Being Stupid in Philly
For the second straight month, Philadelphia Magazine has egg on its face. This time they printed a story about a marine sniper without bothering to do some basic fact-checking. Link here: blogs.phillymag.com
From the retraction:
“Earlier this week, two different readers contacted the magazine, each raising questions about the facts in a story that appears in Philadelphia magazine’s April issue, “The War Within.” The article—written by Anthony Gargano, the popular WIP radio host—tells the story of a former Marine sniper who claims to have killed scores of people during his tours of the Middle East and who now says he is haunted by what he did.”
The story’s author, Anthony Gargano, is a man I have a lot of respect for, and here is his apology:
“And so I sit here a fool, sickened that I unwittingly led the magazine, a group of caring, diligent editors, and our readers into John Boudreau’s troubled world and his web of deceit. I recklessly ran the red lights that arose while writing this story and sped past all of the basic reporting, which is heresy for a 22-year veteran of the craft. For that, I apologize. I should have seen it from a mile away, and I didn’t see it from nose to nose.”
Maybe the magazine’s trying too hard for edgy stories, I don’t know.