Technology news stories found to be based on unconfirmed quotes

international | arts and media | other press Wednesday May 11, 2005 13:09 by Anthony

Journalist's professionalism called into question

A prolific freelance technology journalist has been found to have been using anonymous quotes in her stories which could not be verified. MIT Technology Review Online has retracted stories written by Michelle Delio while Wired News whom she has written far more extensively for has kept the published articles online and appendend notes to her stories in the "hope that our readers can help identify any sources whom we cannot track down."

There are a couple of interesting comments on the broader issue of journalistic ethics on Slashdot but it ocurred to me that while Ms Delio's case could be due to sloppiness and carelessness in keeping her notes, her actions pale in comparison with the complete fabrications being printed in Irish newspapers just over a year ago. I note that none of the newspapers publishing the made-up stories in the run-up to Mayday last year have retracted any of the stories wholly based on unconfirmed anonymous sources.