- Jack Kelley
Jack Kelley was a longtime "
USA Today " reporter and nominee and finalist for thePulitzer Prize in 2002.He is perhaps best known for his professional downfall in March 2004, when it came out that he had long been fabricating stories, going so far as to write up scripts so associates could pretend to be sources during an investigation of his actions by others at the newspaper.
The newspaper conducted an extensive review of Kelley's stories, going so far as to send investigators, including reporter and former mid-level editor Mark Memmott, to
Cuba ,Israel , and Serbia to check his work and sift through stacks of hotel records to determine if Kelley was where he claimed to be filing stories from. Kelley resigned but denied the charges. The "USA Today" publisher,Craig Moon , issued a public apology on the front page of the newspaper. The scandal led to the resignations of two key staff members at the newspaper, top editorKaren Jurgensen and News section managing editorHal Ritter in April 2004.ee also
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United States journalism scandals External links
* [http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-03-18-2004-03-18_kelleymain_x.htm "Ex-USA TODAY reporter faked major stories"] , by Blake Morrison, "USA Today" (3/19/2004)
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