Italian Journalist Invents, Attributes Anti-Obama Comments to Literati

[NJCher]

So this freelance journalist (Tommaso Debenedetti) needs a gimmick to sell articles to conservative Italian publishing outlets. Here's an example, attributed to John Grisham:

“People are angry with Obama for having done little or nothing and having promised too much."

Prominent American writer Philip Roth observes:

“You have to wonder what the guy was thinking. The best explanation I can find is that this obscure freelancer had hit upon a way of selling articles by attributing anti-Obama sentiments to famous American writers. It was a good gimmick, and he probably had fun. But I can’t imagine what he’ll do now—surely his career is over.”

The scam was discovered by progressive Italian journalist Paola Zanuttini. She interviewed Phillip Roth and asked him about a comment attributed to him by Tommaso Debenedetti in a publication notably sympathetic to Berlesconi, Libero. From Judith Thurman's column in The New Yorker, "Ink":

The interview, with its bitter judgment of Obama’s banality, failure, and empty rhetoric about hope and change, was a complete fabrication.

Also, Debenedetti comes from a prominent literary family.

See "The Italian Job" and updates at The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/


Cher