The Sift: Artistic license or smear? | Sockpuppets with fake faces | Global ‘jailed journalists’ census

Clint Eastwood’s new movie Richard Jewell has come under fire for its portrayal of Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs, igniting a debate about Hollywood’s depictions of female journalists.

The film, which opened nationwide on Dec. 13, tells the story of Jewell, the security guard hero-turned-suspect in the July 27, 1996, bombing at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park that resulted in two deaths and injuries to more than 100 people. It shows Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) flirting with an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) who was one of her sources and insinuates that she traded sex with him for the information that Jewell was being investigated as a suspect. (The paper was the first to report that Jewell — who discovered a backpack with three pipe bombs, alerted police and helped to evacuate the area — was the focus of the federal investigation.) In another scene, Jewell’s mother (Kathy Bates) tells a room full of reporters that “the media has portrayed my son as the person who has committed this crime. They have taken all privacy from us; they have taken all peace.”

In a letter sent Dec. 9 to Eastwood, screenwriter Billy Ray, Warner Bros. and others, lawyers for the Journal-Constitution and its parent company, Cox Enterprises, described the movie’s treatment of Scruggs, who died in 2001, as “false and malicious” and “extremely defamatory and damaging.” They demanded that the studio and the filmmakers issue a statement “publicly acknowledging that some events were imagined for dramatic purposes and [that] artistic license and dramatization were used in the film’s portrayal of events and characters” and that “a prominent disclaimer” to that effect be added to the film.

Warner Bros. called the Journal-Constitution’s claims “baseless” and defended the movie, stating: “The film is based on a wide range of highly credible source material.”

“It is unfortunate and the ultimate irony that the Atlanta Journal Constitution, having been a part of the rush to judgment of Richard Jewell, is now trying to malign our filmmakers and cast,” the studio continued.

Jewell, who was officially cleared as a suspect three months after the bombing, sued the Journal-Constitution for libel in 1997, contending that its reporting had damaged his reputation; two years later, a trial court judge ruled that because Jewell had made himself available for a number of interviews following the bombing, he was to be considered a “limited purpose public figure” for the purposes of the suit — meaning that to win his case, he would have to prove that the paper knowingly published false information about him.

In 2011, the Georgia Court of Appeals found that the Journal-Constitution’s articles about Jewell “were substantially true at the time they were published” and upheld the trial court’s dismissal of the case. The following year, the state Supreme Court declined to review the appeals court's decision, ending a 15-year legal fight. Media coverage of Jewell, who died in 2007, even became a case study in university journalism programs.

Dozens of journalists have criticized the film’s depiction of Scruggs, calling the intimation that she traded sex for information an offensive, sexist trope and noting that in reality, female journalists are often “propositioned, pawed and threatened” by sources. Scruggs’ brother, her former colleagues and her friends have also come to her defense.

NO: Mary Anne Trump did not say that her son Donald is “an idiot with zero common sense” and that “he’d be a disaster” if he went into politics. This quote is fabricated.

NO: The person shooting a rifle in this video is not 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. YES: She is Emmy Slinge, a 31-year-old engineer in Sweden (the page is in Swedish).

NO: Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg did not create a “Moves Like Bloomberg” dance to counter a “High Hopes” dance performed in September by supporters of Pete Buttigieg, another Democratic candidate. YES: Comedian Nick Ciarelli and the improv group Upright Citizens Brigade choreographed the satirical dance as part of a Dec. 12 sketch comedy show. YES: The far-right website Breitbart and a number of influential people on Twitter mistook the bit as a real dance by actual Bloomberg supporters. YES: Within hours, the Bloomberg campaign used its Twitter account “to clarify” that Ciarelli was not a campaign intern. YES: As part of the hoax, Ciarelli updated his Twitter profile to read “Former communications intern @Mike2020.”

NO: The daughter of Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is not dating the whistleblower whose complaint about President Donald Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president led to the impeachment inquiry. YES: This rumor emerged after Schiff tweeted a family photo on Thanksgiving. YES: It continues to circulate. YES: The satirical “news” website Genesius Times published a fictional piece making this claim, accompanied by a doctored version of Schiff’s Thanksgiving tweet as the lead image. YES: This doctored tweet is included in the preview when the Genesius Times piece is shared on social media.

NO: Muslim migrants did not try to disrupt a St. Nicholas parade in Austria. NO: People dressed as Krampus — a mythical “anti-St. Nicholas” figure in Central European folklore who is part goat/part demon and punishes children who have misbehaved — did not “defend” the parade by beating Muslim migrants along its route. YES: The link in this tweet goes to a video (a copy of which is here) of a Dec. 5 parade in a town in northern Italy (not Austria) in which people dressed as Krampus “beat” residents in padded clothing who volunteer to provoke the Krampus characters. YES: The organizers of the event released a statement explaining that the people beaten in the video were locals who were part of the event.