60 Minutes: Greg Mortenson Fabricated Parts of Books

How does the book, if it is false, discredit journalism? You're mistaken when you equate a publishing-house editor with a newspaper or broadcast editor. Different industries and there isn't really a code of ethics involved when publishing a book.

 

Earth-shattering news, to be sure: Turning out the latest in a long line of a fabricators, and four years after the fact? Someone should investigate "60 Minutes," which has pumped out nothing but the most feckless, banal hackery ever since the Westmoreland decision.

 

Mortenson also did a Q&A with Outside.

http://outsideonline.com/adventure/travel-ga-greg-mortenson-interview-sidwcmdev_155690.html?page=1

 

I don't remember the exact quote from Morrie's wife. It didn't get nearly the publicity it should have, but it was something like, "Well, most of that didn't really happen, but it was such a nice book."

The moral to the story is. If you're going to fabricate a book about somebody, wait until they die to publish it.

 

You do realize that the co-author of Three Cups of Tea, David Oliver Relin, is a contributing editor for Parade and Skiing magazines, right? I think that qualifies as a journalist. A journalist who writes a book has achieved something not many writers -- even very talented ones -- will ever get to do. A lot of nonfiction books are written by journalists. When these books are proven to include false information, how does this not discredit journalism?

 

I'm not following your logic. Are you saying that journalism isn't discredited here because a news outlet exposed a book (written by journalist and Three Cups of Tea co-author David Oliver Relin) and its lies? If that's the case, then journalism wasn't discredited with the Jayson Blair situation because a news outlet exposed another reporter's lies and instances of plagiarism. That doesn't make sense to me.

 

I believe you are mistaken if you think the average news consumer draws this distinction.

You can read Jones blog post, he puts it better than I could. But, watch a network newscast or read a local newspaper. Much of it is features, not hard news. It's telling people's stories.

As to journalism's role in uncovering, that's true, but the book has been out for four years.

Mortenson has been interviewed by all/most major networks and by tons of local media in the towns he's hit to give speeches, sell books, and raise money.

A sampling:

With Fareed Zakaria on CNN:

With Bill Moyers on PBS:

With Alisyn Camerota on FOX News:

Did any of them care about the truth? Did they read the book? Did they press him on any of the details? Or did they just want to help tell this fantastic story?

And then, there’s the local journalist who was literally on the payroll:

It seems like the one jourmalist who called him on his shit was Krakauer. From the looks of it, I’d say he turned 60 Minutes on to the story rather than they tracking him down and getting him on the record.

 

In the Q&A with Outside, Mortenson throws Relin under the bus, drives over him, circles the block and hits him again.

 

And Krakauer released an 89(!!!) page article entitled "3 Cups of Deceit."

http://byliner.com/

(The site requires an email address to access the article. I used none@none.com and got through.)

 

Wow. So what do we think is going on here. Clearly Krakauer had the story before 60 Minutes.

And, if he didn't give it to them, he was certainly aware of their work on the story since he participated. Why didn't he break it himself?

 

I recall hearing a story about how the US military made "Three Cups" mandatory reading for anyone in, or heading to, the Afghanistan theater because it explained better than anything how Americans can build relationships with people in that country.

 

And those parts weren't fabricated, from what it sounds like.