Solutions

“Jimmy is 8 years old and a third-generation heroin addict, a precocious little boy with sandy hair, velvety brown eyes and needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his
thin brown arms.”
– Janet Cooke, Washington Post, September 29, 1980

Teresa Carpenter: Simon and Schuster press photo by Marion Ettlinger

Promoted by her Washington Post Editor, Bob Woodward, reporter Janet Cooke was nominated for and received the Pulizter Prize – journalism’s highest honor – for her reporting on “Jimmy,” an eight-year-old heroin addict.

Fifteen years later, Cooke received $750,000 for a book and movie proposal to tell her story. The amount would climb to $850,000 if her story actually became a movie; after agent fees, Cooke would get 55 percent of this amount.

Cook’s piece on Jimmy was, of course, a hoax, one that the Washington Post initially defended, and her book/movie deal came after she eventually moved to Paris only to later become a Liz Claiborne clerk in Kalamazoo, Mich. making $6 an hour.

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The rest of this post has been updated, revised and is available in paperbook or ebook.