In the annals of bogus journalism, French national security consultant Alexis Debat's antics may go down as the boldest. Stephen Glass made up obscure companies and people; Scott Beauchamp -- a case that is still in limbo -- may have concocted a disfigured woman and other details for a diary from Iraq, but Debat, a consultant/journalist/think-tanker may have reached out for that brass ring of fabulism: interviews with famous people that never took place.
Debat published an interview with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, though he later said he hired a freelancer to conduct the interview (an equally dubious claim). Now other "interviews" he conducted -- with Kofi Annan, Bill Gates, and Michael Bloomberg, among others -- are also being called out as bogus. Debat, who was at the Nixon Center until last week, naturally denies these charges.
The Debat story was first broke by the French online outlet Rue 89. Laura Rozen also has some excellent posts on Debat, and the follow up, that are well worth reading.
Update:
Alexis Debat is answering detailed questions about his alleged fabrications (good move). David Henderson's blog posts a full e-mail that Debat wrote in response to questions.
