An Illinois student newspaper was taken in for almost two years by a pack of anti-war liars, who invented a tear-jerking story about a young girl whose father was eventually “killed” in Iraq: Hoax Leaves Ill. Student Paper Embarrassed. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Kodee Kennings’ story was pure gold. For nearly two years, the motherless 8-year-old spoke and wrote movingly of her struggle to deal with her soldier father being shipped off to fight in Iraq, and Southern Illinois University’s student newspaper chronicled her thoughts in its pages.

But there was no Kodee Kennings, and the elaborate hoax exposed Friday left The Daily Egyptian embarrassed.

“Certainly for us it’s a sad day,” said Eric Fidler, Daily Egyptian faculty adviser for the past year. “Some good can come from this, but it doesn’t help our reputation. All we can do is be upfront with what happened and what we know.”

A 2004 SIU graduate who posed as Kodee’s guardian says she and a former Daily Egyptian editor concocted the story to help his career. He denies that and says he was duped, too.

A 10-year-old girl who posed as Kodee in public appearances and a man who pretended to be her father say they were unwitting participants in the scam and believed they were acting in a film.

The tale began to unravel last week when the Daily Egyptian heard that the solider had been killed in Iraq and subsequent investigations by the student newspaper and the Chicago Tribune exposed that he did not exist.

The Egyptian issued a complete retraction, apology and a news article Friday explaining what happened.

“There is no pleasant way to put it,” the newspaper said. “We didn’t check the facts carefully. We believed what we were told without verifying.”

And why didn’t they fact-check this story, when they obviously know how? I’d suggest that it’s because they wanted it to be true.