How Much Of Bobby Caina Calvan Is Made Up?

Bloggers have seized upon McClatchy's Bobby Caina Calvan, pictured at right, for his rudeness to an American soldier charged with protecting the Green Zone in Iraq. Now Charles has turned up what might be termed a little creative reporting from Calvan dealing with an attack in Sadr City. According to this item on another blog posted Oct. 11, Calvan couldn't have been in Iraq more than a few days when he filed that item.

In four minutes, Bobby starts his journey. His journey to Iraq. My friend and coworker will be serving a two-month stint as a reporter for McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

At this point, I'd just like to know if he went to NYU or Berkeley as he appears to have claimed to have done "legal studies" at both without listing any degree.

So, I looked a little deeper. It may or may not speak well for what defines an A-list journalist these days. For a web savvy guy, he doesn't have much of a presence, unless emailing a Prius newsgroup for some quotes amounts to much, though his on line presence is growing thanks to the blogs.

Did he attend NYU as is claimed in this bio via the Boston Globe? Or was it Berkeley as he seems to claim on his on line resume? What I find most interesting is how he turned up in a number of PBS instructional videos - see here - but his resume shows very little to suggest he's capable of holding a job as a serious journalist at any one outlet for even a year.

His three years with The Globe appear to amount to little more than doing the occasional environmentalist item from Northern California as a free lancer and we already know his being "adroit" at using the Internet for journalism hasn't worked out so well. Maybe he should go back to managing the website for his parents dental practice and leave the reporting from Iraq to some serious, seasoned journalists. It's a thought, anyway.

Technology-savvy. Adroit at using the Internet and computer-asssisted reporting.

Technology and administrative consultant for family’s dental practice; design and maintain Web site.

Took hiatus from journalism after father’s death. Traveled to Europe and roamed the United States and Canada. Traveled frequently to the Philippines to rediscover family’s heritage; relearned family’s native language, performed community projects and created Web site dedicated to building community among expatriates of family’s former hometown

Virginian-Pilot: Norfolk, Va. (June 1998 to September 1999)
GA and education reporter. Covered city of Chesapeake and elevated coverage of Tidewater Community College, Virginia’s second-largest, during year of transition spurred by ambitious new president.

Seattle Times: Seattle, Wash. (June to November 1997)
Government reporter. Covered the Metropolitan King County Council and the city of Redmond. Also wrote environmental features.

Detroit Free Press: Detroit, Mich. (June 1996 to February 1997)
Cops and courts reporter. Known for aggressive and thoughtful reporting that captured the human element and the drama of tragedy.

Valley Times/Contra Costa Times: Pleasanton, Calif. (February to December 1995)
GA reporter. Go-to person for spot news. Contributed to coverage of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the return of NFL football to Oakland.

Record Searchlight: Redding, Calif. (May 1990 to November 1994)
Politics and county government reporter. Anchored coverage of regional, state and federal politics. Brought tenacious style to public safety, suburban and regional beats. Wrote extensively about the environment.

Volunteered as copy editor one night per week. Filled in as night assistant city editor.

Comments

[chris]

Duhhh, I heard of Knight Rider. Duhhh....

[Wapo Senior Reporto Clappers]

Remember kids: if the newbie reporto is left of Marx, then everything s/he says is gospel.

[Mark]

The guy is an affirmative action douchebag.

[Bobn]

As an employer,looking at his previous employment record should have set off alarm bells and flashing lights.
Why can't he hold a job? Was he fired or quit?
This all points to his unreliability.

Not good!

[Don Keefhardt]

Can't....hold....a....job....

[km]

I was in newspapers for 12 years before 18 with a public affairs agency. Now I'm laid off and trying to get back into newspapers. Maybe I should unpad my resume.

[daveinboca]

McClatchy is another Knight Ridder/NYT knock-off, trying to shill anti-war garbage to its jerkwater audience. This lil dude is another Scott Beauchamp wannabe, and Bobby-boy may pay the price of being a nasty little s**t.

[me]

Bobby Calvan’s Education

*
University of California, Berkeley

Legal Studies major 1985 — 1988
*
University of California, Davis

1984 — 1985
*
New York University

1983 — 1984

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/99b/a97

[Dan Riehl]

2 schools, 2 years - no degree. 3-4 jobs under a year. Per link below, constructing a narrative then finding the quotes - like I said, so much for the A-list in journalism today.

http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2007/10/media-bias-upda.html

[Sarnac]

there's a few holes in his record:

Virginian-Pilot: (June 1998 to September 1999) (~ 15 mos)
UNEMPLOYED (November 1997 to June 1998) (~ 8 mos)
Seattle Times: Seattle, Wash. (June to November 1997) (6 mos)
UNEMPLOYED (February 1997 to June 1997) (~ 5 mos)
Detroit Free Press: (June 1996 to February 1997) (9 mos)
UNEMPLOYED (December 1995 to June 1996) (~ 7 mos)
Valley/Contra Costa Times: (February to December 1995) (~ 11 mos)
UNEMPLOYED (November 1994 to February 1995) (~ 4 mos)
Record Searchlight: (May 1990 to November 1994) (4yrs, 7mo)

[Kurtlane]

The only thing that makes Bobby Caina Calvan different from other journalists is that he at least half-honestly wrote about his "information-gathering" techniques. Others do the same thing, but they don't write about it, so we never know. All journalists are like this.

I took a journalism class, but dropped it, because I couldn't stand all the hypocrisy and close-mindedness.

[Kurtlane]

The only thing that makes Bobby Caina Calvan different from other journalists is that he at least half-honestly wrote about his "information-gathering" techniques. Others do the same thing, but they don't write about it, so we never know. All journalists are like this.

I took a journalism class, but dropped it, because I couldn't stand all the hypocrisy and close-mindedness.

[Wind Rider]

Hmmm...employed by the Virginian-Pilot for 15 months in the greater Hampton Roads area (topping a million residents in the area, even then)...let's see...one of the largest concentrations of military installations on the East (or West) Coast, Virginia Beach being a center for Tourism, Historic Williamsburg right up the road...and he seemed to have a knack for covering city government - bonus! - with the hodgepodge quiltwork of overlapping city/county government around here, lots of material!

But, then, his highlight is covering...personnel change at a community college? In an educational environment including William and Mary, Hampton University (which was in the middle of a funding misappropriation scandal), Christopher Newport University....

Lame.

[docweasel]

Thank you again for the link Mr. Riehl. And as per usual, you have taken the story and dug out some really great background. I am always awed by your awesomeness!

I’ve also posted some emails I exchanged with him, where he seems genuinely contrite, but then he took down the entire site.

I also posted an email defending him from someone claiming to be a colleague, from the SacBee server, so maybe its legit, who knows.

Anyway, thanks for linking.

[FGFM]

I can smell the Cheetos from here.

[Antimedia]

I smell a rat. This guy is too good to be true. Has me wondering if the entire thing is a setup to bait blogs into "investigating" the guy. I wonder if he really exists? And if he does, if he's actually in Baghdad? Or working at a cyber cafe in Berkeley laughing his ass off at the "fools" (his words) investigating him? Is "he" even a guy?

Does anybody have any proof that this guy actually exists?

I'm just sayin'.......

[Carl]

I having this gut feeling that this so-called "journalist" will be found out that 1) he embellished, possibly fabricated much, if not all, of this "incident" and 2) he has embellished, possibly fabricated, much of his qualifications. There's a lot of fishiness to all of this person's claims.

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