Category Archives: Journalism

Journalism – Jayson Blair 2003

12 October 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

In an all too familiar pattern of deception for major media in the U.S., Jayson Blair, a journalist, resigned from The New York Times in 2003 for serial abuse of journalistic standards which included fabrication, plagiarism, and falsification of his reporting locations.

His journalistic transgressions were first exposed when the San Antonio Express-News drew attention to Blair’s 26 April 2003 Times story which was very similar to a story written by an Express-News reporter on 18 April 2003.

The resulting investigation into Blair’s written work revealed, according to Factual America, “…numerous instances of plagiarism, where Blair had lifted passages verbatim from other newspapers and wire services. The investigation also revealed fabricated quotes, invented scenes, and false datelines. Blair claimed to be reporting from locations he had never visited.”

Blair later claimed mental illness and substance abuse were the root causes of his deceptions.

Source: Jason Blair, Factual America.  Graphic: Jayson Blair, Fox News.

Matt Taibbi—First Amendment Absolutist:

3 October 2024 By in History, Journalism, Politics, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Taibbi delivered a righteous and necessary speech on the need to preserve the First Amendment to the Constitution, in particular the right to free speech at a ‘Recue the Republic’ gathering in Washington D.C. on 29 September 2024.

Taibbi makes the pertinent point that the current government efforts to eliminate dis-or-misinformation from the public discourse is not the real goal but that “The endgame is getting us to forget we ever had anything to say.”

He continues that the writers of the constitution’s Bill of Rights were absolutist in how the First Amendment could be interpreted, stating: “[James] Madison [author of the First Amendment] famously eschewed the word toleration or tolerance when it came to religion and insisted on the words freedom or liberty instead. This became the basis for the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which in turn became the basis for the Bill of Rights. That’s why we don’t have “toleration of religion” or “toleration of speech.” We have freedom of speech.”

Read the entire speech, link below. It’s a quick read and entertaining to boot.

Source: My Speech in Washington: “Rescue the Republic” (racket.news). Graphic: First Amendment, Melissa Randall, LibreTexts.

Journalism–Jack Kelly 2004

28 September 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Jack Kelly, serial fabrication specialist, allowed USA Today to call him a reporter until 2004 when the newspaper grew tired of referring to Kelly as a journalist and fired him or somewhat more accurately, forced him to resign.

Kelly, a five-time Pulitzer nominee, in addition to fabricating stories also plagiarized material from paper’s competitors, conspired to mislead those investigating his work, filed unsubstantiated expense reports, and made-up events in a speech to Evangelical Press Association.  He had no shame, and naturally he maintained his innocence. It was all simple and honest mistakes.

USA Today began an investigation into Kelly’s work after receiving an anonymous letter that questioned the accuracy of his articles.

Blake Morrison of USA Today who investigated the reporter’s work wrote, “Perhaps Kelley’s most egregious misdeed occurred in 2000, when he used a snapshot he took of a Cuban hotel worker to authenticate a story he made up about a woman who died fleeing Cuba by boat. The woman in the photo neither fled by boat nor died.”

Trivia: I was unable to locate a picture of Jack Kelly.

Source: USA Today, NBC, CBS. 

Journalism–Ken Dilanian

21 September 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Ken Dilanian was a CIA sycophant and government propagandist pretending to have been a reporter for the L.A Times and other news outlets. Dilanian, before publishing any national security stories, shared them with the CIA to obtain their approval to print. The spy agency instructed him in what he could and couldn’t publish, usually lies were approved while the truth languished in the discredited realm of the conspiracists.

After L.A. Times examined Dilanian’s emails, his government approved word smithing become known, and his work was disavowed by the paper in 2017. Dilanian is now working for NBC News as a justice and intelligence correspondent.

Through the years there have been rumors that the CIA had full-time employees seconded to all the major news outlets in the country. Carl Bernstein in 1977 said that upwards to 400 journalists were CIA plants and the most valuable employees or assets were at the New York Times, CBS, and Time.

Source: Muck Rack. The Intercept. CATO. Graphic: Ken Dilanian.

Journalism–Brian Williams

14 September 2024 By in Journalism, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

NBC journalist and anchor Brian Williams fraudulently and consistently inserted himself into his news reports.

He claimed he was flying in a helicopter in 2003 over Iraq that was hit by an RPG. He wasn’t. Washington Post called it a memory flub. The New York Times, Newsweek, and others suggested it was a false memory.

He claimed to have been at the Brandenburg Gate when the Berlin Wall came down. He wasn’t.

He claimed to have flown to Bagdad with Seal Team Six. He didn’t.

Source: CNN, Medium, New York Post. Graphic: New York Post cover.

Journalism – Make it Up, Get Paid

7 September 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , Leave a comment

In an all too familiar case of journalistic malpractice, “Claas Relotius, a reporter and editor, [for Der Spiegel] falsified his articles on a grand scale and even invented characters, deceiving both readers and his colleagues,” wrote Germany’s Der Spiegel in 2018.

Claas Relotius, who won numerous awards for his work with Der Spiegel, falsified significant portions of articles for the news magazine. CNN reported that he admitted to ‘partial fabrications … [t]hat included making up dialogue and quotes and creating composite characters.’

