Resigned USA Today reporter Jack Kelley was kind to me when I was a young know-nothing reporter starting out in the Balkans in 1995, and a few months after meeting him, I was stringing for the paper from Sarajevo. He was always [and is] not only an extremely talented and energetic international correspondent, but a decent and generous person who tried to help many others, as is evident from the many testimonials about his kindness and professionalism over at Romenesko.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a USA Today editor and reporter and told that they wanted to do a follow up story to one of Kelley's stories from Kosovo in 1999 - on an issue I had written on as well - the horrible plight of elderly Serbian women in Kosovo suffering revenge attacks by Kosovar Albanians after the NATO war. I put the editor in touch with two reporters I thought were still in Kosovo -- and he promised to let me know the result. When the news broke at the Post the other day about the USA Today investigation into Kelley's work, I realized to my great discomfort that I had been used under false pretexts in the Kelley investigation. But I also expected that the sources I had put the editor in touch with would surely be able to verify whatever questions they had about Kelley's Kosovo stories, which struck me as more than credible and plausible.

I know well enough the background to a couple of the stories Kelley wrote which were apparently under investigation -- the Yugoslav army massacre at Cuska, Kosovo, and the revenge attacks against Serbian grandmothers in post-war Kosovo -- and am convinced they were utterly true. I also know fairly well the human rights activist Natasa Kandic who was apparently the source for Kelley's Cuska story and who was called into USA Today to verify whether she indeed gave an interview to Kelley. As the Post reports, Kandic apparently told them she couldn't recall. But Kandic did apparently also tell the USA Today investigators that she was deluged for interview requests at that time, and it wouldn't at all be surprising for her not to remember everyone she was speaking with four years ago. That she was so deluged by the international and domestic media I and dozens of other reporters covering post-war Yugoslavia can attest.

Clearly the fact that Kelley panicked and turned to another Yugoslav interpreter to portray his original interpretor to the investigators breathing down his neck is indefensible and makes his resignation more understandable - but not any less tragic. He admits he employed this pathetic deception to prove his story was accurate -- but there's nothing I've seen to suggest his original story was not accurate. The fact that Kelley was apparently such pressure that he would make such a suicidal move is really quite tragic.

I'm really disturbed by what's happened and wish Kelley all the best. It would seem the paper where he had worked for 18 years might have done more to give him the benefit of the doubt when they received the anonymous letter apparently accusing Kelley of journalistic fraud, seeing as USA Today's editors as far as they have admitted never found a single assertion in any of Kelley's stories under investigation that require a correction. It's highly disturbing that a man's career and credibility have been destroyed based on what followed his editors' receipt of an anonymous letter.

And one other thing -- Kelley apparently received serious threats and thousands of hate emails after a story he wrote about Israeli extremists' hateful comments about the Palestinians. Is it inconceivable that Kelley could be the victim of an anonymous letter sent by those who feel his story hurt the cause? Any journalist who's written on the Balkans or the Middle East -- even local school boards - knows the kind of heat one can face when one ruffles the feathers of certain interest groups-- it happens every day. Surely this possibility should have been investigated by the USA Today editors as well?

Follow Up: Editor & Publisher reports that USA Today plans to run a "blow-by-blow" account of the Kelley investigation on Tuesday.

Posted by Laura at January 12, 2004 12:52 PM