SPJ Ethics Committee Publications

AJC reporter Sheinin criticized for “fake news”

by IAG Staff | Feb 23, 2017 | James Magazine

State Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, and a number of immigration control activists are upset with Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Aaron Gould Sheinin and his editors for printing what they call “fake news” in an article yesterday describing Petrea’s House Bill 452 dealing with criminal aliens.

Sheinin wrote: “Legislation filed in the state House on Wednesday would require the GBI to create and maintain a website listing any unauthorized immigrant currently in Georgia.”

Longtime activist D.A. King of the Dustin Inman Society brands it as “false” (as does Petrea and others) and demanded an AJC retraction. As this is written, the newspaper hasn’t done so.

In response to an email from King calling him out, however, Sheinin claimed Petrea “introduced a bill that does more than he says it means.” But then, after speaking with Petrea, Sheinin backed down and wrote in an email that “am going to change the story to reflect what he intends the bill to do, instead of what it says in plain language it would do.”

“This happens all too often. The AJC sometimes rewrites new versions of political stories when they are originally inaccurate– rather than just simply publishing a formal clarification or correction,” says Phil Kent, CEO of InsiderAdvantage Georgia and the governor’s appointee to the state Immigration and Enforcement Review Board.

What is accurate, by the way, is that Petrea’s bill would require the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to share information it has been receiving from the Department of Homeland Security for over a year regarding the release from federal custody of criminal aliens onto the street.