Kurt Eichenwald

The media story of the day is New York magazine's in-depth look at what's become of former Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald since his controversial front-page story about a teenager trapped in an online pornogrpahy ring--in which Mr. Eichenwald became more personally involved than he let on to his editors at the time.

"My children are scared all the time, because they see me falling apart," Mr. Eichenwald tells New York. "My wife holds together. But that doesn't keep her from sobbing in the middle of the night, 'I wish to God we'd let him die.'"  read more »

Former New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald did not inform one of his editors at The Times that he suffered from memory loss. "Kurt never told me that he suffers from memory loss, and to the best of my knowledge he didn't tell any editor here," wrote Times business editor Larry Ingrassia--who oversaw Mr. Eichenwald's controversial child pornograpahy story--in an email to The Observer.

Mr. Eichenwald revealed in an interview today with NPR that he has long-term memory loss due to a battle with epilepsy.

Mr. Eichenwald did inform Portfolio editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman that he has memory disruptions, but only in one of their final conversations together, two sources said. He later resigned from the glossy magazine.

In an interview to air this evening, former New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald told NPR’s All Things Considered that the reason he forgot to tell his editors about the substantial sums of money he paid a young man while reporting a Dec. 2005 front-page story on child pornography was that the epilepsy from which he has suffered since youth had crippled his memory.

NPR reports:

His epilepsy had triggered so many and such severe seizures that, according to his neurologist, he suffers from ‘significant memory disruptions.”

Eichenwald’s famed meticulous reporting methods on intrigue at Enron and other troubled companies masked his deeply unreliable memory for names, facts and events.

In the interview, parts of which are available now on the NPR Web site, Eichenwald said he did not previously come forward about the effect his condition has had on his memory because he wanted to be judged on the basis of his work, not his challenges.

"There are reporters who are stupid," he said. "There are reporters who are lazy. There are reporters who are drunk… I'm none of those things."

Portfolio’s second issue hits newsstands on August 15, and there have now been two high-profile departures in the past four days alone.

Kurt Eichenwald, a senior writer and investigative reporter, has resigned, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

For two decades, Mr. Eichenwald worked as an investigative reporter at the New York Times before joining the Conde Nast start-up in September 2006.

It was in Dec. 2005, while at The Times, that Mr. Eichenwald wrote an award-winning investigative piece on online child-pornography that continues to generate controversy. This past March, The Times revealed that Mr. Eichenwald paid $2,000 to the story’s subject Justin Berry—which although repaid, violated the paper’s ethics guidelines, according to executive editor Bill Keller. And two days ago, The Times reported that Mr. Eichenwald made additional payments totaling $1,100 to Mr. Berry via PayPal, under pseudonyms.

Back in February 2007, Mr. Eichenwald was very excited about his new position at Portfolio, telling The Observer that “very few startups have the kind of bankroll behind it that this one does."

Regarding the simultaneous print and online launch, he added: “Portfolio is a magazine being born in the 21st century. Any magazine coming out now cannot look at the Web as just something to put an article on; it has to be viewed as part of the whole.”

When contacted by The Observer today, Mr. Eichenwald declined to comment.

It’s been a tumultuous week over at 4 Times Square

On Tuesday, The Observer first reported on the firing of deputy editor Jim Impoco—regarded among staffers at the magazine’s number two, next to editor Joanne Lipman. The widely-admired Mr. Impoco brought in many of the magazine’s top staffers, and his firing occurred at a difficult moment, right as the magazine shifts to a monthly schedule.

Mr. Impoco was an advocate of an investigative piece on terrorism that Mr. Eichenwald wrote for the first issue, but which was held by Ms. Lipman.

Although Mr. Eichenwald wrote another piece for the forthcoming September issue, the terrorism story remains held. Several Portfolio staffers, who read the terrorism piece, praised it, and told The Observer that they did not know a specific reason why Ms. Lipman would not run it.

A Portfolio spokesperson had no comment.

UPDATE: Portfolio staffers now tell The Observer that was Mr. Eichenwald was on leave at the time of his resignation. A Portfolio spokesperson declined to comment on personnel matters. 

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How scary must the New York Times legal department be when Salon is forced to run a second and much-expanded correction to a story they've already corrected and removed from their site?

The crux of the correction, regarding a piece by Debbie Nathan on Kurt Eichenwald's internet-child-porn reporting, is an amplification of the right of the Times—and of you!—, as per federal law, to inadvertently view kiddie porn. (Here we come a-trolling, XTube.com!)

Even though Salon is The Transom's sworn life-long enemy, we'll admit it's clear they nobly did the right thing. Still, ya just can't help but feel terrible watching such a legal beat-down. Watching the Salon-Times legal department match-up is sort of like watching Condoleeza Rice and Scooter Libby mash a bag full of kittens.

Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story, by Kurt Eichenwald. Broadway Books, 742 pages, $26.  read more »