This type of journalistic behavior seems to occur frequently, and it is likely more commonplace than consumers of news are led to believe. Layers and layers of fact checkers and editors never stop the flood tide of false narratives and fake news.

Source: ‘Germany’s Der Spiegel says star reporter Claas Relotius wrote fake stories…’ by Sherisse Pham, 2018, CNN. Graphic: Fake News, AI Generated.

Journalism — Juan Thompson 2016

31 August 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , Leave a comment

Juan Thompson, working for ‘The Intercept’, was another all-too-common serial fabricator passing himself off as a reporter.  He made up quotes of people he did not speak to or people who likely did not even exist. Thompson went to great lengths to hide his mendacity, such as creating email accounts to help prove the existence of his non-existent sources.

Betsy Reed, his editor at ‘The Intercept’, fired him in February 2016 after ‘a pattern of deception’ became all too apparent to ignore.

In March 2017 Thompson was arrested by the FBI for making bomb threats to Jewish community centers in the U.S. and cyberstalking his ex-girlfriend. In December 2017 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release.

Source: Disgraced Former Journalist…, ABC News, 2017.  Graphic: Juan Thompson, Warren County Sheriff’s Department via AP Photo.

Journalism–NBC News 2012

24 August 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , Leave a comment

NBC News creatively edited a police phone record to create a racist narrative where none existed in the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012.

George Zimmerman, performing on a neighborhood watch detail, called the local police to inform them there was ‘a real suspicious guy…’walking around, looking about.’  Shortly afterward Zimmerman claimed that the ‘suspicious guy’, who was black, violently confronted him and as a consequence Zimmerman fatally shot Martin. Zimmerman claimed it was self-defense and the police were unable to prove otherwise.

NBC News edited and broadcast Zimmerman’s call to the police making it sound like Zimmerman was a racist and had used a racial epithet. Zimmerman filed a lawsuit disputing NBC’s allegations.

NBC News initially ‘strongly disagree[d]’ with the accusations made in the complaint’ by Zimmerman but later NBCUniversal Media, owner of NBC News apologized for editing the phone call and let go three network and local NBC station employees.

Zimmerman lost his lawsuit against the network because he was unable to show that NBC acted with malice. Proving malice is the ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card routinely used by the media to absolve itself of the consequences of false reporting.

Source: Zimmerman Sues NBC by McDowall, 2012, NBC News. Graphic: Partial Quote from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address 1865.

Journalism — Jonah Lehrer 2012

17 August 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Up until 2012, Jonah Lehrer was a wunderkind of everything he touched; Rhodes Scholar, degree in neuroscience, contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, etc, and author of three books.

Then people started noticing alarming similarities in his writings. At first it was just self-plagiarism, borrowing text from his books to write newer articles. Some still argue that plagiarizing yourself is no crime but when you are getting paid for original work it probably should be, well, original.

Next up was grabbing material from press releases and pasting them into his articles without attribution. Then onto very slightly modified posts written by others without any attribution. Made up quotes followed.

After in-depth investigations into his work Jonah Lehrer was fired from The New Yorker and Wired plus two of his books were recalled.

Source: The Fall of Johah Lehrer by Jonathan Bailey, 2012, Plagiarism Today. Johnah Lehrer’s Journalistic Misdeeds at Wired.com by Charles Seife, 2012, Slate. Graphic: AI generated, 2024.

Journalism — Dan Rather 2004

10 August 2024 By in Journalism Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In attempt to lower the odds of a sitting president’s re-election chances Dan Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, aired a story on 60 Minutes Wednesday in 2004 critical of President George W. Bush’s National Guard service.

The documents used to support the story were quickly proven fabrications. The New York Times headline defending Rather’s reporting said ‘Memos on Bush Are Fake but Accurate, Typist Says’.

‘Fake but Accurate’ became the main defense of Rather/Mapes exposé leading to much critical derision and laughter.

The broadcast delved into whether the President had completed all his National Guard service requirements during the early 1970s. It was stated in the documents used to support the show’s story that Bush disobeyed a direct order to appear for a physical and that family friends squashed any investigation into his service.

The documents in question supposedly came from the files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, one of Bush’s Guard commanders. Killian died in 1984 so was unable to collaborate the documents’ contents when the story aired 20 years later. Killian’s typist claims she did not type the documents but said the fake documents accurately stated the issues related to Bush’s service. How a National Guard typist would know this wasn’t volunteered in the story.

The documents were quickly discovered to be fakes because the font, character spacing, and other computer generate text did not exist on 1970s era typewriters. The documents also appeared to have been generated on a word processor using Microsoft software. Microsoft word processing software was first released in 1983. It was also reported that Rather and Mapes were discussing the story with John Kerry’s campaign staff before the story aired which ran counter to all journalistic standards.

Mary Mapes was fired from CBS in January of 2005 and Rather was allowed to retire in March of 2005.

On the question of motive, Mapes had been researching the Bush National Guard story for 5 years before it was aired in 2004.

Source: Rather Relieved | Power Line (powerlineblog.com) by Hinderaker, 2004. A Look Back At The Controversy – CBS News by Chris Hawke, 2005. Graphic: Dan Rather, Marty Lederhandler, 1993—Caption added by author.