Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations

We are reinforcing our editorial standards following this incident.

See full article...

 

[EnerJi]

Well there are also the other villagers saying "I'm not sure forging quotes in a journalistic piece is such a big deal".

This is an interesting take - the quotes were made up bullshit, but were "truthy enough" that it doesn't matter to you that they were fabricated.

Please, someone here explain how at least 21 Ars readers can think it is okay for a journalist to misrepresent a key quotation. To my thinking, once is enough for a true journalist to post that kind of lie.

Does intent matter in this situation? There are lots of accusations of "forging," "fabricating," "lying," and so on throughout these comments, and every single one of those requires intent to deceive. To whit, from the macOS dictionary:

fabricate | ˈfabrəˌkāt | verb [with object] 1 invent (something) in order to deceive

forge | fôrj | verb [with object] 3 produce a copy or imitation of (a document, signature, banknote, or work or art) for the purpose of deception

lie 2 | lī | noun an intentionally false statement

I don't believe it's likely that Mr. Edwards intended to quote the subject of his article incorrectly, therefore I don't think those adjectives accurately convey the situation.

So back to intent - does it matter? My initial reaction is that it should matter, but I'm open to other thoughts on the matter.

 

[EnerJi]

I have a question. in Benj's apology, he said he is the one who asked the article to be removed. The article was cowriten by Benj and Kyle. I'm guessing that writers get paid based on each article they write, and if they cowrite an article, each get half pay. Did Benj prevent Kyle from getting paid for the part he wrote, since Benj is the one who asked to remove the article (per his BlueSky post?)

That doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone who is a journalist fill me in?

Only freelance journalists get paid by the article. My understanding is the vast majority of the articles and most (maybe all?) of the regular writers that we see on this site are full-time employees. They probably have some metrics on which they are measured (like organic page views), and so sharing a byline may have some indirect impact, but I don't think there would be a direct financial impact to sharing a byline.

 

[EnerJi]

milk-toast

milquetoast, FWIW


On another note, one thing that I haven't seen anyone raise in hundreds of comments so far:

Benj has previously indicated he is suffering from Long Covid. I am not an employment lawyer, but I think someone could try to make the case that a) this is a disability, and b) his disability contributed to his foul-up with the quotations.

If so, that would make it potentially risky to fire him, which may impact the final decision (and maybe extend the timeline to reach such a decision).