A whistleblower alerted ABC News about the reliability of its consultant

Pascal Riché | Cofondateur Rue89

In an interview with the Washington Post, Brian Ross, chief of ABC News’ investigative unit, said he asked Alexis Debat for a copy of his doctorate « after a French official contacted the network through the embassy here » .

This is inaccurate. This whole story is not about French infighting, but instead about severe dysfunction inside ABC News.

An ABC News journalist, playing the role of a
whistleblower, investigating Debat.

The ABC news legal department then called the French embassy, not the other way around.

As Rue89 revealed, Alexis Debat, an ABC News consultant, sent other fake interviews to the French magazine Politique Internationale. Last June, he was discreetly fired by ABC News, because he couldn’t authenticate his Ph.D.

The ABC News reporter tried to alert the management of her network that Alexis Debat was not reliable.

In an e-mail she wrote last May to a researcher in a Washington think tank,
she explained she had been « quietly concerned » about Debat’s work for ABC « for some time » .

She was then in Washington, looking for information about Alexis Debat, and in particular about « an annotated copy of his resume » she had heard about.

In her e-mail, she makes it clear that she is « trying to make these inquiries as discreetly as possible, because it could be very damaging to my news organization if these allegations prove to be true, but also would be damaging to his career if they prove to be false » .

The French embassy remembers a call from a reporter with ABC News
questioning Debat’s credentials and work. A former spokesperson, Nathalie Loiseau, insists that « the French government never asked them [ABC news] anything and never contacted them » . Later, the ABC News legal department called the Embassy.

Update 3 : 34 - ABC News is upset they have made a mistake in their
public statements, and they should clarify it later today. In the e-mail she sent in May, the « whisleblower » mentioned « an annotated copy of his resume, that the French Embassy had checked out and made comments on » . That’s why the ABC News spokespeople say they heard about the story « from the French govt » .

Actually, there is a second mistake : The annotations were not made by « the French governmentt » but provided by an academic, probed by the Rand Corporation in the context of a possible employment of Debat.

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juliettelucie
Agitée du bocal
- Posté à 08h23 le 14/09/2007
- Internaute 4918
  Agitée du bocal
Does it really matter who called who ?
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Anonyme

In her Lien, Laura Rozen raised a very important issue with regards to ABC News’ standards :

« One issue raised by ABC’s handling of Debat concerns the investigative unit’s use of paid sources/consultants, who are put on monthly retainer. But in ABC’s use of Debat as a paid “consultant” who also had for the past year and a half an appointment at the Nixon Center, ABC also frequently had him reporting on its blog, the Blotter, as a reporter, blurring the line between source (and a paid one at that, with outside paid affiliatoins) and a journalist, not identified in the report. ABC also sent Debat frequently abroad, to gather information which he would put on the air and on the investigative unit’s website. »

Beyond the Debat debacle, it would be interesting to investigate the handling by new organizations of the consultants and think-tank experts for their reporting. In particular, the financial aspect (how are these « experts » paid ?) is be a very relevant aspect of journalism to be explained at a time when many people have lost trust is the news media.
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Anonyme

Keep up the good work Pascal, as ABC desparately needs to come clean on this jerk’s fabulations. I find his ABC reports still online, and also wonder if he made up the recent story (which got wide publicity) about Bush administration plans to bomb Iran.
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