Yesterday we told you about former ABC News counterterrorism consultant Alexis Debat, who’s accused of using quotes from Sen. Barack Obama that Obama says he never made. Well today, ABC’s The Blotter reports the Frenchman may have also duped Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, among others.
“This guy is just sick,” says Patrick Wajsman, the editor of the magazine, Politique Internationale, in which several of Debat’s stories, apparently made-up, appeared. ABC parted company with Debate earlier this year. He’d been on their payroll since late 2001. An ABC internal investigation did not find any inaccuracies in reporting which featured Debat. Nor, did the investigation turn up documentation proving Debat had a PhD from the Sorbonne, as he claimed.
In light of the news of the apparent shoddy print reporting, an ABC spokesperson tells TVNewser another internal investigation has been launched.