USA TODAY set to conduct independent probe

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USA TODAY set to conduct independent probe

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USA TODAY, in the media spotlight since foreign correspondent Jack Kelley resigned last week after admitting deceiving editors who had been investigating his reporting, said Thursday that it will conduct an independent probe of all Kelley's work.

"It will include an examination of all stories he wrote and any related matters that the committee conducting the examination may choose to explore," said a statement signed by USA TODAY Publisher Craig Moon and USA TODAY Editor Karen Jurgensen.

Neither Jurgensen nor Moon would comment beyond the statement. Kelley had worked at USA TODAY since its founding in 1982.

Kelley could not be reached for comment Thursday, but his lawyer, Lynne Bernabei, questioned the newspaper's ability to be fair. "Any committee appointed by USA TODAY is simply going to conduct a vendetta against Jack Kelley," she said. She said that the newspaper is intent on finding something to use against Kelley �� "no matter how small, to taint his stellar 21-year career."

It is unclear who the members of the review team might be, although the statement said they would be named soon. "USA TODAY reporters and editors will be added as needed to do whatever work is necessary," the statement said.

Kelley resigned last week after editors determined that he had deceived them during the course of their investigation, which was initially prompted by an anonymous complaint from a staff member in May. Kelley, who was a 2002 Pulitzer Prize finalist, admitted inventing a witness to corroborate a story he reported in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1999, but he has insisted that all of his reporting has been accurate.

After his resignation, questions were raised about a story that appeared under Kelley's byline in 1998 about small-arms dealers on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Several passages were very similar to a story that had appeared in The Washington Post two months earlier from the same location.

Washington Post Executive Editor Len Downie said that it seemed to him that Kelley had read Post reporter Kevin Sullivan's story. "There are clearly similarities," Downie said.

After the questions about the Post story surfaced, Jurgensen said that USA TODAY was asking for "readers, sources or employees" to come forward with any "new information" on Kelley's reporting. "We'll look into any story. We'll work our way through this process," she said.

Source: Agencies<>

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