Probe Can't Confirm Sources in Freelancer's Stories for 'Wired News' (Michelle Delio, "Journalist")

Associated Press ^ | May 9, 2005

[Dont Mention the War]

Probe Can't Confirm Sources in Freelancer's Stories for 'Wired News'

Published: May 09, 2005 4:55 PM ET updated 8:00 PM

SAN FRANCISCO An investigation into the sourcing and accuracy of news stories by a freelance journalist at a leading Internet news site concluded that the existence of dozens of people quoted in the articles could not be confirmed.

Wired News, which publishes some articles from Wired magazine, paid for the review of stories by one of its frequent contributors, Michelle Delio, 37, of New York City. It was expected to disclose results late Monday.

The review determined that dozens of people cited in articles by Delio primarily during the past 18 months could not be located, said one person familiar with the report's conclusions. This person said nearly all the people who were cited as sources and who could not be located had common names and occupations and were reported to be living in large metropolitan regions.

Wired News' editor in chief, Evan Hansen, confirmed those conclusions Monday. "I wouldn't dispute any of that," he said.

[Just several weeks ago, the website of Technology Review magazine retracted two articles by Delio, and an investigation found significant problems with more of Delio's pieces for the site. A third magazine, InfoWorld, removed some quotes from Delio stories after it could not confirm the existence of the sources.]

None of the information attributed to the disputed sources in the Wired News was considered significant. The disputed quotations typically supported details elsewhere in the articles.

Delio did not respond immediately Monday to a telephone call or e-mail from The Associated Press. She has said previously she never made up sources.

In a private e-mail Delio sent to Wired News executives last month and obtained by The Associated Press, she said she wanted to "present my side of this sad saga."

"I don't understand why my credibility and career is now hanging solely on finding minor sources that contributed color quotes to stories I filed months and years ago," she wrote. Delio said that among hundreds of articles she wrote for the organization, there "isn't one story that contains fabricated news."

Wired News and Wired Magazine are separately owned and do not share office space or staff, but Wired News publishes Wired Magazine's content online.

The review for Wired News was carried out by Adam Penenberg, a Wired News columnist who teaches journalism at New York University. Penenberg exposed fabricated articles in The New Republic by Stephen Glass in 1998 while Penenberg was a writer for Forbes.com. Glass was fired.

[Dont Mention the War]

Jayson Blair, your date is here.

[Dont Mention the War]

Schadenfreude ping

[Straight Vermonter]

I heard she was going steady with Dan Rather.

[Redgirl]

I wonder if she'll fake it with him.

[Right Wing Assault]

"Making up people and attributing unimportant quotes to them is a lot easier than getting up off your butt and finding real people", according to Bill Smith, bartender in NYC. Smith also revealed that, "I make up stories to tell to my customers in the bar, so I don't see a problem with it."

In other news, Ed Jones, a cabdriver in Chicago, said, "I think they should lock up Kofi Annan and his numbnut son."

[Enchante]

"I wonder if she'll fake it with him."

ha ha, LOL.... but just so long as she's from the "fake but accurate" school of journalism everything will be ok. Maybe she and Dan can fly off to Texas to search for the "authentic documents" for the Bush TANG story.

[SamAdams76]

I've always wondered...how many columnists write their columns in a darkened bar, making up stories about make believe people as they sip beer all day?

[Right Wing Assault]

I have a relative who was a prosecutor. He tells a story of an alcoholic newspaper reporter (is that redundant?) who did that very thing. One day he wrote a story about a case, but he somehow mixed two totally different cases together into one case. Alcohol makes one very creative.

[cricket]

I take it, that Delio is a . . .ahhhh. . .a Liberal(?)

[martin_fierro]

"I don't understand why my credibility and career is now hanging solely on finding minor sources that contributed color quotes to stories I filed months and years ago"

	Media Shenanigans/ Schadenfreude
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The List of Ping Lists

[weegee]

Wired is another of the publications that doesn't like FR linking to their articles.

Ever notice how those media sources that make stuff up don't like getting caught in the act???

[Incorrigible]

Some of Michelle's articles:

Carly's Way (Hungarian Immigrant Engineer Describes HP Under Carly)

RIAA's Rosen Sets Sights on ISPs

The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Athens Double-Barreled Cannon (April, 1862) - Feb. 14th, 2005
 

Finding New Life on an Old Road

Kenyan 9/11 Gift Update-FR Thanks to be Read to Masai Tribesmen, New Yorkers want the Cows in U.S.

Do Privacy Fears Allow Terrorism?

Terror Turns Real for Horror Site

[GOPJ]

"Making up people and attributing unimportant quotes to them is a lot easier than getting up off your butt and finding real people", according to Bill Smith, bartender in NYC.

Yep, and serving colored water is cheaper than giving customers the real stuff... In the short run it works, in the long run the bar, and the media will close shop. Time to get real folks.

[GOPJ]

"Making up people and attributing unimportant quotes to them is a lot easier than getting up off your butt and finding real people", according to Bill Smith, bartender in NYC.

Yep, and serving colored water is cheaper than giving customers the real stuff... In the short run it works, in the long run the bar, and the media will close shop.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

Another lying/fabricator gets caught doing the Jayson Blair/Mapes,Blather thing.

[bert]

The American press is now mostly women who find Journalism to be a career that will let them earn some money and make a difference. They are hired because they will work cheap.

We have learned from the left over and over that guilt doesn't matter, it's the seriousness of the charges. Such is the credo.... truth doesn't matter when making a difference.

These young women, even those in the boondocks writing for a very local readership routinely fabricate what ever they need to make the piece conform to some preconcieved notion. It should not be assumed that promotion to a larger publication with national scope will change the methods.

Local editors who don't really edit are responsible. The only goal is to slow deminiishing readership rate and fluffing a story is ok if it makes it more interesting.

[Criminal Number 18F]

If you follow the "Carly's Way" story linked in this thread, MIT Technology Review has pulled it with a note that they could not document it.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Bush is a liar and we the Club Gitmo residents are being severely mistreated.

What about all of their books?