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Unlike Tom Shaw, Kathy Scruggs, who died in 2001, was a real reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who really did break the news that Jewell was the focus of the FBI investigation. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! She was the real deal when it came to being a dedicated reporter, attorney and family friend Edward Tolley told the AJC in a 2019 feature on Scruggs, adding that the portrayal of her as a floozy was complete horse [expletive]., My concern is theyre going to turn her into some sort of femme fatale who would do anything to get a story, said former AJC reporter Ron Martz, who added that no one from the film ever got in touch with him. Jewell becomes emotional about regaining his freedom. Eric Rudolph, an American domestic terrorist, was later found to have been responsible for setting off the bomb, which killed one person and injured 111 other people at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta in July 1996. The FBI greenlit the entire thing. For our 29th annual Hollywood cover, a dozen captivating young stars gather for the after-party of our dreams. Shestruggled with chronic health issues and had been on medical leavefrom the newspaper for about a year when she died, Kiss said. 'Richard Jewell' backlash leads Atlanta newspaper to demand disclaimer However, there are some things that dont quite come across in the film that are stated in the article. If you couldnt f*ck it out of them, what makes you think you can f*ck it out of me? Hamms character asks her. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. Manhunt: Deadly Games airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. By then, Scruggs had been dead for a decade. Kathy Scruggs was the colorful and controversial Atlanta Journal-Constitution news reporter who broke the story that the FBI was investigating hero security guard Richard Jewell in the 1996 . The newspaper, in turn, has criticized the film's depiction of Kathy Scruggs who broke the story with Ron Martz that the FBI was eyeing Jewell as its prime suspect as a promiscuous crime. Why should Kathy Scruggs get named and shamed while the FBI agent who revealed the suspects name receives anonymity? That adjective haunted Richard Jewell long before he became known as the FBI's leading suspect in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing on July 27, 1996. 6+ Thoughts I Had Watching When Harry Met Sally For The First Time, How Wolf Entertainment's New Cop Drama Will Be Fundamentally Different From Chicago P.D. Powered by. Clint Eastwoods film is based on the Vanity Fair profile piece (linked earlier) American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell and the book The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Richard Jewell, an American security guard and a police officer got entangled in a web of investigation and media trial after he became a suspect in the investigation. It starts with them in a conference room conducting an interrogation of Jewell. Check out never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Kathy Scruggs herself wrote follow-up stories about Jewell's shabby treatment and interviewed criminal profilers about how criminal profiling had been mishandled in the Jewell case. Scruggs was born and raised in Atlanta. Eric Rudolph did three other bombs, four in total, before he became a suspect. As the film depicts it, Scruggs (played by Olivia Wilde) finds out that Jewell is the FBIs primary suspect (which he probably never shouldve been) by sexually accosting an FBI agent played by Jon Hamm at a bar. Amid safety concerns, and anxiety over the fate of a $200 million movie, The 2023 Hollywood Issue: Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh & More. Should they have known what the unprecedented 24-hour news cycle would do with Jewell? It might be a valuable discussion to have, whether Scruggs, Martz, and the AJC erred in running with the Jewell-as-prime-suspect story, even if it was well-sourced, true, and okayed before publication. She worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a reporter. I am sorry, but it is not enough to say, law enforcement thinks. And they didnt even say that. Citing the paper that reported there was no evidence against Jewell, Brenner said, The New York Timesand its editor Joe Lelyveld knew better., King acknowledged that the Richard Jewell case was a turning point in a lot of newspaper discussions about where to draw the line when on identifying suspects. And I think those are good lessons to share with a movie-going audience, that there are people who are the subject of newspaper stories and of government investigations who look as guilty as Richard appeared to look in those initial stories but who ultimately are totally innocent and whose reputations are dragged through the mud for all the wrong reasons., Scruggs died in 2001 from a prescription drug overdose, due, in part, to a chronic back problem, still troubled by the repercussions of her Jewell reporting. We never made such a false & damning claim. