Source: (AP)
Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jun 1998

Group Sues Writer For Sham Article

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The national police anti-drug group D.A.R.E. is suing a
former staff writer at The New Republic who admitted making up material in
his articles, including at least one about D.A.R.E.

In a $10 million libel suit filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court, the
group Drug Abuse Resistance Education charges that Stephen Glass took
``free license to invent facts, people and scenarios, falsely describing
them in detail'' in two articles he wrote about D.A.R.E.

``D.A.R.E. was one victim of many,'' the suit said, according to today's
Los Angeles Times. ``There is absolutely no truth to Glass' statements
regarding D.A.R.E. and Glass has admitted as such.''

Editors at The New Republic apologized earlier this month to readers after
finding that Glass, 25, fabricated all or part of 27 of the 41 articles he
wrote for the publication.

It wasn't clear how much of the D.A.R.E. stories were made up. One, in The
New Republic, accused D.A.R.E. of covering up the program's problems and
intimidating people into not exposing them.

The New Republic said some D.A.R.E. critics were pressured to soften their
opinions, as Glass had written, but it acknowledged that Glass made up at
least four people, the suit said.

The other D.A.R.E. piece by Glass was a free-lance assignment for Rolling
Stone. The lawsuit does not name The New Republic or Rolling Stone as
defendants.

Glass was fired last month after confessing he made up a story about
computer hackers. The confession prompted a monthlong investigation by The
New Republic. Glass cooperated with the investigation and apologized in
letters to Charles Lane, the magazine's editor, and Martin Peretz, the
owner and editor in chief. 
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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski