The most effective hoaxes always do little more than provide the details and "facts" to what someone already dearly wants to believe. That way, any slip ups on your part will be happily overlooked. Doesn't hurt that in many cases the hoaxer is sincerely (to misuse the term) trying to advocate that same position.

I believe the people at this paper were tripped up by their own ideological bent. They took it for granted that it was true and checked nothing.

I'm a little worried about what situation this girl is in. She was trundled around the offices and posed (as in other people posing her) for pictures and such.

She thought she was acting in a movie. I'm concerned she's surrounded by such slimy adults.

Ah, that last paragraph in the news story with the documentary detail was added since I first read it this morning.

To share an update, the story was really broken by the Chicago Tribune. And it just gets weirder.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050825kennings,1,7626312.story?coll=chi-news-hed

An orphan to boot! The icing on a big fat imaginary cake. ROTFL!!

The AP has picked it up now too. I loved the part when they finally get her to admit to it. She starts claiming it was all the reporter's idea and she went along because he's her bestest friend and she was in love with him. And then his reaction when the Tribune tells him what she said. Hi-larious.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Student%20Newspaper%20Hoax

Ack. There's that link to the AP dispatch. Just a distillation of the Tribune story with a couple small extras.

It brings tears to my eyes, it's so wondrously retarded.

Fake, but accurate. I'm surprised Dan Rather didn't pick up the story and run with it.

Nice blog scoop Donnah. See Michelle M's site.

There is no limit to the depths Liberals will descend to find any political weapon. Consider examples such as this pro forma exercises for the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. They are flooding the internet with such fake story resources in preparation for the upcoming elections, to dilute the successes of the president's war effort with Progressive Failure Fantasies.

And note the Chicago Tribune originally intended to spread this hoax even further. The Trib's Lib reporters were contacted by another Lib down in Carbondale to cover this story and give it nationwide publicity. And they would have, too, except they stumbled onto the lies. We now see that the MSM gets its story ideas from their Lib friends and from hoaxers.

CBS News will hire this idoit to apprentice under Dan Rather.

What's most amazing to me is that there are so many pre-journalists that think they'll perpetually be able to get away with this nonsense. Never mind the Johnny-come-latelies like Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass; don't they even mention Janet Cooke in J-school textbooks?

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/day/04_17_2001.html

One thing that interested me was the little comment about how the student reporter, Brenner, first 'discovered' Kodee. He says 'somebody' handed him a letter Kodee had supposedly written, and he was so touched by that letter that he emailed the little girl.
Wonder if the person who handed him the letter is named Lucy Ramirez?

The "pseudo journalists" took this story and ran with it because it had the angle they wanted to portray in their newspaper.

The new journalism doesn't teach that you go out there and seek the truth. The media has now become a facilitator for society and it is the job of the media to educate the masses.

Hence, we end up with indoctrination rather than news. The story of this little girl fit the propaganda model the paper wished to use. I'll bet you'll find a connection somewhere between the woman who perpetuated this hoax and the student newpaper.

So now Brenner is worried that this episode will affect his career. Don't worry, son, this may get you a job at the New York Times. It's exactly the same journalism they practice.

Thanks very much for the link!

Hilarious letter, Ken.

Okay, it's not the "lib" media slant that motivated this story. If anything, the slant that the Kodee saga was used to advance was pro-war. In early Kodee stories, anti-war protesters scare her "like the boogeyman or monsters" and she has to be shielded from the news because she doesn't understand why people are mad at Pres. bush "her dad's boss." Later, she writes a letter upset with Bush because her dad's not home, but there are several columns talking about why you shouldn't criticize the war, basically because you'll make Kodee cry. Go read this on www.dailyegyptian.com - type "Kennings" in the google search and read some of this incredible shit before they take it down.

You may be right, Aaron. Then again, there was also stuff like this:
"I sent my dad a chrismas tree and presants to all his soldiers. My dad dosnt get to come home until every one gets to come home becase the goverment is short a letter. He has a tree and lights and when chrismas comes Santa wont forget him. Its red white an blue like my tree. I'm going to remind Santa that there is a war and not to forget deployed soldiers. Does Santa have the power to declare a sese fire? Maybe he knws Nato and can talk to him abot stoping the war. Maybe Nato can make the presadent bring the soldiers home. Some body has to be the presadents boss."

http://newshound.de.siu.edu/voices/stories/storyReader$2408

It doesn't look like they're taking them down -- they've put a caveat on each article in the archive dealing with her. Still, I'd saved them all just in case.

It's not so much the war part of the story that interests me. Rather, it's how incredibly full of holes the whole thing was, how nothing was checked for two years, the exploitation of this real-life kid thinking she's being filmed by hidden cameras, this ridiculous cast of characters, and the hilarious accusations and denials now that the hoax has unraveled.