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The movietells the story of Richard Jewell, a security guard who should have been hailed a hero after he found a pipe bombpacked with nails and screwsin Centennial Olympic Park. People have begun to do just that, and the criticism has, if anything, only intensified. Scruggs, who was areporter atAtlanta Journal-Constitution at the time of the bombing, broke the story that Jewell was considered a suspect. When you reach the Richard Jewell ending, you feel a deeper understanding of him as a human and his friendship with lawyer Watson Bryant. "Kathy Scruggs was the one who broke the story about Richard Jewell," said Lyda Longa, who was a police reporter for the newspaper during the 1996 games. Her heart gave away. To say that Kathy Scruggs had sex with an FBI agent (or at the very least fondled his crotch) to get the Jewell scoop when theres no evidence of that is defamatory enough, and that has nothing to do with sexism or double standards. 3 Might Make You An Emotional Wreck, How Bail Bag Helps The Formerly Incarcerated Get Back On Their Feet, Advice From A Finance Pro For How To Survive (And Thrive) In This Economy, Why We Shouldnt Forget About The Game Stop Short Squeeze, Five Cities Where Latinx Street Art Is Alive And Well, Travel Budgeting Pro Gabby Beckford Shares Her Best Financial Advice For 2023 Adventures, We Blind Tested Our Favorite Fast Food Double Cheeseburgers & Crowned A New Champ, How To Actually, Truly Buy Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon For Real, Were Picking The Very Best Air Jordan IIIs Of All Time, In Control: Quentin Grimes Is Writing His Own Story With The Knicks, Amanda Renner On Getting To Dig Deeper With Player Interviews At The Masters, Charlotte Flair Continues To Carve Out My Own Path Ahead Of WrestleMania 39, Maxo Decries The Face Of Stone Portrayed By A Fake Friend For UPROXX Sessions, Talib Kweli & Cormega On The Realness II, Nas, The Firm, Large Pro, Queens, Luh Tyler Goes Behind The Video For His Law & Order Visual, Sandra Mejia Is Bringing The Healing Power Of Plants To The Green Desert Of South Central Los Angeles, The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, The FBI, The Media, And Richard Jewell, The Man Caught In The Middle, trope of reporter-who-sleeps-with-sources. Age, Height, Salary, Net Worth, Podcast, Andrew Nichols CBC Salary, Age, Height, Wife, College, Net Worth, Ashley Willcott Court Tv Husband, Age, Height, Salary, Net Worth, Craig Herrera FOX Weather Salary, Age, Husband, Leaving KING 5. The film implies Scruggs gave sexual favors to get the information, according to multiple media outlets. She struggled with chronic. She would get upset when people were supposed to tell her something but wouldn't. Reporting what happened to Richard Jewell and his mother profoundly changed me as a reporter and caused me to rethink many of the assumptions and quick judgments we can all unwittingly make under deadline pressure without attempting to find out a larger truth that lurks behind breaking news, Brenner told Vanity Fair. "She was so, so alive." Scruggs was born Sept. 26, 1958 into a prominent Athens family. The Sad End to Atlanta Bombing Reporter Kathy Scruggs' Life - Heavy.com She became popular in the 1990s for breaking the story that the FBI was investigating security guard Richard Jewell as a possible suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics bombing. As Hamm told me during our interview, I really do think that the movie is an exoneration of a man who did his job and was wrongfully accused of something that he didnt do and is still thought of as something that he isnt.. Clint Eastwoods new movie, Richard Jewell, adapted by screenwriter Billy Ray partly from a 1997 Marie Brenner Vanity Fair article, tells the story of the FBI and the medias rush to judgment in the case of Richard Jewell, a security guard who discovered a bomb in Atlantas Centennial Olympic Park and then became the prime suspect, beaten up in the press even though he actually helped save peoples lives. What happened to Kathy Scruggs? Did kathy scruggs apologize to richard Carla Gugino plays journalist Kathy Scruggs for the CBS show Manhunt: Deadly Games. Reporters Enraged Over Media Portrayal in 'Richard Jewell' Dreams of implants (Perhaps not coincidentally, The Suspect reports that Bryant teamed up with Jewells mother to sell the movie rights.) And