Former editors remember Medill student Eric Drudis as a hard-working and dedicated intern and say they are shocked by accusations that he fabricated parts of 17 stories while interning at newspapers nationwide.
Editors at three newspapers have cast doubts on the existence of more than 30 people quoted in his stories.
But those who knew Drudis said they saw no indication that he was anything but truthful.
Debi Licklider, an editor at The (Philadelphia) Daily News, said she lent Drudis her husband’s bicycle when Drudis interned there during summer 1999.
“He’s a hard worker, he’s personable, he’s enthusiastic,” Licklider said. “He was just a regular intern.”
The Daily News cannot verify that sources in six of Drudis’ 35 stories are real. Licklider said the allegations reveal the mounting strain for journalists to survive in an ultra-competitive media market.
“He’s a young person just starting out on his career who made a mistake,” she said. “It shows the pressure young people are under to get a good story. I worry about that.”
At the San Jose Mercury News, where editors cannot verify that people quoted in five of Drudis’ stories are real, Managing Editor Susan Goldberg said he was known as a smart and competent reporter.
“Obviously, this is upsetting on a number of levels: personally, because we liked and respected Eric; professionally, because events such as this hurt our credibility with readers,” Goldberg wrote in a December memo to staff.
Drudis, whose phone number is no longer listed in NU’s student directory, has not responded to repeated interview requests from The Daily.
Drudis’ personal Web site is no longer on NU’s server.
Drudis has earned a variety of awards and internships during his time at Medill. He volunteered as a peer adviser and was active in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.
In 1999, Drudis won a scholarship from the Medill Club of the Bay Area. He also won the National Student Journalist Impact Award in 1997 for his work on his high school’s student newspaper.
Licklider said the allegations against Drudis could mean the end of his journalism career.
“It’s hard for me to imagine him looking for a newspaper job at this point,” she said. “I don’t know what he’s going to do.”
Kathy Wrightson, office manager for the Cupertino Courier and Sunnyvale Sunday, Drudis’ first newspaper jobs, said he was the last person anyone would suspect of dishonesty.
Editors there admired his work so much that they asked him to return the following summer, she said.
Wrightson said the editors are so certain that Drudis’ stories are accurate that they will not fact-check them.
“He’s a very nice young man,” she said. “He’s very capable. There’s not a thought of him doing what he was accused of. I just don’t believe it.”
