USA Today reporter admits deception in probe

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 13, 2004

USA Today reporter admits deception in probe

A top foreign correspondent with USA Today said he resigned from the newspaper because he allowed a translator to lie for him during an investigation of his work, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

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A top foreign correspondent with USA Today said he resigned from the newspaper because he allowed a translator to lie for him during an investigation of his work, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Jack Kelley, a 21-year veteran of America's best-selling daily, stepped down Tuesday after an internal probe into the accuracy of his stories, although he stood by his stories.

USA Today announced the resignation but would not disclose details of the investigation, which had echoes of a probe over fabricated stories that hit The New York Times last year.

Kelley told the Post that during USA Today's probe, he had allowed a translator who was not present during a 1999 interview in Belgrade to call the paper's in-house investigator and impersonate another translator who had been there.

Kelley said he had not been able to track down the original translator for the investigation after Executive Editor Brian Gallagher told him, "You must produce her quickly."

"I resigned because I felt I should no longer work at USA Today because of what I'd done," The Washington Post quoted Kelley as saying in an interview.

USA Today had been checking the accuracy of Kelley's front-page article based on the Belgrade interview as part of a broader investigation into his reporting. Kelley, a 2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist, has covered many high-profile stories from the Balkans to the Middle East and the Iraq war.

"I knew it was wrong," the Post quoted Kelley as saying. He also said he had "panicked and used poor judgment" during the probe, but stands by every story he has written.

A USA Today spokesman declined immediate comment but said there would be a response to Kelley's interview in the newspaper Monday.

But Editor Karen Jurgensen said in a statement last week: "It is our policy to thoroughly investigate any suggestion of an inaccuracy. We are in a position where we are not correcting anything at this time."

Last year the two top editors at The New York Times resigned after the newspaper disclosed that a series of stories had been fabricated by reporter Jayson Blair.

Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Rick Bragg also left the newspaper amid allegations that a non-staffer had done uncredited reporting under his byline.

Source: Agencies

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