Via Laura Rozen, I see we have another journalism fraud exposed. This time it’s a pseudo-expert in national security matters named Alexis Debat:
Debat is a well-known “expert” in Washington with an impressive resume: He serves as a fellow at the Nixon Center, a conservative think tank; he collaborates with The National Interest; a quarterly journal of international affairs; he has been consultant to ABC News for years. He belongs to the “expert market” of Washington DC. He appears credible, and the media often quotes him on matters pertaining to terrorism and Islam. . . .
Alexis Debat is a strange character, with a resume that changes depending on who he is talking to. Once he claimed to our colleague Guillemette Faure, a reporter for Le Figaro, that he got his PhD in political science from Edenvale University, in Great Britain, a university which proved to be a a fraud.
Another time, he said that he received his PhD from the University of Sorbonne. But that’s not true either. “He manufactured his doctorate. I had the document which he manufactured in my hands,” says André Kaspi, a professor of North American history at the Sorbonne. Debat does not deny a “conflict” with the Sorbonne, but refuses to elaborate.
What apparently got Debat in trouble was publishing in a French magazine what purported to be an interview with Barack Obama, except Obama’s people say no such interview actually occurred. Hard to figure how Debat thought that would slip by. But Debat’s strange story doesn’t end there. And as Laura notes, there’s more to this story that has yet to be satisfactorily explained.
Late Update: Mr. Debat provided TPM with a written response to this post which can be viewed in full here.
