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Wired Amends Stories With Fabricated Quotes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-a-good-day-for-online-news dept.

SiliconEntity writes "Wired Online has been forced to correct dozens of stories in the wake of disclosures that reporter Michelle Delio may have fabricated quotes. Wired has published over 700 stories by Delio since 2000, and in a review of 160 of the most recent ones, 24 were found to have quotes that could not be confirmed. Several of the Wired stories being questioned were discussed on Slashdot, including Spyware on My Machine? So What?, Minniapple's Mini Radio Stations, The Masters of Memory Lane, and probably many more. Wired is not the only one to get burned; MIT Technology Review and InfoWorld have also had to retract or alter stories written by Delio." Update: 05/10 19:20 GMT by Z : Altered to clarify Wired's actions.

3 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Not to worry by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
    They've got a few experienced journalists lined up to take her place.

    • Janet Cooke
    • Stephen Glass
    • Jayson Blair
    • Jack Kelley
    • Jeff Gannon
    • Maureen O'Gara

    "I swear I am not making this up" -- Dave Barry

    Personally, I don't talk to reporters anymore. For years I have been disgusted by "fill-in-the-blanks-with-whatever-sounds-good" journalists.

    As a teenager I was featured in the local town paper with my father's OSI (that's Ohio Scientific) computer, which I was learning to program in the mid 70's. I was aghast to read the article, with my face prominently displayed above it at the dining room table near the computer, filled in with all sorts of wild claims. Seemed to me that reality wasn't exciting enough for the reporter so she threw in some crap about my teenage brother writing for Scientific American (she screwed up the name Ohio Scientific, which my brother had written a program for.)

    Year's later I'd be misquoted, embarrassingly so, during the outsourcing of my department. A decidedly pro-labor, and damn whatever he said, article put words in my mouth and I'll never forgive that paper for that. The next time they called I hung up. I don't talk to reporters anymore.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. That is stange by TedTschopp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been interviewed for a Wired Story, and the interviewers/Writers editor called us up to fact check, and quote check. I wonder why this didn't happen here?

    Strange...

    Ted Tschopp

    --
    Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
  3. Re:Trusting the media by goldspider · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now I know that Groklaw is considered a Good Guy(tm) here at Slashdot (and I am therefore risking my karma), but what makes you think that Groklaw is any more trustworthy than the "mainstream media"?

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy