Where's George? And where's Doug? [new "fake but accurate" scandals??]

Classical Values ^ | 7/20/06 | Eric at Classical Values

[Enchante]

Which means at this point that the burden is on Mr. Thompson to supply evidence:

# that there is a "George Harleigh"; and

# and that he is the man described and quoted in innumerable articles, who taught Political Science at SIU and worked in the Nixon and Reagan administrations.

If "George Harleigh" is a pseudonym, that fact should be disclosed, and if there is a person calling himself "George Harleigh" whose remarks are being repeated, it falls on Doug Thompson to provide some evidence that this man is who he says he is.

Under the circumstances, until I hear otherwise, I think it is entirely reasonable to conclude that:

# there is no former political science professor named "George Harleigh" who worked for Nixon and Reagan; and

# Quotations attributed to him are inherently unreliable, and cast serious doubt on the credibility of sites which rely on them.

Again, if my suspicions turn out to be wrong, I'll certainly acknowledge that with apologies to Doug Thompson and George Harleigh.

[maine-iac7]

...

[backhoe]

This is surely a weird case- our friends at Little Green Footballs, via Classical Values, are covering it.

As usual, the "comments" sections have more information, links, and snarky remarks:

Fake But Accurate But Nonexistent

Here’s an astounding mainstream media deception uncovered by Eric at Classical Values, who noticed a host of quotes attributed to “George Harleigh,” an SIU political science professor who supposedly worked for the Nixon and Reagan administrations and is now very anti-Bush—a political science professor who appears to be completely nonexistent: Where’s George? And where’s Doug?  | link: 121 comments |

#29

Spiny Norman  7/20/2006 10:55PM PDT

 

#24 Infidel varmint

Stephen Glass, Jason Blair, Burkett/Rather/Mapes, Leopold, sock puppetry by Greenwald and Hitzick, and now this guy.

Guys, If you have to lie to promote your cause, consider the possibility that you cause may not be worth promoting.

As one might expect, the most illuminating (and hilarious) discussion on that subject is at Jeff Goldstein's.

#51

Doss  7/20/2006 11:48PM PDT

 

#39 Powderfinger

I found the guy - Greg Packer.

He's not just another face in the crowd at concerts, book signings, and sporting events. Somehow, over the course of 10 years, one man has managed to become the media's go-to guy, quoted more than 100 times in various publications, including several prominent newspapers. Greg Packer is the "man on the street."

• Lucy Rameriz - Tang Memos, vanished no trace
• Terrance J. Wilkinson - Niger Uranium bogus claim (interestingly this story contained forgeries too), vanished no trace
• George Harleigh - GOPer John Dean type - no trace
hmmm...am I missing any?

posted by: topsecretk9 on 07.20.06 at 08:30 PM [permalink]

[stylin19a]

editing the guy out of any article\post does no good.
especially when everybody & their brother has 'em cached.

He should be deleting the articles & posts.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for ping.

[William McKinley]

Ah. Memories.

[Enchante]

Good stuff, thanks. Glad Thompson has been exposed, though as you say Joe Wilson is no more credible but still gets a great deal of undeserved attention and MSM protection. Looking forward to the day when all of the leftist media whores and frauds will be exposed and discarded.

[Enchante]

No, I missed the preceding drama somehow. I've been here since summer of 2001 but I've had some periods when I was AWOL...... especially during 2002-03 when I was battling a severe bout with cancer (now fortunately in remission, knocking on wood).

[Enchante]

Hmmmmm...... this latest episode calls into doubt all of Doug Thompson's previous explanations of how he was/is merely an unwitting dupe:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/943260/posts

He appears to be more of a dedicated fraud artist........

[Fedora]

Hmmm. . .So does Harleigh=Wilkinson or did Thompson make both of them up? I didn't know about Ramirez until I read Post 22--in that case, I vote for all three are made up, LOL. Next question: does Thompson make this stuff up for his own motives or is someone paying him to do it?

[Enchante]

Lies, Damned Lies, and Obfuscations - It gets better and better:

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/content/2006/07/a_report_and_apology_to_our_re.html


http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/003880.html


I wouldn't believe a word of their so-called "report" except that, yes indeed, they know they have been caught in a huge pile of doo-doo and they are desperately spinning ala CBS, trying to pretend they have done a thorough "investigation" etc.

