like the politicians they cover
sometimes the Fourth Estate has its fair
share of scandals welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top ten modern
journalism scandals
before we begin we publish new videos
every day so be sure to subscribe for
more great content for this list we’re
taking a look at scandals that go
against the journalistic ideal of
reporting news accurately and fairly
whether in print or broadcast Joseph
Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst
started the trend of scandalous
journalism in the late 1800s and these
people carried that trend over into the
20th century and beyond
number 10 columnist on the Bush
administration payroll I know full well
we’re dealing with a determined enemy in
2005 some investigative reporters did
some digging and found that a few of
their fellow journalists had engaged in
shady dealings with the George W Bush
administration at least three
conservative columnist
and received tax payer dollars as an
inducement to write favorably about
specific White House initiatives like No
Child Left Behind and the promotion of
marriage one of the columnist Armstrong
Williams was paid a whopping two hundred
and forty-one thousand dollars he later
apologized and his column was cancelled
the others Maggie Gallagher and Michael
McManus got off with a slap on the wrist
number nine the sons coverage of the
Hillsborough disaster the thing that you
can never forget is in 96 people men
women and children they went to a
football match and they didn’t come home
96 people died and hundreds were injured
when overcrowded central pens collapsed
at a semi-final football game between
Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at
Hillsborough Stadium in 1989 four days
later the Sun ran a front-page story
entitled the truth claiming drunken
Liverpool fans attacked and urinated on
rescue workers as they tried to revive
victims and pick the pockets of injured
people however these reports
contradicted eyewitnesses who claimed
bit fans including those from Liverpool
helped first responders by administering
first aid
experts also reported that the urine was
probably coming in voluntarily from
crushed fans the son later apologized
but many Liverpool shops still refuse to
carry it we have apologized in the past
we continuous apologized number 8 CNN
and operation tailwind as the premiere
of the program newsstand CNN and time
the cable news network aired a story in
1998 claiming the u.s. used chemical
weapons on American defectors and
Laotian civilians during Operation
tailwind
a campaign in the Vietnam War yes I
think but I think that was already known
one of the sources for valley of death
was Admiral Thomas Moorer
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff at the time of operation tailwind
however he claimed he’d never confirmed
the use of chemical weapons to CNN and
stated that he felt he was asked trick
questions
one month later CNN retracted the report
due to quote insufficient evidence
two producers were fired one reporter
was reprimanded and another producer
resigned we were accused of killing
civilians and possibly killing some of
our own people who were more POWs number
7 News of the world and phone hacking
parents were going through the most
awful experience
Prince William suspected his voicemail
had been hacked in 2005 so the following
year an investigation was launched and
it soon became clear that the phones of
celebrities members of the royal family
and politicians had been accessed by
reporters in 2011 the scandal came to a
head when it was revealed that news of
the world journalists packed the phone
of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler
allegations continued with reports
surfacing of the paper hacking the
phones of relatives of deceased British
soldiers as well as victims of the 2005
London bombings public outrage resulted
in the arrests of editors and executives
and the shutdown of the paper in 2011
employ 53,000 people around the world
we have Pratt and great an ethical
number six Rolling Stones are raped on
campus in 2014
Rolling Stone published an article about
a woman who claimed she was sexually
assaulted by fraternity members at a
college party at the University of
Virginia as a result of the article and
subsequent media attention the
university suspended the frat in
question however when other journalists
later looked into the article they found
multiple discrepancies and questions why
testimony from other students was not
included when I spoke to experts they
told me that this really the scary truth
is that if you dig deep enough really in
any campus this is probably what you’ll
find it was also reported that the
victim had fabricated the incident to
catfish another student she was
romantically interested in Rolling Stone
pulled the article replacing it with a
report that discredited the original
story and issued multiple apologies even
so the magazine also found itself named
in several lawsuits alleging defamation
number five Ryan Williams and the Iraq
war we asked the u.s. army to take us
along on an air mission they accepted
former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian
Williams came under fire in 2015 after
incorrectly recounting an experience he
had in Iraq in 2003 originally Williams
reported that he was part of a
helicopter convoy with US Army personnel
when the helicopter in front of his was
hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and
forced to make an emergency landing
however Williams story evolved over the
years becoming more dramatic and even
changing to say his was the helicopter
hit ultimately in 2015 several veterans
who were in the convoy told a military
newspaper that Williams retelling was
false the newsman apologized and was
suspended for six months from nightly
news I own this I own up to this number
for Jimmy and the Washington Post
Jimmy’s world was a 1980 Washington Post
article that detailed the story of an
eight-year-old heroin addict
the article went viral more whatever the
80s equivalent would be prompting police