she would get frustrated if people were keeping something from her. Kathy did not personally apologize to Richard Jewell, However, the story haunted her until her death. Perhaps, but its hard to have that discussion when the movie unfairly paints one of the players in it as an unscrupulous news ghoul. Despite the fact that he was never charged, Jewell was subjected to a trial by media, which had a negative impact on both his personal and professional life. Mike King, a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor who worked with Scruggs for about eight years, said that, save for that glaring implication, Richard Jewell largely seems to get Scruggs right. Again, a chapter that goes unmentioned in the film. Please proceed accordingly). Pronouns: she/her. The man, Richard Jewell, went from being hailed a hero to the most hated villain when Kathy Scruggs, a journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, broke the news about Jewell being looked at as the main suspect by the FBI. In the movie, much of the blame for that seems to land on Kathy Scruggs, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). His motives were because he was against abortion and didnt want homosexuality normalized. Why Clint Eastwood's 'Richard Jewell' is so controversial - Los Angeles As for the bar scene, Kent Alexander and his co-author Kevin Salwen have declined to discuss their input, saying in a statement, We have been asked repeatedly whether we found evidence that Scruggs traded sex for the story. Specifically, Riley has pointed to a scene in Richard Jewell that implies Scruggs, who died in 2001, traded sex for storiesa scene that has incited an internet firestorm and prompted the AJC to demand a disclaimer on the movie. She was also known for a foul mouth, low-cut dresses, and general wildness. Who is Julia Morales? Such a portrayal makes it appear that the AJC sexually exploited its staff and/or that it facilitated or condoned offering sexual gratification to sources in exchange for stories. Related: Eirianedd Munro (Adam Peaty Girlfriend) Bio, Age, Height, Family, Boyfriend, Son, Artist, Job, Net Worth. This led to him being scrutinized and ridiculed by the media before he was cleared as a suspect. "There was NO evidence to support a storyline" that Kathy Scruggs traded sex for tips about Richard Jewell, his attorney tweeted. Read More Craig Herrera FOX Weather Salary, Age, Husband, Leaving KING 5Continue, Your email address will not be published. In addition to Eastwood and the movie's production team, Olivia Wilde, the actor who played Scruggs in the movie, has also come under criticism. It was just hard living," her brother told the AJC. By then, Scruggs had been dead for a decade. In the 1990s, Scruggs was known for her solid reporting, her tight relationship with local law enforcement, and also her hard-partying ways, something that was exacerbated after she set off the media firestorm directed at Jewell. Its like, well, the names out there. When she died, she was facing possible jail time though eventually, the Journal-Constitution was cleared, with the Georgia Court of Appeals finding that the articles in their entirety were substantially true at the time they were published.. In a new depiction of the 1996 Olympics bombing in Atlanta and its aftermath, a newspaper reporter from the time is once again portrayed in a controversial light. Scruggs' former reporting partner, Ron Martz, played by David Shae in the movie, said no one from the film contacted him. The claim was that Jewell's reputation had been injured by the AJC and others. Jewell, a security guard at the park, helped to evacuate the area after the bomb was discovered. Who is Nikki Battiste? ", In addition to her depiction in Richard Jewell, out in theaters Friday, December 13,her life inspired two fictional characters. Ezra Millers Messiah Delusions: Inside. Richard Jewell is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed and produced . Richard Jewell was never officially charged with any crimes, but he spent 88 days being under investigation as the person responsible for the 1996 bombs in Centennial Park. At the 2020 Television Critics Associaton winter press tour, creator/executive producer Andrew Sodroski said of the character, We portray her as a fully well-rounded character. Carla Gugino as Kathy Scruggs in 'Manhunt: Deadly Games'. Even the AJCs house style, voice-of-God narration that stressed declarative sentences over attribution, news in bite-sized chunklets in an attempt to mimic USA Today, deserves some blame making Jewell fit the profile of the lone bomber sound like objective fact rather than the opinion of the FBI, who created said profile. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast.