Intercept reporter Juan Thompson was fired last month for fabricating quotes in his articles and creating fake email accounts to impersonate sources.
In a note to readers, Intercept Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed wrote that Thompson attributed quotes to people who say they had never been interviewed, could not remember being interviewed or couldn’t be found. He created fake email accounts purportedly from some of these sources and lied to his editors.
“We apologize to the subjects of the stories; to the people who were falsely quoted; and to you, our readers,” Reed wrote. “We are contacting news outlets that picked up the corrected stories to alert them to the problems.”
The Intercept has retracted one of Thompson’s stories completely (but has left it up on the website with a note) and made corrections to others. The retracted story involved Scott Roof, the alleged cousin of Charleston, South Carolina shooter Dylann Roof. Dylann made headlines in 2015 when he murdered nine black churchgoers in an attack motivated by racism.
Thompson claimed he spoke to Scott about the shooter. Scott allegedly told Thompson that “Dylann was normal until he started listening to that white power music stuff” and “he kind of went over the edge when a girl he liked starting dating a black guy two years back.”
During their investigation, editors for the Intercept spoke to members of the Roof family, who said they had never heard of a cousin named Scott.
In another story, about Black Lives Matter activists being blocked from a Donald Trump rally, Thompson invented quotes and people. He gave the full name of one of his sources, who told the Intercept that she was not at the rally, was not a Trump supporter and never spoke to Thompson. The Intercept also couldn’t verify the existence of a BLM activist who allegedly provided a quote to Thompson.
In total, the Intercept retracted one story and added corrections to four others. Reed wrote that editors will make additional corrections if they find any.
“The Intercept deeply regrets this situation. Ultimately, I am accountable for everything we publish,” Reed wrote. “The best way we can see to maintain the trust of readers is to acknowledge and correct these mistakes, and to focus on producing journalism we are proud of.”
These kinds of stories fascinate me, it’s probably why I write about false narratives so much. Thompson brings to mind another disgraced reporter, Stephen Glass, who in 1998 was revealed to have invented quotes and sources. Glass was fired from the New Republic, and a documentary was made about his deception.
Thompson’s deceptive articles are also similar to those of (former?) Rolling Stone author Sabrina Rubin Erdely, who wrote in a similar style to Glass and failed to verify details, such as a gang-rape accusation at a college fraternity. And of course, one can never forget to include Jayson Blair in a list of fabulists, as he also fabricated articles in part by claiming to have traveled places he had not.
While Thompson probably won’t rise to the level of infamy of Glass or Blair, it’s still incredible how people in this day and age believe they will get away with lies. Even more amazing to me is how and why they decide to come up with the lies in the first place.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
