Janet Cooke

Janet Cooke was a lady who worked at a newspaper a long time ago. She wrote a story about a little boy who was 8 years old and was a drug addict. She said she had interviewed the boy and his mom, and this made many people feel sad and angry.

However, later people found out that Janet Cooke made up the whole story! She had never met the little boy, and he was not real. She also lied about other things in her story. This made many people very unhappy because they thought she did a bad thing.

Janet Cooke had to give back some awards she had won for her story and she lost her job at the newspaper. It's very important for journalists to tell the truth, and Janet Cooke didn't do that. So now we know that it's not okay to make up stories, and we have to be honest when we write.