Journalist Exposed Fabricating Quotes About Charleston Shooter, Trump Supporters

Tim Dionisopoulos | February 2, 2016
DONATE
Font Size

(Photo Credit: Juan Thompson's Intercept bio)

Juan Thompson, a former staff reporter of news site the Intercept, was exposed earlier today to have fabricated quotes used in his stories published on the site.

Four of Thompson's stories that mostly focused on race were "corrected," and one story titled, "Dylann Roof’s Cousin Claims Love Interest Chose Black Man Over Him," published on June 18, 2015, was completely retracted.

A note above the story about the infamous Charleston shooter, Dylann Roof, states; "After speaking with two members of Dylann Roof’s family, The Intercept can no longer stand by the premise of this story. Both individuals said that they do not know of a cousin named Scott Roof."

The story used fabricated quotes that Roof's shooting of an African-American church's Bible study group was heavily influenced by an ex-girlfriend who left him for an African-American male.

Another story titled "Black Lives Matter Activists Blocked From Entering Trump Campaign Rally," published on December 3, 2015, used made-up inflammatory quotes from purported Donald Trump supporters.

The piece also included unverified quotes from Black Lives Matter activists condemning Trump.

The Intercept released an official note about the incident from Editor-in-Chief Betsy Reed taking responsibility for the incident, and announcing Thompson's departure.

The official note revealed that Thompson admitted to creating fake email accounts to fabricate quotes, but refused to cooperate with the investigation and stood by his work.

The note added the site "published corrections and editor’s notes to the affected pieces, and we will publish further corrections if we identify additional problems."

Reed also wrote they were "contacting news outlets that picked up the corrected stories to alert them to the problems."

Thompson wrote for the site from November 2014 until last month. His bio on the site states his stories "focus on crime, punishment, the police state, and race" and that he was a former  "production assistant and reporter at Chicago’s NPR member station WBEZ and as a reporter for DNAinfo Chicago."

donate