A student journalist fabricated quotes in at least two articles for University of Texas-Austin student newspaper The Daily Texan, the paper revealed in an editor’s note.
According to the Daily Texan‘s managing editor Catherine Marfin, the newspaper learned about the fabrication when the city of Austin’s spokesperson flagged quotations attributed to two officials who said they never spoke to the Texan‘s senior news reporter Sara Johnson.
The Daily Texan then found “at least one other” article by Johnson that contained fabricated quotes. At that point, Johnson was fired.
Marfin told iMediaEthics by e-mail that Johnson also worked for the paper in the spring semester. “We will publish the results of the verification process for her other published articles when that process is complete” she wrote. iMediaEthics has tweeted Johnson for her response.
According to The Daily Texan, it is currently going through all of her articles to verify quotes but has retracted and unpublished the two articles from Nov. 5 and Nov. 19, respectively.
Hat Tip: KXAN