FACT-CHECK FAIL

‘The Atlantic’ Issues Scathing Correction Accusing Reporter of Suggesting Deception to Source

A quarter-century ago, Ruth Shalit Barrett left the New Republic over a plagiarism scandal. Her second chance blew up in her face.

The Atlantic magazine issued a scathing editor’s note Saturday that not only confirmed misreported facts in a controversial story but directly accused the reporter who wrote it of suggesting deception to a source in the article. Ruth Shalit Barrett wrote a story, published Oct. 17, about New England parents pushing their children to pursue unconventional sports for a better shot at winning admission to an Ivy League school. One mother in the story, referred to only as “Sloane,” is described as having two daughters and a son. The Washington Post identified Sloane, however, and discovered she had only daughters. In a correction, Sloane accuses Barrett of suggesting the fabrication: “[Sloane’s] attorney also said that according to Sloane, Barrett had first proposed the invention of a son, and encouraged Sloane to deceive The Atlantic as a way to protect her anonymity…[Barrett] admitted that she was ‘complicit’ in ‘compounding the deception’ and that ‘it would not be fair to Sloane’ to blame her alone for deceiving The Atlantic. Barrett denies that the invention of a son was her idea.”

In 1999, Barrett, then going by Shalit, departed The New Republic after it came to light that she had plagiarized passages in her work. The Atlantic correction continues: “We decided to assign Barrett this freelance story in part because more than two decades separated her from her journalistic malpractice at The New Republic...We were wrong to make this assignment, however. It reflects poor judgment on our part, and we regret our decision.”