Janet Leslie Cooke (born July 23, 1954) is an American former journalist. She received a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for an article written for The Washington Post. The story was later discovered to have been fabricated and Cooke returned the prize, the only person to date to do so, [1] after admitting she had

Jun 1, 2016 · “It basically eroded the integrity of a cadre of African-American journalists who do street reporting. It made people look at people of color, and African Americans in particular, with more scrutiny. Janet Cooke gave white folks permission to be skeptical about black people in …

Jan 29, 1982 · Janet Cooke, a Washington Post reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize last year for a fabricated report about a young heroin addict, says she made up the story...

May 9, 1996 · Cooke won a 1981 Pulitzer Prize for a bogus story in The Post about an 8-year-old heroin addict named "Jimmy," then admitted after a lengthy interrogation...

Sep 3, 2020 · Written by an up-and-coming reporter named Janet Cooke, the piece rocked Washington and the nation. City officials began scouring Southeast for the boy, and the story won Cooke the highest honor in journalism, the Pulitzer Prize, but it was not true.

Sep 7, 2024 · Janet Cooke's fabricated story and returned Pulitzer Prize sparked discussions about media representation and journalistic integrity. The incident highlighted crucial issues in reporting and public trust.

Apr 27, 1981 · For a glorious Monday last week, Janet Cooke, 26, hit the jackpot. Her sensational account of “Jimmy,” an eight-year-old heroin addict, had won the Pulitzer for feature writing, and she seemed...

May 28, 1996 · For 15 years, Cooke had been sidestepping a press obsessed with the details of her demise. What led her to fabricate a story about Jimmy, the 8-year-old heroin addict? And what became of her...

Forty years after The Washington Post published a blockbuster piece on an imaginary D.C. boy, we consider one of the most notorious cases of journalistic malfeasance.