The film, directed by Clint Eastwood, says it is a story of what happens when what is reported as fact obscures the truth.. And just in time for awards season, can you imagine that. The brutal murders of four Idaho college students shocked millions. Scruggs, who died in 2001, was working for the Atlanta . Scruggs had discovered that Richard Jewell, the security guard who had evacuated the area before the bomb exploded, saving dozens of lives in the process, was a suspect in the attack. 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. As for Olivia Wildes notion of why people arent complaining about Jon Hamms character, thats an easy one: Tom Shaw isnt a real person. Will Cain is one of the prominent journalists for CNN. The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the Jewell case against the AJC in 2011. The screen fades to black and the audience is informed that Jewell died at 44, Bryant and his assistant Nayda (played by Nina Arianda) were married and have two sons that Richards mother, Bobi (played by Kathy Bates) watches every Saturday. This movie is about a hero whose life was completely destroyed by myths created by the FBI and the media, specifically the AJC, Ray told Deadline. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. 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. . She nonetheless gets the information, while fondling for his crotch. Wilde concluded her string of Twitter posts on Thursday by saying that Scruggs "unfortunately became a piece of the massive puzzle that was responsible for the brutal and unjust vilification of. His own FBI partner, Agent Thomas Dauenhauer, complained to higher-ups that [he] rarely, if ever, took out a notepad when interviewing witnesses and suspects, and would then craft his official reports from memory. Reading through [his] 302s, Dauenhauer would fume this is bullshit, and refuse to add his initials. Richard Jewell is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed and produced . However, there are some things that dont quite come across in the film that are stated in the article. The Complete Guide to All the Ways Donald Trump Is Legally Screwed. In hindsight, its easy to cast Scruggs as the villain, but Gugino said its not that simple. ", Olivia Wilde as Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs in the movie 'Richard Jewell. "Her heart gave away. ', there is no evidence that Scruggs slept with anyone. According to the 1997 Vanity Fair piece by Marie Brenner that the movie is partially based on, the case was being handled by an FBI division that had been formed to fight the Cold War, whose strength was intimidation and manipulation rather than the deliberate gathering of evidence to be presented in court.. The movie actually does Scruggs worse than that. 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. But she was a good reporter. "She did not have to sleep with anyone to get a story," Kiss said. The polygraph seems to be the final nail in the FBIs attempt at finding evidence against Jewell. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. I have mixed feelings about it. https://t.co/Wii3yiCK7y. The bomb detonated before it could be removed, killing. Its like, well, the names out there. There was NO evidence to support a storyline that Ms. Scruggs traded sex for tips about Richard. She liked a good party, too. By contrast, when Kathy Scruggs died in 2001 of a drug overdose (possibly deliberate, according to The Suspect) just shy of age 43, she was still fighting court battles over her story. After 88 days of public scrutiny, he was cleared as a suspect. "The AJCs reporter is reduced to a sex-trading object in the film, the letter states, according to AJC. She would get upset when people were supposed to tell her something but wouldn't. Its both incorrect and unfair, blaming her for things she didnt do and turning her into a less compelling character in the process. In a statement, Warner Bros. called the AJC's claims in the letter "baseless" and said the film was based on "a wide range of highly credible source material," according to Variety magazine. Oh, well, its not like he received a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court or anything. The case wasnt dismissed until 2011, on the grounds that they were substantially true at the time they were published. None of the lawyers who pursued Scruggs get mentioned in the film. The book describes Scruggs as the kind of woman who packed perfume and a pistol in her purse, wore leather miniskirts and fishnet tights to the office, and kept her blouse unbuttoned beyond what some might feel was workplace-appropriate. The Independent Mail is seeking a copy of the letter from Lavely & Singer, the California law firm that sent it on behalf of the AJC and the newspaper's parent corporation, Cox Enterprises. So he said, Yeah, the names out there and I dont really know the details. So he couldnt really say it was accurate, but he said, Im