Digital magazine The Intercept has fired reporter Juan Thompson after discovering “a pattern of deception” in his reporting. In a note to readers, editor-in-chief Betsy Reed revealed that Thompson had fabricated quotes in several stories and created email accounts in order to impersonate people.

“Thompson went to great lengths to deceive his editors, creating an email account to impersonate a source and lying about his reporting methods,” Reed wrote.

Following an investigation into Thompson’s reporting, the publication is retracting one story in its entirety and appending corrections to four others. Among the inconsistencies The Intercept discovered were quotes “attributed to people who said they had not been interviewed” and quotes that could not be verified.



“Thompson admitted to creating fake email accounts and fabricating messages, but stood by his published work. He did not cooperate in the review,” Reed wrote.

Among the stories of concern was a report by Thompson that Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old accused of mass murder at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, was in part motivated by a love interest rejecting him in favor of a black man. In the story, Thompson describes a phone conversation with Roof’s cousin, Scott Roof:

Scott Roof, who identified himself as Dylann Roof’s cousin, told me over the telephone that “Dylann was normal until he started listening to that white power music stuff.” He also claimed that “he kind of went over the edge when a girl he liked starting dating a black guy two years back”... “Dylann liked her,” Scott Roof said. “The black guy got her. He changed. I don’t know if we would be here if not …” Roof then abruptly hung up the phone.

The story has been retracted. An editor’s note states: “After speaking with two members of Dylann Roof’s family, The Intercept can no longer stand by the premise of this story. Both individuals said that they do not know of a cousin named Scott Roof.”



Another article, on the murders of black women in St Louis, originally included a quote attributed to a criminal justice professor. An editor’s note appended to the story now states: “The subject told us that she had not spoken to our reporter, had never taught criminal justice, and had no expertise in the matters on which she was quoted.”

In her note, Reed said The Intercept will publish further corrections if they discover more problems.

In his author biography at The Intercept, Thompson said that he previously worked as a production assistant and reporter for WBEZ, a public radio station in Chicago, and a reporter for DNAinfo Chicago. However, according to Ben Calhoun, VP of content and programming at WBEZ, this is not true. In an email to the Guardian, Calhoun wrote: “Juan was never a reporter at WBEZ. Juan was an intern for a local talk show for four months (May-August of 2014). The extent of his duties was minimal, and he has no bylines with us.”

Thompson has recently tweeted about being diagnosed with testicular cancer. Thompson’s Intercept email account is no longer active, and he did not immediately respond to attempts to reach him via Twitter.



The Intercept was founded in 2014 by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill. Greenwald and Poitras are the journalists responsible for initially publishing the Edward Snowden documents detailing revelations of NSA surveillance. The Intercept is the first, and thus far the only, digital magazine published by eBay chairman Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media.