Reply #89: Jason Leopold has a checkered history in journalism [View All]

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Summary here:

http://gnn.tv/articles/709/Media_Meltdown_The_Jason_Leopold_Saga

On October 9, GNN ran an article by a young reporter desperate to save his career. My Story – Shafted By The New York Times was the saga of 33-year-old freelance writer and former Wall Street Journal reporter Jason Leopold. According to Leopold’s emotional account, his reputation was deliberately sabotaged by Salon.com and The New York Times after Salon published what he called “the story of my career,” a hard-hitting investigation into current Army Secretary Thomas White. In the August 29 article, Leopold alleges White, while a top executive at Enron, instructed an underling to conceal Enron’s negative cash flow from investors. Leopold even had the smoking gun email to prove it.

The story was explosive. And in September, The New York Times’ financial columnist Paul Krugman cited Leopold’s reporting in one of his influential editorials, referring to White as a “corporate evildoer.” What followed is a bewildering tale of journalistic betrayal, prompted in part by Leopold’s own admitted indiscretions. Both Salon and the Times turned their back on the reporter, accusing him of one of journalism’s most deadly sins, and withdrawing their support for the validity of his most crucial piece of evidence – the “smoking gun email.” Leopold was left high and dry, his rep cooked, his future in mainstream media seemingly toast.

Was Leopold shafted? Or was he the victim of his own sloppy reporting? Getting at the truth in this story has proven murky. As Village Voice’s Cynthia Cotts wrote of Leopold’s plight, “The more mud that gets flung, the harder it is to see anything clearly.”

Read the whole thing.