ABC Expert, Source of Iran-Attack Rumours: A Fraud

Many people get all their news from television. But if television ever covers a story you know personally, you'll probably be shocked at how inaccurate it is. The reason is simple: TV "journalists" are entertainers first, last and always, and just don't value truth in reporting. 

The latest poster child is ABC News's Brian Ross, whose expert in terrorism and national security, Alexis Debat, turns out to be not so much. Debat's claimed PhD from the Sorbonne doesn't quite exist, but what exposed him was an exclusive interview he did with Barack Obama -- the only problem is, Obama never spoke to Debat. 

The guy might not be, er, truthful, but he sure knows the boffo box-office value of a good fabrication. As the NRO Media Blog notes, he was the sole source for an explosive (and false) report that the US was deep in the throes of planning a massive strike on Iran. 

Debat does not appear to have any military experience, but that's close to the norm for academic and media military and terrorism experts. 

Debat is now blaming his Obama non-interview on a freelance journalist named "Rob Sherman," who he inexplicably now can't contact. His explanation for how his name wound up on "Sherman's" interview with Obama (which, again, the Obama camp says never happened) does not appear to have been reported. 

Debat says he stands behind his stories 100%... I mean, who are we gonna believe, an ABC News expert or that lying Barack? Well, ABC News -- while also standing behind perhaps hundreds of stories sourced on Debat -- has asked him to step down over the phony PhD, as have other outlets of his, like the Nixon Center and the French magazine Politique Internationale, which ran Debat "exclusive interviews" with Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, and Alan Greenspan as well as the bogus Barack Obama piece. 

There is no definitive word on the authenticity of the Clinton, Gates and Greenspan interviews, not to mention his ABC output. Update: there is definitive word on the written output of Debat. The "interviews" (including ones with Kofi Annan, Mike Bloomberg, and Nancy Pelosi) are all fabrications. What's worse is that the Kofi Annan interview was exposed by the UN two years ago, but Politique Internationale, ABC News and other outlets kept trusting Debat. 

But does it really matter to ABC News and Brian Ross? After all, they're in the entertainment, not information, industry... and truth or lie, they simply don't care.