Mea culpa: NYT erroneously reports Jussie Smollett charged with ‘faking his own death’
Even the most well respected media organizations like The New York Times sometimes make mistakes...
The New York Times has had a lengthy reputation as the nation’s paper of record, but an embarrassing error surfaced at the paper while reporting a story on the Jussie Smollett scandal.
This week, Smollett once again dominated the news cycle, particularly on Wednesday when he was officially charged with disorderly conduct for filing a false report, after dodging accusations from numerous sources he faked his own hate crime on January 29th.
READ MORE: Bail for Jussie Smollett set at $100,000; still being held
The details of this case are bizarre, conflicting, and at times just flat out confusing, however, but according to Mediaite, the Times seemed to be uncharacteristically out of touch, and was forced to issue a correction on Wednesday after they falsely reported that Smollett faked his own death.
In a memo labeled “Correction,” the publication notes, “An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the accusation against Mr. Smollett. He is accused of faking his own assault, not faking his own death.”
In fairness, the correction was posted fairly quickly and the Times has seemingly made measures from prevent this from happening again.
READ MORE: Chicago police say Jussie Smollett faked attack to ‘promote his career’
Meanwhile, it is now being speculated that Smollett was motived to stage the attack because he was dissatisfied with his salary and seeking increased publicity. It is also being claimed that his staged assault on himself wasn’t his only act of deception, and that he also wrote himself a threatening letter a week earlier.
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson, was reported to have been “visibly angry” during a Thursday morning news conference about the matter, stating, “I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention.”
Authorities confirmed they have a copy of the $3,500 check the actor gave two brothers as payment for helping him stage the attack. Phone records also show that Smollett spoke to the brothers an hour before the incident took place, and an hour afterwards.
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