<p>
Also, she’s black. I can’t help wondering if that is part of what makes people interested in this story.</p>
<p>I don’t care what she looks like or where she went to school; what interests me is how outrageous it is that someone would fabricate whole people when it’s easy enough, if you have any talent as a reporter, to coax serviceable (if not always pithy) quotes out of real people. I’ve worked in corporate PR and marketing for more than 20 years and I can tell you that even with our more relaxed standards (let’s just say we have a clear bias and agenda), no one I’ve worked with has ever done such a thing. (Scratch that: One of my colleagues who had moved to another, similar work environment once plagiarized a lead of mine; I was flabbergasted!)</p>
<p>We have no idea when she started to make stuff up. It may be that only the WSJ bothered to check her sources. In other words, it’s probably a persistent habit. If she included fake quotes in three of five stories, it’s not a one-time thing.</p>
<p>Blair Hornstine
Kaavya Viswanathan</p>
<p>The Stuyvesant cheating scandal.
Long Island SAT cheating.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a racial issue. It’s an ambitious student issue. Most of these cases involve strong students, not kids who are struggling. How many are “gilding the lily?”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Except it is a whole lot easier to just make stuff up:</p>
<p>Jayson Blair</p>
<p>especially when it serves an agenda-driven narrative:</p>
<p>Janet Cooke.</p>
<p>At least this girl, seems to have actually attended Yale, unlike the aforementioned two, who applied their creative talents to their academic records as well.</p>
<p>Jayson Blair and Janet Cooke are also black. Maybe it’s just happenstance that these highly-publicized cases involved black journalists.</p>
<p>The highly-publicized nature of the stories is because of the high profile publications, WSJ and NY Times, and the fact that Cooke had won a Pulitzer for her series. </p>
<p>There are plenty of other cases that come to mind – Stephen Glass, for instance.</p>
<p>FWIW, I haven’t read any of stories about this that mentioned Membis’ race–I only found that out via Googling her name and seeing her Yale profile. Scandals of this type cross all racial lines, I think, as others have noted. I think the “big news” aspect comes mainly from the prominence of the WSJ. Had she been caught doing this at a smaller paper, I don’t think it would have made headlines.</p>
<p>My daughter has has to cover stories like that, some even more mundane, is NYC in tHat heat, mugginess, snow, rain…she would never ever even consider making something up.</p>
<p>If you are faking stories at that level, I can guarantee she has faked many, ala glass. </p>
<p>Whybit made the news, becuase she was miss perfect.</p>
<p>Hey, remember Mike Barnicle? He was a well respected (I think) columnist for the Boston Globe for years and years before he got caught.</p>
<p>Well, now we know why she has a such a great resume. This is obviously a pattern of behavior, not something she started doing at the WSJ. She’s a very attractive and adept con artist, who has probably been playing this game since HS. You can see why her articles would get her farther: if the truth isn’t sexy enough, she’ll just make stuff up.</p>
<p>Now she’ll get a contract to write about it all…could reality TV be far behind?</p>
<p>D has friends who know Liane Membis - they are not surprised that she was fabricating her WSJ articles. They were surprised she was an intern at the WSJ. She told people and posted on FB that she had been hired by the WSJ w/ a REAL job. She was known for telling outrageous and unbelievable stories about her life/schooling/childhood - becoming indignant if someone questioned her or appeared skeptical. After she was hired by the WSJ she became condescending when fellow classmates said they hadnt landed a job yet or were interning for the summer. She wrote for YDN and they are now reviewing ALL of her articles.</p>
<p>
Ds friends say both along w/ arrogance.</p>
<p>^
Very interesting.</p>
<p>Also, because it’s been brought up this article mentions the firing of a fairly long-term from a much smaller paper (New Canaan News) for similar behavior: [Fabrication</a> Is This Week’s Crime Against Journalism - Business - The Atlantic Wire](<a href=“http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2012/06/fabrication-weeks-crime-against-journalism/53943/]Fabrication”>http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2012/06/fabrication-weeks-crime-against-journalism/53943/)</p>
<p>I think the prominence of the WSJ and Membis’ seemingly perfectly resume (but moreso the former) are what is making this news. It’s fascinating to me because it seems like having it all in line but throwing it away for a really, really stupid reason.</p>
<p>Semi-on-topic, here’s a kind of off-putting editorial (IMO–hints of infidelity are that way for me) editorial Membis wrote for the YDN back in 2009 that was linked in an article: [Pour</a> some sugar daddy on me | Yale Daily News](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2009/aug/28/pour-some-sugar-daddy-on-me/]Pour”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2009/aug/28/pour-some-sugar-daddy-on-me/)</p>
<p>^^^^^^^
What on earth could the editors of the Yale Daily News have found of journalistic value in that piece? It reveals Ms. Membis to be a woman of low character and worse judgment. And it’s banal. If you’re going to revel in your own corruptibility, you ought to take the trouble to be interesting about it.</p>
<p>And I’m sure the piece was total fiction-- it doesn’t remotely pass the smell test. That Membis had to find something outrageous to say about what was no doubt an uneventful internship suggest she is a very troubled young woman.</p>
<p>That was a terrible article -and if true, very easy for that company to figure outnwho the married man was. It’s not like she is anonymous. </p>
<p>I just find some more of her work, very curious</p>
<p>MommaJ and Seahorsesrock: I was just coming on to post, duh!, how unlikely it is that story was true. Which makes the fact that YDN published it all the more perplexing.</p>
<p>That’s just bizarre - why would they print it?</p>
<p>Weird! And… ew.</p>
<p>
That sugar-daddy article was disgusting. I think her fabrications probably went back at least as far as high school. Wonder what was fabricated on her Yale admissions application? Wonder if she cheated on tests and schoolwork?</p>