AP reporter, editor fired over error

Re: AP reporter, editor fired over editor

It's very harsh, but putting up an erroneous story charging a gubernatorial candidate with involvement in crime is a very big mistake.

 

Re: AP reporter, editor fired over editor

If this isn't a fireable offense, I'm not sure one exists.

 

Re: AP reporter, editor fired over editor

I didn't see the retracted story, but I would have liked to have seen more reference to the supposed lie to a federal official.

Based on what's here, yes, Lewis and Potter should have been fired because saying someone lied is not a mistake. Saying, perhaps, that McAuliffe was reportedly unknowingly involved in the investigated scheme, and then finding that to be not the case could be a mistake. But saying someone lied about it?

Where did that come from? Was there any information to back that up in the retracted story, and from whom/where did it come from?

It's hard to believe a seasoned, apparently well-respected political reporter would have just written, out of the blue, that McAuliffe lied, unless there was something else included in the original story.

 

Re: AP reporter, editor fired over editor

What is the editor's responsibility in this situation? If she asks the reporter "what is your evidence that McAuliffe lied?" And he lays out x, y and z, and it all sounds legitimate and well sourced, what is she supposed to do? It seems to me many editors wouldn't do much more than that.

 

Re: AP reporter, editor fired over editor

If I'm the editor, my reporter better come to me with more solid sourcing than "The person who lied according to the indictment has the same initials as our gubernatorial candidate. It must be him!"

 

How do you know he made that assumption? What if he had other reasons to believe what he wrote?

 

It's good that you didn't get a spanking.
Word on the street says that would be horrible.

 

If he had other reasons, I'd like to think the story wouldn't have been retracted in just 90 minutes.

This is the retraction:

 

One more axed.

 

Didn't get much notice the night it happened:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/97680/

 

Several people are saying that the Cuccinelli campaign fed Lewis the story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ap-reporters-mistake-did-the-punishment-fit-the-crime/2013/10/22/95b32b64-3b52-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story_1.html

On another note, I'd argue that the quickness in retracting the story is a pretty big indictment on Lewis' work on the story. If it only took a couple of hours of due diligence to determine that the story was false, that implies that the reporter and editor should have done that work themselves.