Article Jack Kelley
Summary: In 2004, it was uncovered that Jack Kelley, one of USA Today’s most respected reporters, a five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, had been fabricating major news stories at least since 1991.
Posted by: Elliot Feldman
In 2004 it was uncovered that Jack Kelley, one of USA Today’s most respected reporters, a veteran of 18 years and a five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, had been fabricating major news stories at least since 1991. Many of these stories wound up on the front page of the paper. Many of the eyewitnesses, unnamed sources, and victims in some of his most high-profile stories were not only fictional but several seemed to serve mostly to reinforce divisive ethnic stereotyping. These fictional portraits of non-existent news sources included a vindictive bloodthirsty Israeli vigilante at the scene of a suicide-bombing, an equally bloodthirsty teenaged Pakistani terrorist with his sights on Chicago’s Sears Tower, and a tragic Cuban refugee who had drowned when her boat capsized in a failed attempt to reach America.
In the past ten years, in particular, some of his stories had gained a wide range of unusual supporters including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, a notorious Holocaust-denial organization, an Arab Anti-Defamation group, and a pro-Israel lobbyist group.
USA Today’s secret investigation
In all fairness to USA Today, it was staff members who uncovered Jack Kelley’s fabrications. Their suspicions were first triggered by Kelley’s 1999 story about witnessing the discovery of secret Serbian documents verifying acts of “ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo. These staff members launched a secret investigation to verify the facts in Kelley’s story. They tried to locate the “ethnic cleansing” documents, but to no avail. They did, however, track down Kelley’s so-called “translator” in Kosovo. She could not verify the existence of the documents. She said that her “translation” of the documents was transcribed only from Kelley’s telling of the tale.
It was Jack Kelley’s drowned Cuban refugee story in 2000 that accelerated the investigation. His story included a snapshot of the ill-fated refugee from happier times in Cuba. A USA Today reporter went to Cuba and discovered that the “drowned” woman was a Cuban hotel employee. She was alive and well, and had never attempted to escape to America by boat.
When Kelley became aware that he was being investigated, he hired at least three people to deceive USA Today’s team of fact-checkers. Upon examining his company-owned laptop, it was discovered he had created scripts for these so-called overseas story sources.
USA Today’s full investigation
In 2004 USA Today conducted a full-blown investigation with a team of reporters led by three respected journalists currently unaffiliated with the newspaper. The lead investigator was John Seigenthaler, USA Today’s founding editorial director.
Seven weeks after the full investigation was launched, the investigation team concluded that as many as 150 news reports contained fabricated elements including eyewitness accounts, quotes from unnamed sources, and human interest stories.
References
- “Ex-USA Today reporter faked major news stories”, Blake Morrison, USA Today
- Seigenthaler report, USA Today
- “Case Study: Jack Kelley and USA Today”, PBS
- “USA Today found hoax before writer confessed”, Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
- “Blood-thirsty Arabs, vigilante Jews”, John Gorenfeld, Salon