to conduct a citywide manhunt that
resulted in nothing the following year
the author of the article
Janet Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize and her
story was reprinted all over the world
however after the post found
inconsistencies with cooks academic
credentials and pressed her she
confessed that Jimmy never existed take
us to the house of this little kid she
couldn’t do it after the fabrication was
found out cook resigned and returned her
Pulitzer something that had never been
done before number three
CNN withholding info on Saddam Hussein
just as the Iraq war was beginning
former CNN news chief Issa and Jordan
released a bombshell when he revealed
that CNN had been sugarcoating or
outright not reporting on human rights
abuses committed by Saddam Hussein since
1990 Jordan claimed this was being done
to keep the CNN Baghdad offices open and
to protect his reporters and their
families from potential violence he even
alleged that one Iraqi cameraman was
abducted and brutally tortured critics
bashed Jordans arguing that this
information could have been used when
the US was debating whether to remove
Hussein from power number two even glass
and the New Republic affair even glass
was a star reporter for The New Republic
however in 1998 it was discovered that
he fabricated and plagiarized a good
amount of his articles these
fabrications included false quotes from
people like politicians heavy plagiarism
and making up entire stories from
scratch I didn’t do anything wrong I
really wish you’d stop saying that the
scandal erupted when glass was caught
fabricating a story about a teenager who
hacked a software company where he even
used his brother to pose as an executive
from the big company glasses journalism
career was over and his past has
impacted his subsequent attempts at a
career in law before we unveil our
number one pick here are some honorable
mentions
[Music]
we’ve shared a lot in the 24 years we’ve
been meeting here each evening and
before I say good night this night I
need to say thank you number one Jayson
Blair and the New York Times fabrication
scandal the next step was to find out
who had written what about this is the
scandal that the New York Times called
quote a low point in the 152 year
history of their own newspaper 27 year
old Jayson Blair seemed to be at the
start of a brilliant journalistic career
when things suddenly fell apart in 2003
after similarities were pointed out
between one of Blair’s recent articles
and a piece in another paper The Times
left over the reporters other work in at
least 36 articles there was evidence of
plagiarism misstatements and outright
fabrication I told her and she said you
need to resign write her Blair and to
editors who promoted him while ignoring
warnings from other editors were swiftly
dismissed after his firing The Times
published a 7,000 word article detailing
Blair’s misdeeds
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from WatchMojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
[Music]
sometimes the Fourth Estate has its fair
share of scandals welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top ten modern
journalism scandals
before we begin we publish new videos
every day so be sure to subscribe for
more great content for this list we’re
taking a look at scandals that go
against the journalistic ideal of
reporting news accurately and fairly
whether in print or broadcast Joseph
Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst
started the trend of scandalous
journalism in the late 1800s and these
people carried that trend over into the
20th century and beyond
number 10 columnist on the Bush
administration payroll I know full well
we’re dealing with a determined enemy in
2005 some investigative reporters did
some digging and found that a few of
their fellow journalists had engaged in
shady dealings with the George W Bush
administration at least three
conservative columnist
and received tax payer dollars as an
inducement to write favorably about
specific White House initiatives like No
Child Left Behind and the promotion of
marriage one of the columnist Armstrong
Williams was paid a whopping two hundred
and forty-one thousand dollars he later
apologized and his column was cancelled
the others Maggie Gallagher and Michael
McManus got off with a slap on the wrist
number nine the sons coverage of the
Hillsborough disaster the thing that you
can never forget is in 96 people men
women and children they went to a
football match and they didn’t come home
96 people died and hundreds were injured
when overcrowded central pens collapsed
at a semi-final football game between
Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at
Hillsborough Stadium in 1989 four days
later the Sun ran a front-page story
entitled the truth claiming drunken
Liverpool fans attacked and urinated on
rescue workers as they tried to revive
victims and pick the pockets of injured
people however these reports
contradicted eyewitnesses who claimed
bit fans including those from Liverpool
helped first responders by administering
first aid
experts also reported that the urine was
probably coming in voluntarily from
crushed fans the son later apologized
but many Liverpool shops still refuse to
carry it we have apologized in the past
we continuous apologized number 8 CNN
and operation tailwind as the premiere
of the program newsstand CNN and time
the cable news network aired a story in
1998 claiming the u.s. used chemical
weapons on American defectors and
Laotian civilians during Operation
tailwind
a campaign in the Vietnam War yes I
think but I think that was already known
one of the sources for valley of death
was Admiral Thomas Moorer
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff at the time of operation tailwind
however he claimed he’d never confirmed
the use of chemical weapons to CNN and
stated that he felt he was asked trick
questions
one month later CNN retracted the report
due to quote insufficient evidence
two producers were fired one reporter
was reprimanded and another producer
