The Statesman claims that Don Foster has fingered exposed unmasked uncovered revealed the author of Belle de Jour. Foster used computer-based linguistic analysis to deduce that Joe Klein wrote Primary Colors. [via Boing Boing]

USA Today Says Reporter Faked Stories [NYT]: Five-time Pulitzer nominee fired. Jack Kelley spent 21 years at USA Today, and judging by the fabrications cited in the article, had a knack for the dramatic moment:

For one of the stories that helped make him a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2001, Kelley wrote that he was an eyewitness to a suicide bombing in Jerusalem and described the carnage in graphic detail. But the investigation showed that the man Kelley described as the bomber could not have been the culprit, and his description of three decapitated victims was contradicted by police.

The newspaper also said “the evidence strongly contradicted” other published accounts by Kelley: that he spent the night with Egyptian terrorists in 1997; met a vigilante Jewish settler named Avi Shapiro in 2001; watched a Pakistani student unfold a picture of the Sears Tower and say, “This one is mine,” in 2001; interviewed the daughter of an Iraqi general in 2003; or went on a high-speed hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2003.

And topping off our little collection, who wouldn’t be interested in reading what happens when a writer for The Stranger connives and cajoles Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass into meeting him for a beer at Brooklyn watering hole for a joint interview?

I think I have found my theme for the day; Charlie Kaufman sets the tone.

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