Exactly what the point of the hoax is a bit murky, but "Kodee" addresses the war itself in a letter to Pres. Bush that is pure left-wing/Cindy Seehan style rhetoric. I did not read all the letters/columns "Kodee" wrote but most are just 'missing Dad' and 'this is what I'm up to' stuff with only the letter above that expresses any opinion about the war here in Iraq.
As a soldier the whole fraud angers me. Episodes like this that mirror the phony Purple Heart winners plot in "Wedding Crashers" are not so funny in real life are they? As an uncle the exploitation of that child infuriates me. The people responsible for this child exploitation should face criminal charges of some kind. Would transporting that kid over state lines under false pretenses qualify as kidnapping or chid endangerment I wonder? The "perps" of this hoax should be getting a hard look from two different state law enforcement agencies plus the Feds!

I agree with you, KJB43. They should be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor,
as they told her to falsify her name, as well as
her family history! Hopefully, she will learn that
some reporters really like to tell the truth!

TomTB — And who will they learn this from?

Eric Fidler, the academic head of SIU's student newspaper, had 20 years experience in journalism. He started with the Miami Herald, and worked for 10 years with the AP in Chicago as their politics editor. I would suspect, given his Chicago journalism connections, that he was the person who tipped the Chicago Tribune reporters about this story. In any event, for a person with this background in mainstream journalism to fall for this hoax (if he indeed fell for it, and wasn't a party to it) is quite a comment on journalism.

And I love the student reporter's Palmeiro-like denials!!!

That was a hoot. I could hear the splutter in his voice.
Love how she worked the sex angle in there.

I did a google search of "Michael Brenner" and "SIU". The first hit I got was a reply to an editorial he had written in the student newspaper, an editorial the writer thought laughably liberal. Thus there seems to be evidence that Mr. Brenner leans Left.

It is at this point impossible to know his motivation for either participating in, or falling victim to, the hoax. However, knowing the Chicago Tribune, I very much suspect the motivation of their reporters to publicize the story (until they found out the hoax) was to pen the kind of anti-war "human interest" story that so often appears in the Tribune.

If anyone wants to see the anti-war, anti-Bush slant of the Kennings hoax, just go to the Daily Egyptian website and take a look at the article "Letter to my mom, Dad and Bush". The commentary in the article is pure anti-Bush.

The Daily Egyptian article has a lot more detail that wasn't in the Trib story. For example, that Michael Brenner was an award-winning student journalist [3rd place in sports reporting for student newspapers, APC 2003]. And that somebody (Brenner?) paid these actors to portray the roles of Kennings and others. And that somebody (Brenner?) set up an email account for the fictitious Kennings, at dbkennings@aol.com. It should be fairly easy for the Tribune reporters or anyone in the mainstream media to track down whether Brenner paid for these and was thus (as we all suspect, and as Reynolds states) an active participant in the hoax.

Bruce- my personal view is that he was going for the glory. Whether he was the ringleader or the dupe, it got him out of the sports section.

Geez. At least the Chicago Trib did fact-checking before this hit the tabloid media and we have to spend the rest of our lives smacking around the bleeding heads when they go on about how horrible W is for taking poor Kodee's father away.

Just the name "Kodee" should have set off red flags. Even in southern Illinois.

Donnah, I agree with you that a major motivation for Mr. Brenner was that "hot story".

Does anybody at the Daily Egyptian do fact-checking???? Our of curiousity, I took 2 minutes and did a google search in whitepages.com (an internet nationwide directory, readily available to journalists) for anyone named "Kennings" in IL. Nobody with that name is in IL. There are only 13 Kennings nationwide, none named Dan. In 2 minutes I found out enough to raise questions. Is it too much to expect journalists to do the same?

Isn't that kind of, I don't know...rude? ;)

I am from down in Marion, Il, the thing is I even knew most of the people involved. It is amazing how trustworthy people are and how vindictive others are to pull such a stunt. I knew Jaimie I was in the delivery room with her for a mutual friend lately. I am shocked and suprised knowing that she seemed so neive to what was going on with the world. She was embarrased to watch a the redneck comedy tour. whether or not this was her Idea I am not sure, But I know all that knew her personally apparently did not know her well. Including me..

She never let on about a fellow, Claire?

Brenner is a liar and a coniver and now with his latest spin on how he knew Ms. J. Reynolds. She was the identical twin of Ms. Collen Hastings. Unbelievable as an observant reporter never noticed they drove the same red car with the same plates. Oh, Yes they had twin red cars with twin plates! Almost as believable as his statements of how he was with Kodee and Dan Kennings as he let for the war. Heartwrenching lies won this award. Now he says he took license. He is not credible and now is a heel 10's times over! Its hard to swallow! z.angeli

She never let on about any guy, in fact she was always asking me to look for someone for her. I have not spoken to her since the whole news break.