not going to quibble with it. And then, will it screw up the investigation? Jewell was the security guard who spotted an unattended bag containing a pipe bomb in Centennial Park in the early hours of July 27, 1996. In a feature last month, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Scruggs was disturbed by a lawsuit naming the AJC. Most people within the Atlanta Journal-Constitution thought that everybody would get the story at the same time, that it would essentially be a tie, Kent Alexander, co-author of The Suspect told me. But its just jumping over that last wall to make it look like she traded sexual favors for information. In 2011, the suitsnaming the AJC weredismissed as the Georgia Court of Appeals concluded the articles in their entirety were substantially true at the time they were published. It was just hard living," her brother told the AJC. The Idaho Murders, Part 1: How 4 College Kids Lived and Loved. Her choice of boyfriends was not great. While King was clear that Scruggs had never slept with sources, he told Vanity Fair that the reporter had in-house romances [at the paper] that caused us to have to say, You stay over here, you stay over there. She was also known for a foul mouth, low-cut dresses, and general wildness. She'd launch into a story maybesomething about the person she had just run into,the interview she had just finished. The deputy attorney general called that morning, and said, essentially, Get that woman off the air. Once Scruggs got the scoop, she wrote up the story with her co-author, Ron Martz. We never made such a false & damning claim. Why is that anyones business? Brenner told Vanity Fair. Craig Herrera is an American host and meteorologist at FOX Weather. She was really tough and hard-nosed. 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. Did kathy scruggs apologize to richard jewell Those who were either directly involved in the incident or were dragged into the subsequent FBI investigation are featured in the show. "She would announce herself. Scruggs is not. He really didnt know. But the truth being obscuredis something that'sbeing brought up for another reason in relation to the film:Many are furious with its depiction of journalist Kathy Scruggs, who broke the Jewell FBI investigation story. 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. 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. 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. In an interview with Collider, Gugino acknowledged that Scruggs was known for partying hard, but she was also known as a great reporter and what intrigued Gugino about the part was the notion that everything can look a certain way, depending on the point of view youre looking at it from, and that we all have a sense of what our truth is and it might be very different than somebody elses., Gugino went on to say that the scoop about Jewell basically fell in her lap and Scruggs was pressured to do it quickly, otherwise somebody else was gonna run the story, which is the nature of that profession, and she ended up in very deep.. At the time, the coroner said it could not be determined if the overdose was suicidal or accidental. Later, movie-Scruggs is moved to tears at a Jewell press conference, apparently humbled by the Jewells plight and ashamed at her own actions the movies way of showing that Scruggs had learned a lesson about being so aggressive (uppity?). That sort of portrayal of her, its an insult not only to her, but to just about any other woman whos been a reporter.. This, in turn, had actors in the movie, like Jon Hamm, when I interviewed him, urging people to see the film before passing judgment. Y'all stay away from each other, if at all possible. Ya know?, Brenner never reported on rumors about Scruggss romantic life. When. In a thread on Twitter on Thursday night, Lin Wood, the prominent defamation lawyer who represented Jewell in lawsuits against The Journal-Constitution and other media organizations, joined the movie's critics. Warner Brothers has fired back at the AJC, saying that having been a part of the rush to judgment of Richard Jewell, [the AJC] is now trying to malign our filmmakers and cast., Olivia Wilde, who plays Scruggs in the film, defended the films depiction of her character on feminist grounds, saying the films critics were holding it to a sexist double standard., She was incredibly successful as a cop reporter. Could never apologize or admit she got it wrong, and put someone through utter hell for it 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. Someone saw him running from the scene and took down his license. AJC ace Kathy Scruggs broke the story that made Richard Jewell a household name. The story contributed to her stress and failing health. In 2017, the series Manhunt was released depicting the FBIs hunt for the Unabomber. It all happened in 1996 when security guard Richard Jewell alerted police during the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Her