[Enchante]

When I start to read through some of the articles in question I feel as though I've entered the Twilight Zone, some alternate universe in which "Harleigh" and "Wilkinson" conveniently provide CHB with exactly the quotations needed, usually very inflammatory, to trash the WH and President Bush, et al. This stuff seems a lot like the Stephen Glass garbage for The New Republic - someone with a bent toward a bit of "creative writing" gets carried away with the ease of making up quotations that are truly "too good to be true." I strongly suspect it's all poured forth from Thompson's imagination..... the big problem is that it's not just this one demented website, the stuff has been taken up all over the web by loony leftists so some of these quotations and alleged "facts" will be recycled for years to come. I sure hope they don't make it into any history books!!

[nopardons]

Oh gee...I'm so very sorry to hear of your travails, but so happy that that is all behind you!

[nopardons]

He most assuredly IS a con-artist and always has been.

[nopardons]

They are most probably all made up by Thompson's fertile, delusional brain; or what's left of it. As to the WHYS of why he does it, that's up for grabs.

[Fedora]

I agree it appears most likely Thompson is making it up himself. So moving on to the question of motive, I'm thinking we should check into who his editor is. It seems to me that if Thompson only does this once or twice, it could be he's a "lone nut" who is venting a personal political grudge, or gets his kicks from hoodwinking the public, or something like that. But if he keeps doing it repeatedly, as appears the case--we've now found at least three examples, I'd be willing to bet there's more out there--I start to wonder why his editor's letting him get away with it.

[nopardons]

What editor? Doesn't he, himself, own run, and write all, or almost all things that have appeared on Capital Hill Blue?

He may or may not be in this alone, but he certainly has been lying for a very long time and caught in his own lies, many times over.

[Enchante]

From something he wrote in his long fake apologia for the July 2003 fiasco I had the impression that he is a lone operator with his very own website, CHB. Various other names pop up as the "Publisher" and "Ombudsman" etc. but from reading a bunch of his stuff I think he may be just some lone nut pretending to have a larger web company that really exists. If these other people he refers to really do exist outside of his imagination, then they must be pretty nutty too, in order to get tangled up with him.

[Enchante]

ooops, typing too fast - that should read

"he may be just some lone nut pretending to have a larger web company than really exists"

[Fedora]

What editor? Doesn't he, himself, own run, and write all, or almost all things that have appeared on Capital Hill Blue?

Good question! I'm trying to figure that out right now. . .I'm seeing some sites describing him as a founder and editor of CHB, but their own website gives this as their staff:

Capitol Hill Blue

William D. McTavish

Editor & Publisher

Sarah Andrews

News Editor

Callie Houston

Features Editor

Sandra Riley

Ombudsman

Reporters

Terry Lawson

Andrew Taylor

Barrie Young

Researchers

Sallie Edwards

Mary Estil

This post from 2004 mentions the name of another editor "explaining" yet another fabrication from the site:

"Capital Hill Blue, by Chris M.", Aug. 5, 2004

"The modified version of the story that persons unknown chose to circulate by email was not the story we published," Capitol Hill Blue editor Teresa Hampton said today. . .

So do these other people actually exist, or are they other aspects of "Sibyl" Thompson's persona? If they're real people, what do they have to say about Mr. Thompson? I think a full-fledged investigation of Capitol Hill Blue is in order.

Here's a bio for Thompson--whether it's fact or fiction I don't know:

WHO IS DOUG THOMPSON?

Doug Thompson realized the value of capturing history 46 years ago as a 10-year-old schoolboy in Farmville, Virginia, when the community, caught up in a fight over integration, closed the public schools and opened an all-white private school. Thompson wrote about his experiences and submitted his story and photos to The Farmville Herald, the local newspaper. He developed other photo stories for the paper and a journalism career was born. . .

Thompson went on to join the staff of The Roanoke Times where he covered the police beat, emerging racial turmoil in the city and tackled other tough subjects. His story about a young girl who obtained an abortion (illegal at the time) won the top feature writing award from the Virginia Press Association. Another, about street racers in the city, won a feature writing award while his coverage of the murder of a Southwest Roanoke couple and the abduction and rape of their teenaged daughters brought the top news writing award from the association

After moving on to The Telegraph in Alton, Illinois, Thompson continued to win awards for writing and photography, capturing the Illinois Associated Press Managing Editors top prizes for news, feature and column writing as well as first place awards from the Illinois Press Association. . . His work has appeared in a number of publications, including Esquire, Life, Look, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Paris Match, AFP, the Associated Press and Reuters.

During his stint at the House Committee on Science and Technology, Thompson worked on transfer of what was then DARPANet from the Department of Defense to the National Science Foundation, the beginnings of the Internet. Sensing the coming growth of the Internet, he started a web hosting and design company in 1994 and that same year launched Capitol Hill Blue as the web's first political news site.

[nopardons]

Agreed!