They Left That Bit Out

They Left That Bit Out episodes

October 22 Janet Cooke: What they left out
Post-Watergate, the Washington Post was the newsroom everyone wanted to join. In part 2 of this interview, Mike Sager explains the pressure cooker Janet Cooke walked into in 1980, how journalism has changed since then, and why he doesn't think she set out to cheat journalism.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit raywelling.substack.com
43 min
October 22 The writer, his lover, and the returned Pulitzer - redux
Welcome to the They Left That Bit Out podcast! To kick things off, our first episode revisits a historical case of the journalist who left out the bit where her prize-winning piece of journalism was actually a piece of fiction. In an interview originally conducted for the Clear as Mud podcast back in 2022, Ray speaks with acclaimed writer Mike Sager, who was at Ground Zero for a key moment in the history of fake news - the Janet Cooke Pulitzer Prize scandal. This story has it all: sex, drugs, rock and roll, politics, profanity - and a real-life cameo role for Ray!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit raywelling.substack.com
1 hr 4 min

From the publisher's feed

History gets written by somebody, and somebody decides what gets left out.