former colleagues said she didn't cross ethical boundaries to land a story,as is suggested in "Richard Jewell," the movie thatincludes a portrayal of her as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Tom Brokaw, who said the FBI probably had enough to convict Jewell but were just trying to collect all the evidence, does get a soundbite in the film. All of which again escapes mention in the film which its possible to come away from believing that Jewell was still basically the same sexless weirdo mamas boy that the media made him out to be in the nineties. and Eastwood's direction. All rights reserved. The FBIs theory was that Jewell left these bombs so that he could be the one to find them and gain hero status. The media hounding of Jewell was shown as being pretty bad, but it was worse in real life. You can access his archive of reviews here. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Scoop in hand, she convinces her bosses to run with the story over their concerns. She was the daughter of Lewis Bubber Scruggs Sr. and Nancy Bentley Scruggs. (Perhaps not coincidentally, The Suspect reports that Bryant teamed up with Jewells mother to sell the movie rights.) Another such figure was Kathy Scruggs, who was a reporter at Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time of the bombing. While there were a number of bad actors this includes journalists who did considerable damage to Richard Jewell's reputation, I've not seen where Kathy Scruggs' reporting went beyond the facts. Her soul was gone. If there was a double standard, it was one Ron Martz complained of at the time: that Kathy Scruggs seemed to be getting all the criticism over a story on which Martz was a co-author. Read More Who is Will Cain Married To? For months after the bomb was detonated, he was suspected of planting it, resulting in negative publicity that came to symbolize the excesses of law enforcement and the news media.. And she could be loud and brash if the mood struck her. Every single criminal investigation and civil lawsuit the ex-president is currently facing, including the ones youve probably never heard about. ), Fact Vs. 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Unfortunately, Scruggs can't come forward to defend herself, either: She died in 2001 at the age of 42from an overdose of prescription pain pills, according to Poytner. The claim was that Jewell's reputation had been injured by the AJC and others. I think [Grace] said that there was no presumption of innocence at this time because there wasnt a jury trial, and that was a head-shaker, Alexander says. Richard Jewell, a security guard, also discovered the explosives. It was like a vacuum, she said. It states that she was given a tip about the FBI and Richard Jewell and respected the request to not publish it without finding more sources, so Scruggs and co-writer Ron Martz found more sources. In the film, Kathy is portrayed as a ruthless reporter who is willing to use any means necessary to get a story, even sleeping with an FBI agent, and not showing empathy for the victims after the bombing. 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. True, Jewells lawyers surely got a chunk of that only one of whom, Watson Bryant, appears in the film, played memorably by Sam Rockwell. Days later, Scruggs was told by a trusted law-enforcement source that Jewell was also the FBIs foremost suspect. He was caught in 2003 when a police officer saw him behind a dumpster searching for food. Reporter Kathy Scruggs broke the story that the FBI was looking at Richard Jewell as the Atlanta Olympics bomber. I have been a life long lover of pop culture, especially television, turned that passion into writing about all things entertainment related. It was Scruggs who first publicly. Former AJC reporter Ron Martz, who reported on the bombing along with Scruggs, said, She was one of the better reporters I ever worked with. Many journalists have strongly criticized the portrayal as perpetuating a pernicious and false stereotype that some female journalists trade sex for information, which U.S. news organizations prohibit as unethical. By Doug Monroe - July 1, 2003 A crowd gathers on July 30, 1996, in. It starts with them in a conference room conducting an interrogation of Jewell. By the time the case ended, Richard & Ms. Scruggs had both passed away. This led to him being scrutinized and ridiculed by the media before he was cleared as a suspect. ET. The media as a whole certainly wasnt innocent in the case. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! These cases typically ended up being settled out of court and him being rewarded an undisclosed amount of money. ", She went on to say, I think people have a hard time accepting sexuality in female characters without allowing it to entirely define that character. 