Hoax Leaves Illinois Student Paper Embarrassed

[Placebo]

Kodee Kennings' story was pure gold. For nearly two years, the motherless 8-year-old spoke and wrote movingly of her struggle to deal with her soldier father being shipped off to fight in Iraq, and Southern Illinois University's student newspaper chronicled her thoughts in its pages.

But there was no Kodee Kennings, and the elaborate hoax exposed Friday left The Daily Egyptian embarrassed.

"Certainly for us it's a sad day," said Eric Fidler, Daily Egyptian faculty adviser for the past year. "Some good can come from this, but it doesn't help our reputation. All we can do is be upfront with what happened and what we know."

A 2004 SIU graduate who posed as Kodee's guardian says she and a former Daily Egyptian editor concocted the story to help his career. He denies that and says he was duped, too.

More...

[HereSince1628]

1. Oh, that is a bit more than embarrassing for my alma mater.

I feel sorry for the students working on the DE.

Bode must be beside hismself.

[daleo]

2. It sounds like it was pure Bushit.

"As long as people dig those sentimental stories and have that yellow-ribbon mentality, there are going to be these hoaxes," she said.

The tale began with a news story written by journalism student Michael Brenner. The article, which appeared on May 6, 2003, described the emotional parting of Kodee and her father, Sgt. Dan Kennings, as he left Fort Campbell, Ky., for Iraq.

"Please don't leave," Kodee begged in the story. "I'll be good if you stay. I won't get in trouble."

The newspaper later published letters and columns from Kodee about the difficulty of being apart from her father.

"Daddy I love you," Kodee wrote in a letter to her father. "Can you kill all the bad guys now so Air Force One can bring you home?"

This fellow has a bright future ahead of him with Fox News or the New York Times, pushing sentimental pro-war stories.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. They'll fit right in in their future endeavors.

:cry:

[OneAngryDemocrat]

4. www.shockedandawful.com

On my website, http://www.shockedandawful.com, I put out this particular story as a right-wing ''Hearts & Minds'' campaign.

American hearts.

American minds.

The hoaxster made it clear, early on, that the faux orphan, Kodee, ''brought'' the story to the paper because she was upset about anti-war protests.

'nuff said.

[HereSince1628]

5. Interesting, C'dale is an meadow of liberals in a red forest

I feel better about my alma mater being duped, if it turns out to reveal a hoax from the right.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

7. "Interesting, C'dale is an meadow of liberals in a red forest"

True that.

[brentspeak]

8. But another published letter "written" by the girl says this:

"I'm rily mad at you and you make my hart hurt,"' she purportedly wrote in one published letter to the president. "I don't think your doing a very good job. You keep sending soldiers to Iraq and it's not fair. Do you have a soldier of your own in Irak?"

[Im_Your_Huckleberry]

6. ah, my alma mater. makes my chest swell with pride.

[Orrin_73]

9. The editor and the sudent should apply

for a job at CNN or Fox.

[AbbeyRoad]

10. As a former Saluki

who has read my fair share of Daily Egyptians, I find this bit of news to be really surprising and unfortunate for the university.

My brother used to write for the DE, and it was a really good paper at that time. It was receiving accolades for being one of the best daily student papers in the country.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. They forgot the part about the little girl being scared of "bad protesters

Apparently, in her letters to the Daily Engyptian, she constantly complained about all the bad people (protesters) and worried about them hiding under her bed to hurt her. This is pure right wing lunacy that got caught out there. Wouldn't be surprised if both these nuts were SIU Young Republicans.

[Kelvin Mace]

12. I just posted the missing "columns"

on my web site, with an analysis of the writing.