resigned we were accused of killing
civilians and possibly killing some of
our own people who were more POWs number
7 News of the world and phone hacking
parents were going through the most
awful experience
Prince William suspected his voicemail
had been hacked in 2005 so the following
year an investigation was launched and
it soon became clear that the phones of
celebrities members of the royal family
and politicians had been accessed by
reporters in 2011 the scandal came to a
head when it was revealed that news of
the world journalists packed the phone
of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler
allegations continued with reports
surfacing of the paper hacking the
phones of relatives of deceased British
soldiers as well as victims of the 2005
London bombings public outrage resulted
in the arrests of editors and executives
and the shutdown of the paper in 2011
employ 53,000 people around the world
we have Pratt and great an ethical
number six Rolling Stones are raped on
campus in 2014
Rolling Stone published an article about
a woman who claimed she was sexually
assaulted by fraternity members at a
college party at the University of
Virginia as a result of the article and
subsequent media attention the
university suspended the frat in
question however when other journalists
later looked into the article they found
multiple discrepancies and questions why
testimony from other students was not
included when I spoke to experts they
told me that this really the scary truth
is that if you dig deep enough really in
any campus this is probably what you’ll
find it was also reported that the
victim had fabricated the incident to
catfish another student she was
romantically interested in Rolling Stone
pulled the article replacing it with a
report that discredited the original
story and issued multiple apologies even
so the magazine also found itself named
in several lawsuits alleging defamation
number five Ryan Williams and the Iraq
war we asked the u.s. army to take us
along on an air mission they accepted
former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian
Williams came under fire in 2015 after
incorrectly recounting an experience he
had in Iraq in 2003 originally Williams
reported that he was part of a
helicopter convoy with US Army personnel
when the helicopter in front of his was
hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and
forced to make an emergency landing
however Williams story evolved over the
years becoming more dramatic and even
changing to say his was the helicopter
hit ultimately in 2015 several veterans
who were in the convoy told a military
newspaper that Williams retelling was
false the newsman apologized and was
suspended for six months from nightly
news I own this I own up to this number
for Jimmy and the Washington Post
Jimmy’s world was a 1980 Washington Post
article that detailed the story of an
eight-year-old heroin addict
the article went viral more whatever the
80s equivalent would be prompting police
to conduct a citywide manhunt that
resulted in nothing the following year
the author of the article
Janet Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize and her
story was reprinted all over the world
however after the post found
inconsistencies with cooks academic
credentials and pressed her she
confessed that Jimmy never existed take
us to the house of this little kid she
couldn’t do it after the fabrication was
found out cook resigned and returned her
Pulitzer something that had never been
done before number three
CNN withholding info on Saddam Hussein
just as the Iraq war was beginning
former CNN news chief Issa and Jordan
released a bombshell when he revealed
that CNN had been sugarcoating or
outright not reporting on human rights
abuses committed by Saddam Hussein since
1990 Jordan claimed this was being done
to keep the CNN Baghdad offices open and
to protect his reporters and their
families from potential violence he even
alleged that one Iraqi cameraman was
abducted and brutally tortured critics
bashed Jordans arguing that this
information could have been used when
the US was debating whether to remove
Hussein from power number two even glass
and the New Republic affair even glass
was a star reporter for The New Republic
however in 1998 it was discovered that
he fabricated and plagiarized a good
amount of his articles these
fabrications included false quotes from
people like politicians heavy plagiarism
and making up entire stories from
scratch I didn’t do anything wrong I
really wish you’d stop saying that the
scandal erupted when glass was caught
fabricating a story about a teenager who
hacked a software company where he even
used his brother to pose as an executive
from the big company glasses journalism
career was over and his past has
impacted his subsequent attempts at a
career in law before we unveil our
number one pick here are some honorable
mentions
[Music]
we’ve shared a lot in the 24 years we’ve
been meeting here each evening and
before I say good night this night I
need to say thank you number one Jayson
Blair and the New York Times fabrication
scandal the next step was to find out
who had written what about this is the
scandal that the New York Times called
quote a low point in the 152 year
history of their own newspaper 27 year
old Jayson Blair seemed to be at the
start of a brilliant journalistic career
when things suddenly fell apart in 2003
after similarities were pointed out
between one of Blair’s recent articles
and a piece in another paper The Times
left over the reporters other work in at
least 36 articles there was evidence of
plagiarism misstatements and outright
fabrication I told her and she said you
need to resign write her Blair and to
editors who promoted him while ignoring
warnings from other editors were swiftly
dismissed after his firing The Times
published a 7,000 word article detailing
Blair’s misdeeds
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from WatchMojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
[Music]
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