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. Tell me this wouldnt have made an incredible movie from The Death Of Dick Long guys so many Southern oddballs! She was never at peace or at rest with this story, said Scruggss former co-worker Tony Kiss. . I feel like we were struggling throughout to give more and more time to her story and to really help you understand her world and the toll that these events took on her life., Without enough time to spend with her story, she becomes a culprit. Its true we shouldnt boil the character to one sexual act (which, again, doesnt seem to have actually happened), but the film doesnt present much that would flesh out the picture. I keep thinking, Im not going to go watch it, but then the cast is so damn good and this story is a good story, said King. "There was NO evidence to support a storyline" that Kathy Scruggs traded sex for tips about Richard Jewell, his attorney tweeted. She did her job as it was then understood. Referring to the newspaper by its commonly used nickname, Wood wrote: "I handled Richard Jewell's case against AJC for 16 years. Always Marlboro Lights. Through social media posts, court records, and other primary sources, author Kathleen Hale forensically reconstructs their lives before the crime, and the night they were killed. On Thursday, Ray defended the filmexplaining that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution seems to be pulling focus to one single minute in a movie thats 129 minutes long. Wilde also tweeted to respond to the controversy, saying,I do not believe Kathy traded sex for tips and it was never my intention to suggest she had. Ray and Brenner, among others, claim that the outsize focus on the Scruggs scene is a deliberate effort to deflect from the real story: the Atlanta Journal-Constitutions flawed, and destructive, reporting on Jewell. She had this big personality the kind you never forget.". He noticed a suspicious green backpack, and then alerted cops and authorized authorities. Richard Jewell is an Academy Awards nominated film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. The New York Times wrote a 3,000-word cover story about his poor treatment after the FBI cleared him. The implication about Scruggs in Richard Jewell is seemingly rooted in the films extra source material, the book by Georgia U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander and Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin SalwenThe Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle. Eric Rudolph eventually confessed and pleaded guilty to that bombing and other attacks. Read More Ashley Willcott Court Tv Husband, Age, Height, Salary, Net WorthContinue. She had a very close relationship with the cops and the FBI helping to tell their story, and yes, by all accounts she had relationships with different people in that field, Wilde told Deadline. Decades later, how Scruggs is portrayed as a journalist is at the center of controversy that surrounds the film "Richard Jewell." Kathy Scruggs was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reporter whose reporting on the Atlanta Olympics bombing has been extremely controversial. ", Olivia Wilde defends her 'Richard Jewell' character amid backlash, Olivia Wilde said she heavily researched her role in "Richard Jewell," emphasizing Kathy Scruggs' "dynamic, multidimensional, nuanced personality.". 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Marie Brenner, who wrote the Vanity Fair feature on which the film is based, hopes that Richard Jewell might impact audiences the way the story affected her in 1996. An article published on Columbia colleges website entitled Richard Jewell Case Study, discussed Scruggs more and showed her in a more professional manner. Carla Gugino plays her in Manhunt: Deadly Games on CBS. She was just 42 when she died in 2001. On July 30, 1996, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the FBI investigation of Jewell as the potential bomber. NY 10036. the Atlanta Constitution-Journal reporter, Gwyneth Paltrow Says She's 'Proud' Years Later Of Bringing Conscious Uncoupling Into The Mainstream, Credits It For Making Divorces 'Easier', Baby Fever Is In The Air As Bonnie Wright Is The Latest Harry Potter Star To Announce A Pregnancy, Pete Davidson And Chase Sui Wonders Were Both At The Bupkis Premiere, But Totally Avoided Taking Red Carpet Photos Together, Following Controversy Surrounding Netflix's Queen Cleopatra, Egypt's Council Of Antiquities Weighs In. She broke the story that security guard Jewell at that point a hero for saving countless lives in the Centennial Olympic. Scruggs died in 2001 of a morphine overdose. Martz, who made the call to confirm the story with the FBI, said he wanted to make sure that, one, the story wasnt going to screw up the investigation. She worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a reporter. "It's heartbreaking to think that the only thing some people will ever hear about Kathy is how she is portrayed in that movie.".
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