‘True life’ tale not so true
When your radio program has a regular series called “My Life Is True,” it’s probably a good idea to fact check the lives in question. That’s a lesson the American Public Media radio program Marketplace learned the hard way, after it aired a commentary from a man named Leo Webb that included several fabricated claims. Webb’s piece, which he narrated, said he served as a sniper in Iraq only to come home to the United States and find himself homeless, jobless and dodging bullets during a recent shooting on an Oakland, Calif., street. “I killed all these people and watched half my squadron die,” he said. “I’m a mess. I struggle every day. The army taught me to drink. That’s what I lean on now. I need clothes. I lost all my stuff. The hotlines don’t give you anything.” Webb’s use of the term “squadron,” which isn’t common in the U.S. army, was one of the things that tipped off the former soldiers who run the This Ain’t Hell blog. They questioned whether Webb was who he said he was, especially given the fact he claimed to have “17 confirmed kills” in Iraq. They weren’t the only ones to question Webb’s commentary after it aired last Monday. Comments began to pile up on the Marketplace website. Was he really a veteran? What about Webb’s other claim that he’d pitched minor league baseball for the Chicago Cubs? Turns out, none of it was checked prior to airing. None of it was true, either. “We aired it on Monday and on Tuesday we started reading on our website listener comments ques- tioning the veracity,” said Marketplace executive producer Deborah Clark. “As soon as we realized there were big questions about its veracity we retracted on Wednesday.”
The retraction stated in part that, “Marketplace has an obligation to provide accurate information. That was not met in this commentary.” The text and audio were removed from the website.
Marketplace wasn’t the only media organization to have to retract the report. Webb’s commentary originally aired on KQED, a public media organization in San Francisco. It first broadcast the piece Jan.11, but the station said it was unaware of any issues until the Marketplace broadcast set off questions. KQED communications director Scott Walton said the program has produced roughly 250 of these firstperson pieces per year for 13 years “and there has never been a retraction” before now.