"Why write a piece of fiction in the guise of journliam"? Ask the NYT. Go to the top, ask a pro.
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