“The most electric character in Clint Eastwood’s new film Richard Jewell—and now the most controversial—is Kathy Scruggs, the hard-charging, real-life Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist played by Olivia Wilde.
“In 1996, after security guard Richard Jewell discovered a bomb at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, helped clear the crowd, and saved hundreds of lives, Jewell was declared a hero by the press.
“Days later, Scruggs was told by a trusted law-enforcement source that Jewell was also the FBI’s foremost suspect.
“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s decision to publish the story—immediately recasting Jewell as a villain in the minds of millions—was so journalistically problematic and personally devastating to Jewell (and his mother, Bobi) that the case continues to be taught as a cautionary tale in journalism schools.”
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