For the second time in recent months, a magazine owned by Jann Wenner’s Wenner Media has come under scrutiny as a major story in one of the company’s publications implodes.
In the latest black eye, Us Weekly on Thursday retracted a story by a freelance writer who claimed to have scored an exclusive interview with Kendall Jenner talking about her father’s transition to womanhood.
Jenner angrily denied that the interview took place.
“Shame on US Weekly for making up quotes,” Jenner tweeted on Wednesday shortly after the story was posted on the Us Weekly Web site. “I NEVER said those things. I never spoke to them.”
Us Weekly said it had “concerns” about the veracity of the story — which was entitled “Kendall Jenner Breaks Silence on Bruce Jenner’s Transition: I Will Always Love My Dad.” It removed the story from its site. It never made the print edition.
In a statement on Thursday, Us Weekly said, “The interview was allegedly conducted by an independent freelance journalist at the Saturday, March 14, taping of Comedy Central’s roast of Justin Bieber in Los Angeles. When Ms. Jenner denied, via Twitter, that the interview took place, Us Weekly immediately reached out to the freelance reporter. He stood by the interview, and continues to maintain that the quotes are accurate. However, after attempting to reconfirm his account, editors of Us have concerns about the veracity of this interview and the circumstances under which it was obtained. We would like to retract the story entirely and have removed it from our website. We sincerely apologize to Ms. Jenner and her family.”
In another unfortunate episode, an explosive Nov. 19, 2014, story in Rolling Stone, alleged a gang rape of a female student, “Jackie,” at a fraternity at the University of Virginia.
Wenner Media backed away from the RS story, which was based on interviews of Jackie, after enduring several weeks of media scrutiny.
“In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced,” an apology written several weeks after the story hit newsstands by RS managing editor Will Dana, stated.
Wenner turned down the resignations offered by Dana and another editor on the project, Sean Woods.
After several more weeks of questions, Wenner told the staff in late December that he had asked Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and Sheila Coronel, dean of academics, to investigate the process that allowed the story to make it into print.
That investigation is believed to be nearing an end.
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