![]() Some folks find it off-putting when reporters are suspicious and seek verification. None the less, the role it played in this matter is an embarrassment – not just to the newspaper but to journalists everywhere. The NSP is one of the best community newspapers I’ve encountered. And police said they seized her 2023 Kia Sportage, a paper bag with medical supplies, bank records, an IV pole with a feeding pump filled with cotton balls, two boxes of dressing, a wig, cash and pills for nausea in the name of a relative. Russo’s medical records, obtained by subpoena, show that none of the medical facilities in the Quad-City region have diagnosed Russo with any kind of tumor or cancer. ![]() Russo raised $37,300 from 439 donors on GoFundMe and went to Chicago for a pancreatic-cancer gala.Ī couple months later, folks with medical experience started calling the newspaper – and the police. She goes, ‘Really? I'm really connected in the community and I haven’t heard about this cancer story - that she (said) she'd been through for the last eight months.’”īut Campbell proceeded to publish a tear-jerker and donations poured in. As an editor, I angered reporters when I refused to publish stories with a single source. When I was in journalism school, turning in a one-source story constituted a failing grade. He also didn’t seek out her professors or co-workers. He didn’t try to interview the physicians that Russo said were treating her. He said he reached out to her mother, but she never got back to him. Please note, I said “people” as in the plural of person.Ĭampbell’s story quoted one person: Russo. You have to leave your desk and talk to people. Her skin has a healthy glow, and she has a full head of hair.Ĭampbell said he chatted with Russo over the phone – but never met with her in person. None of them were going for runs – and none of them ever had tumors the size of footballs.Īnd the photos I have of their withered forms are so painful to look at, some family members have asked that I never share them – the memories they conjure are just too painful.īut in the photo Russo sent the North Scott Press she looks pretty as a prom queen. My mother died of breast cancer, my brother succumbed to liver cancer and my father beat the odds and survived Stage III esophageal cancer. Ambrose University and maintain a 4.0 grade point average, land a plum internship at Deere & Co., continue to play golf - and run six miles a day. That's crazy.’”īut despite her year of “hell” she said she was able to finish her first year of college at St. And then right at the end of the conversation she dropped this bombshell: ‘By the way, I just found out today that I've got a football size tumor in my lower back.’ And I said, ‘Oh, crap. ![]() She just told me she'd been through hell. I thought maybe they were older pictures. “I asked for some pictures and she texted some photos. “She said she had gone through 15 rounds of chemo and 90 rounds of radiation,” Campbell said. She claimed to have Stage II pancreatic cancer and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Campbell said. I saw a couple social media postings that she'd posted.” No problem at all.’ So, we set up an interview for the next morning. Would you be interested in telling your story?’ And she sent me a text back within two minutes: ‘You betcha. “I just texted her cold and I said, ‘Hey, Maddie, this is Scott Campbell. Scott Campbell, the longtime editor of the North Scott Press heard that the 19-year-old received a $500 grant from a local group that helped people with pancreatic cancer.Ĭampbell decided to write a feature story. In the small town of Eldridge, Iowa, just north of the Quad-Cities, lives a young woman named Madison Russo. Those are just a few words to describe what a teenager allegedly did to a community journalist with 40 years of experience. Hoodwinked, fooled, deceived, misled, bamboozled. Updated: 2 weeks ago / Posted Feb 10, 2023
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