Digital magazine The Intercept has fired reporter Juan Thompson after discovering “a pattern of deception” in his reporting˳ In a note to readers, editor-in-chief Betsy Reed revealed that Thompson had fabricated quotes in several stories and created email accounts in order to impersonate people˳
“Thompson went to great lengths to deceive his editors, creating an email account to impersonate a source and lying about his reporting methods,” Reed wrote˳
Following an investigation into Thompson’s reporting, the publication is retracting one story in its entirety and appending corrections to four others˳ Among the inconsistencies The Intercept discovered were quotes “attributed to people who said they had not been interviewed” and quotes that could not be verified˳
“Thompson admitted to creating fake email accounts and fabricating messages, but stood by his published work˳ He did not cooperate in the review,” Reed wrote˳
Among the stories of concern was a report by Thompson that Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old accused of mass murder at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, was in part motivated by a love interest rejecting him in favor of a black man˳ In the story, Thompson describes a phone conversation with Roof’s cousin, Scott Roof:
Scott Roof, who identified himself as Dylann Roof’s cousin, told me over the telephone that “Dylann was normal until he started listening to that white power music stuff˳” He also claimed that “he kind of went over the edge when a girl he liked starting dating a black guy two years back”…
“Dylann liked her,” Scott Roof said˳ “The black guy got her˳ He changed˳ I don’t know if we would be here if not …” Roof then abruptly hung up the phone˳
The story has been retracted˳ An editor’s note states: “After speaking with two members of Dylann Roof’s family, The Intercept can no longer stand by the premise of this story˳ Both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˳”
Another article, on the murders of black women in St Louis, originally included a quote attributed to a criminal justice professor˳ An editor’s note appended to the story now states: “The subject told us that she had not spoken to our reporter, had never taught criminal justice, and had no expertise in the matters on which she was quoted˳”
In her note, Reed said The Intercept will publish further corrections if they discover more problems˳
In his author biography at The Intercept, Thompson said that he previously worked as a production assistant and reporter for WBEZ, a public radio station in Chicago, and a reporter for DNAinfo Chicago˳ However, according to Ben Calhoun, VP of content and programming at WBEZ, this is not true˳ In an email to the Guardian, Calhoun wrote: “Juan was never a reporter at WBEZ˳ Juan was an intern for a local talk show for four months (May-August of 2014)˳ The extent of his duties was minimal, and he has no bylines with us˳”
Thompson has recently tweeted about being diagnosed with testicular cancer˳ Thompson’s Intercept email account is no longer active, and he did not immediately respond to attempts to reach him via Twitter˳
The Intercept was founded in 2014 by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill˳ Greenwald and Poitras are the journalists responsible for initially publishing the Edward Snowden documents detailing revelations of NSA surveillance˳ The Intercept is the first, and thus far the only, digital magazine published by eBay chairman Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media˳
- This article has was updated on 2 February 2016 to include new information from WBEZ contradicting a statement on The Intercept website that Thompson had been a reporter there˳
