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The Atlantic retracts niche-sports story by Ruth Shalit Barrett
This one:
Mon Oct 19, 2020: The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League-Obsessed Parents
Opinions
The Atlantic retracts niche-sports story by Ruth Shalit Barrett
Opinion by Erik Wemple
Media critic
November 2, 2020 at 2:04 p.m. EST
The Atlantic on Sunday evening retracted its hole-filled article about niche sports, elite colleges and ambitious parents in Fairfield County, Conn. The move came two nights after the magazine published an editor’s note describing a snafu in which the author of the story, Ruth Shalit Barrett, participated in a scheme to mislead fact-checkers about at least one detail in the story.
“We have decided to retract this article. We cannot attest to the trustworthiness and credibility of the author, and therefore we cannot attest to the veracity of the article,” reads the retraction.
The story was noteworthy not only for the remarkable quotes of parents driven by dreams of collegiate status but also for the author herself: Barrett left the New Republic under pressure in 1999 after multiple plagiarism scandals and concerns that she mishandled quotes and story points. She wrote occasional pieces for the Wall Street Journal, Elle and New York Magazine since leaving TNR, but the long-form piece in the Atlantic represented, perhaps, a bona fide comeback.
But no: As the Atlantic acknowledged in its editor’s note, the story contained an embellished account of a 12-year-old girl’s fencing injuries, plus other factual errors; it falsely attributed a son to the main character, “Sloane,” a Fairfield mom who was guiding her daughters through the rigors of competitive fencing, squash and rowing. There were other erroneous claims relating to Sloane as well, according to her lawyer, the magazine said, but the lawyer declined to specify the errors to the Atlantic. The Erik Wemple Blog has listed other extravagant and difficult-to-prove claims, all of which were arrayed to exaggerate the rat-race sports culture in well-off Fairfield County, Conn.
{snip}
Erik Wemple
Erik Wemple, The Washington Post's media critic, focuses on the cable-news industry. Before joining The Post, he ran a short-lived and much publicized local online news operation, and for eight years served as editor of Washington City Paper. Follow https://twitter.com/ErikWemple
The Atlantic retracts niche-sports story by Ruth Shalit Barrett
Opinion by Erik Wemple
Media critic
November 2, 2020 at 2:04 p.m. EST
The Atlantic on Sunday evening retracted its hole-filled article about niche sports, elite colleges and ambitious parents in Fairfield County, Conn. The move came two nights after the magazine published an editor’s note describing a snafu in which the author of the story, Ruth Shalit Barrett, participated in a scheme to mislead fact-checkers about at least one detail in the story.
“We have decided to retract this article. We cannot attest to the trustworthiness and credibility of the author, and therefore we cannot attest to the veracity of the article,” reads the retraction.
The story was noteworthy not only for the remarkable quotes of parents driven by dreams of collegiate status but also for the author herself: Barrett left the New Republic under pressure in 1999 after multiple plagiarism scandals and concerns that she mishandled quotes and story points. She wrote occasional pieces for the Wall Street Journal, Elle and New York Magazine since leaving TNR, but the long-form piece in the Atlantic represented, perhaps, a bona fide comeback.
But no: As the Atlantic acknowledged in its editor’s note, the story contained an embellished account of a 12-year-old girl’s fencing injuries, plus other factual errors; it falsely attributed a son to the main character, “Sloane,” a Fairfield mom who was guiding her daughters through the rigors of competitive fencing, squash and rowing. There were other erroneous claims relating to Sloane as well, according to her lawyer, the magazine said, but the lawyer declined to specify the errors to the Atlantic. The Erik Wemple Blog has listed other extravagant and difficult-to-prove claims, all of which were arrayed to exaggerate the rat-race sports culture in well-off Fairfield County, Conn.
{snip}
Erik Wemple
Erik Wemple, The Washington Post's media critic, focuses on the cable-news industry. Before joining The Post, he ran a short-lived and much publicized local online news operation, and for eight years served as editor of Washington City Paper. Follow https://twitter.com/ErikWemple
