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Newspaper Criticizes Film's Take on Olympic Bombing Coverage

Associated Press

   ATLANTA - After a bomb exploded in a downtown Atlanta park midway
   through the 1996 Olympics, a security guard initially cast as a hero
   was recast as a villain virtually overnight. More than 20 years later,
   a movie to be released later this week, "Richard Jewell," explores the
   roles played by law enforcement and the media in the guard's ordeal.

   Now the movie is drawing its own share of criticism.

   Kevin Riley, the current editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is
   disputing the film's depiction of the newspaper's reporting and
   decision-making processes, especially the portrayal of reporter Kathy
   Scruggs, who the movie implies traded sex with an FBI agent for a tip
   on the story.

   In an interview with The Associated Press, director Clint Eastwood
   dismissed the criticism of his movie, which is based on a 1997 Vanity
   Fair article by Marie Brenner, by saying the paper likely is looking to
   "rationalize" its actions.

   Jewell's saga began on July 27, 1996, when he spotted an abandoned
   backpack during a concert in Centennial Olympic Park shortly before 1
   a.m. and helped clear the area as federal agents determined it
   contained a bomb. The explosion about 20 minutes later killed
   44-year-old Alice Hawthorne of Albany, Georgia, and injured 111 people,
   some of them seriously. A Turkish television cameraman died after
   suffering a heart attack while running to film the explosion's
   aftermath.

   Jewell, who likely helped prevent many more casualties, was initially
   hailed as a hero but a few days later was reported to be the focus of
   the FBI investigation, and the public quickly turned on him.

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