www.usatoday.com/news/2004-04-22-seigmain_x.htm
A review of more than 1,400 stories Kelley wrote during his 21 years at USA TODAY reveals a pattern of lies and deceit that appears to begin in 1991, when Kelley started reporting regularly from overseas. Related link : Full coverage In March, the newspaper reported that Kelley had fabricated at least eight stories, stolen at least two dozen quotes or other material from competing publications and conspired to mislead those investigating his work. A subsequent review of dozens of other stories, many published from 1991-2003, shows his transgressions are far more considerable: Kelley made up parts of at least 20 stories, including eight the newspaper detailed last month. He also devised alibis to try to hide his deceptions and, as early as 1991, confessed to Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau that he felt bad about the liberties he had taken in one of his stories. Kelley lifted at least a hundred passages from other publications, some of them verbatim. He also embellished the work of others or made his stories seem exclusive by attributing previously reported information to United States intelligence sources. Kelley billed the company for thousands of dollars in cash that he purportedly paid to translators or drivers who said they never received the money. In his first comments since USA TODAY published its initial findings in March, Kelley e-mailed a statement through his lawyer Wednesday that said: 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. I recognize that I cannot make amends for the harm I have caused to my family, friends, and colleagues. Nor can I make it up to readers who depend upon good journalism to understand a chaotic and confusing world. Although I remain proud of much of the work I did over 21 years, I understand that what I did wrong will diminish what I did right. John Seigenthaler, who oversaw the inquiry into Kelleys work, said the teams findings bring closure to the questions raised about Jack Kelley. But he said the issue of journalistic credibility remains a matter of concern for every reporter and editor. Initial investigation Kelley, 43, resigned in January after he admitted conspiring with a translator to mislead editors overseeing an inquiry into his work. At the time, editors could not determine whether Kelley had plagiarized or fabricated. After he quit, the newspaper appointed a group of reporters to scrutinize Kelleys stories. The group was monitored by three former editors from outside the newspaper. Throughout those interviews, Kelley insisted his stories were accurate.
In other cases, his rapport with those he interviewed seemed extraordinary, even under the most dire circumstances. In Yugoslavia in 1999, for instance, a refugee takes time to speak to Kelley even while the refugee believes dogs are trying to eat the body of his dead son. In at least a dozen cases, Kelley coaxed interviews amid deadly violence. In one 1999 story datelined Pristina, Yugoslavia, Kelley wrote that he talked with 76-year-old Mira Ivic as the first of 10 gunshots ricochets off the metal panels covering Ivics front door and window. Its the second consecutive night that the Serb widows house has come under fire. The Albanians want all Serbs out of Kosovo, Ivic says, lying on the floor as the gunfire stops. The newspaper could not locate Ivic or any records that show Kelley traveled to Pristina during that period. Perhaps Kelleys most perilous account, a 2 1/2-day journey into the mountains of Yugoslavia with the Kosovo Liberation Army, fits the mold. According to the story, Kelley witnessed an ambush, dodged gunfire by Serbian soldiers, watched from behind a rock as KLA soldiers yards away were maimed, and helped drag a dying soldier over the mountains to Macedonia. Not a day goes by that I dont live this over and over, he told American Journalism Review magazine weeks later. His account of how he met up with the KLA proved untrue, and a reporter from another newspaper recalls spending time with Kelley on two of the days Kelleys diary indicates he was in the mountains, alone, with the KLA. Sometimes, Kelley couldnt resist embellishing even the passages he stole. In one 1992 story, for instance, Kelley used this quote from an Associated Press account published three weeks earlier about a woman named Annalena Tonelli, the so-called Mother Teresa of Somalia: You dont need to talk to me. In the Associated Press version, Tonelli spoke the words while holding a frail child with glazed eyes and a runny nose. In Kelleys version, she spoke while running from machine-gun fire with a crying child in each arm. A mystery 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. I am now committed to taking the time to try to understand how I came to violate the principles I hold dear, his statement continues. At the end of this process, I hope that I will be able to talk about all of this at greater length, in a way that may help others avoid making the mistakes I made. The enormity of his transgressions continues to befuddle many of Kelleys former colleagues and friends, who thought they knew Kelley. They had marveled at his charm and ability to gain the trust of others, even though the globe-trotting foreign correspondent was fluent in no languages but English. His skills, they believed, helped him score the incredible scoops that distinguished him and made him a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Jack was nothing but helpful and genial to me, generous with his time, said cartoonist Trudeau, who spent a day in the Kuwaiti desert with Kelley in June 1991. Kelley wrote about finding a diary with the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers. If Kelley did find a diary, the diary was not with the bodies of the soldiers, Trudeau wrote in an e-mail to USA TODAY.
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