Published in the June 10-23, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Marty Cheek, publisher Morgan Hill Life
Publisher’s note:
Sometimes the fact-checking process required of good journalism suffers a severe failure.
A failure occurred when it comes to the story of 89-year-old Morgan Hill resident William “Bill” Goehner and his supposed heroic exploits during World War II.
How we in the media in recent years covered his story serves as a prime example of the repercussions of what happens when journalists don’t take time to check a person’s claims against reputable sources. A failure like this damages the credibility of the media.
In the March 18 issue of Morgan Hill Life, we published a senior profile story about Goehner, describing his exploits during World War II as a member of the U.S. Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team (the forerunner of the SEALs).
We wrote that during his time in the military seeing action in combat, Goehner “became one of the most decorated officers with a Navy Cross, three Silver Star, three Bronze Star, and four Purple Heart medals.” We also wrote that he “set the record for the quickest promoted officer in the Navy, achieving the rank of lieutenant commander in three years at the age of 19.” Goehner claimed that his experiences in the Navy served as the inspiration for the 1951 film “The Frogmen” starring Richard Widmark.
On Sunday May 31, we received an email from Morgan Hill resident Lawson Sakai concerning a presentation Goehner gave of his World War II experience at the USS Hornet in Alameda during the “Living Ship Day” public event that weekend. After his talk, a Channel 7 news reporter informed Morgan Hill resident Brian Shiroyama that a news investigation on Goehner showed that his story was a fabrication.
The reporter Dan Noyce’s piece (which can be viewed online at http://abc7news.com/news/i-team-phony-lieutenant-commander-honored-at-alameda-museum/761240/) served to set the record straight by using the Freedom of Information Act to dig into Goehner’s military records.
Goehner did indeed serve in the Navy during World War II, but he left the military with the rank of seaman first class, not lieutenant commander. He never served in the UDT and never was honored by the Navy with any of the medals he claimed he received.
In addition to Morgan Hill Life, several other publications wrote about Goehner’s supposed valor during the war. The Library of Congress was also taken in by Goehner’s phony war stories in April 2004 when it interviewed him as part of the Veterans History Project.
In hindsight, we regret publishing the senior profile story of Goehner without first further establishing the facts.
Good journalism requires good fact-checking to make sure the public gets the true story. We apologize that in our story on William Goehner we failed to thoroughly check the facts.
