HT This Day: April 17, 1981 — Phoney article bagged Pulitzer prize

HT This Day: April 17, 1981 — Phoney article bagged Pulitzer prize
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A 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist has refused the prize and resigned her newspaper job because the article which won the award was a phoney.

Miss Janet Cooke, 26, whose long article on the hellish world of the drug addict in Washington’s black ghetto was published by the Washington Post last September, wrote about a young addict named Jimmy who had begun taking Heroin when he was eight and who got his daily shot from his mother’s lover.

The article caused a lot of star, but the police expressed doubt about its authenticity, They tried to identify Jimmy, and according to a statement yesterday by Washington’s chief of police concluded that there was no such person.

Miss Cooke admitted that Jimmy, the statements attributed to him and numerous situations described in the article were invented. The Washington Post told the whole story after another Washington newspaper, the Washington Star, revealed the situation.

The Pulitzer Prizes are the United States’ highest journalism awards.

Announcing Miss Cooke’s resignation, Post Executive Editor Benjamin Bradlee said: “Janet was a particularly promising and talented young reporter. She regrets these events as much as the Washington Post regrets them. “

Miss Cooke, who joint the Post in December 1979 after working for the Toledo (Ohio) blade, could not be reached for’ comment.

Within a day after the award was announced, questions were raised about the academic credentials attributed to Miss Cooke in a biographical sketch issued by the Pulitzer Board.

She told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the sketch was accurate, although officials of two colleges disputed it.

In the Post story, Miss Cooke told of watching the lover of the child’s mother inject heroin into the boy’s arm. The story was published at a time when an influx of high quality but cheap heroin on the streets of Washington had led to a surge in heroin use.

She also described how the child had become addicted to drugs.

The story had created a storm of controversy from the day it was printed with various District of Columbia officials publicly expressing their doubt about its accuracy.

The Police Department tried to subpoena Miss Cooke and editors of the Post in an effort to find the eight-year-old described in the article. The Post said it would refuse to co-operate with them on constitutional grounds.

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