Sometimes I get stuck on news stories. Every so often one comes around that
just gets to me and I relish every absurd fact and new detail.
Like Elizabeth Smart. I was hooked on that one for a good couple of months,
had to know just what it was she said when they found, how exactly she went
from living on the streets one day to giving harp performances the next. I've
still got all sorts of questions about that whole thing. But she's so young
it's unseemly to talk too much about it.
The latest one is that of Jack Kelley, the star USA Today reporter who, as it turns out, pretty much just made up most of the stuff he wrote.
Part of my fascination lies in that I just can't fathom the sort of energy it must have taken Kelley to plan to make up lies, make up the lies, remember all the made-up details, and then defend them when challenged. It must have been exhausting. And another thing, Kelley is a self-identified born-again Christian, of the professional evangelist variety. I mention it only because it seems like the sort of self-identification that might preclude the sort of blatant, willful, sustained making-stuff-up that Kelley engaged in. He often gave interviews on his commitment to the truth, such as this one from the Christian magazine, Connection:
(It's such a damn small world; it seems that Connection magazine also features
regular
columns by Chuck Colson, former Nixon counsel I just mentioned in this
post on John Kerry.) By the time Kelley was interviewed for the story in May
2001, he had been actively making stuff up and lying about it for about
a decade. What's going on here? Is the guy just, you know, off?
The latest one is that of Jack Kelley, the star USA Today reporter who, as it turns out, pretty much just made up most of the stuff he wrote.
Part of my fascination lies in that I just can't fathom the sort of energy it must have taken Kelley to plan to make up lies, make up the lies, remember all the made-up details, and then defend them when challenged. It must have been exhausting. And another thing, Kelley is a self-identified born-again Christian, of the professional evangelist variety. I mention it only because it seems like the sort of self-identification that might preclude the sort of blatant, willful, sustained making-stuff-up that Kelley engaged in. He often gave interviews on his commitment to the truth, such as this one from the Christian magazine, Connection:
|
5:50 PM
|
