Monday, January 12, 2004

In 1999, [USA Today reporter Jack Kelley] wrote a story about a human-rights activist, whom he interviewed in the presence of two translators. One of the translators vouched for him, as I learned in the Post, but the other one, a woman living in Texas, said she didn't feel like coming forward and discussing the matter. Kelley's boss told him she'd better turn up. She didn't. So Kelley asked another translator to talk to his superior, pretending to be the translator who'd been at the interview, so he could substantiate the story.