Some unreliable sources

8226; And this list is not original, we8217;ve reproduced it.

Janet Cooke, The Washington Post 1980-1981

In 1980, Post reporter Cooke8217;s story 8220;Jimmy8217;s World8221;, about an eight-year-old heroin addict, sparked a frenzied 17-day scouring of Washington DC at the behest of then-Mayor Marion Barry, in search of child addicts: none were found. Nevertheless, the article won a 1981 Pulitzer Prize. Cooke confessed that 8220;Jimmy8221; was a fabrication 8211; she said in later interviews that she had heard of such a boy on the streets, but created him to get her editors off of her back. Cooke resigned and the Post returned the prize.

8220;Waiting to Explode,8221; Dateline NBC 1992

In a November 1992 segment on its Dateline news programme called 8220;Waiting to Explode8221;, NBC showed a General Motors truck exploding after a low-speed collision with another car. The explosion, though, was actually generated by hidden remote-controlled incendiary devices. GM sued and eventually won a settlement. NBC News President Michael Gartner was forced to resign.

Jayson Blair, The New York Times 2003

In May 2003, NYT reporter Jayson Blair resigned after being confronted with evidence of fabricating quotes and details in at least 36 articles. Among the fraudulent stories he had filed was an interview with the parents of former Iraq prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, later found to have been entirely falsified. Times8217; Executive Editor and Managing Editor, considered partially culpable for Blair8217;s indiscretions, resigned about a month after the scandal. In response to the scandal, Times created the position of Public Editor, whose critiques of the paper8217;s own reporters, techniques and culture are published twice every month.

Jack Kelley, USA Today 2004

In early 2004, a search of the computer of star reporter Kelley found letters to friends asking them to pretend to be sources sought by the paper to verify his stories. An internal investigation later found that Kelley had been fabricating stories or parts of stories since at least 1991, and that outside sources had been warning USA Today reporters about Kelley8217;s accuracy. The investigation concluded that editorial favoritism played a significant role, given Kelley8217;s star status. USA Today8217;s top two editors resigned.

The Boston Globe8217;s Fake 8220;GI Rape8221; Photographs 2004

In May of 2004, the Boston Globe published photographs it alleged were of United States soldiers abusing and raping women in Iraq. Shortly thereafter, these photographs were stated to be commercially-produced pornography that were originally published on a web site named 8220;Sex in War8221;. At the time, other news sources claimed to have already exposed the photographs as fake at least a week before the Boston newspaper published them.

Fake American hostage, Associated Press 2005

The Associated Press moved a story in February 2005 with a picture of what appeared to be an American soldier held hostage in Iraq. The story stated that the captors would kill the soldier in 72 hours unless Iraqi prisoners were freed. Within hours after the story was published, bloggers figured out that the 8220;hostage8221; was in fact a G. I Joe Air force special operations doll named 8220;Cody8221;.