Canned columnist claims to be clean

By: Joe Strupp And The Arizona Republic ex-writer's out to prove it
Fired Arizona Republic columnist Julie Amparano says she will prove that she didn't make up sources, as her former editors claim. Amparano vows to track down and produce those sources that have been disputed by her former employers.
Amparano, the 39-year-old writer who lost her job Aug. 20 after failing to produce at least a score of sources named in columns, also challenged other reporters at the Republic to track down and prove the existence of sources within 24 hours.
"I want to try to call attention to
this horrible double standard," says Amparano. "It's been a really unfair process, and I haven't been given a chance to prove anything."
Amparano was fired after editors conducted a detailed review of her work two weeks ago that included hiring a private investigator to track down people quoted in her stories. In the end, they claim enough holes were found in her columns to indicate at least some of the sources named were fake. She was let go after more than five years with the paper, but after only one month writing the thrice-weekly column.
"It was a difficult step to take," says Pam Johnson, the Republic's executive editor and vice president for news. "But it was an enormous journalistic sin."
Stephen Montoya, Amparano's attorney, says she most likely will file a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper. "We are considering whether they were reckless," says Montoya.
The Republic first announced Amparano's firing in a short statement printed in the paper's Aug. 21 issue, which also included an apology to readers.
This was followed by an Aug. 24 Page One story, which detailed the investigation into all the columns Amparano had written since taking the columnist position in mid-July.
The review began after some co-workers speculated that Amparano might have made up sources' names. A red flag was raised when a "Jennifer Morgan" appeared in two columns with different occupations listed. The review showed that the same name was mentioned in two other stories Amparano had written in the past, which listed her with still other occupations.
"We reviewed 11 of the 17 columns she had written since the column began, focusing on those that included sources that were not well-known," Johnson says. "In those columns, we identified 65 total sources, including 40 that needed some checking because we did not know who they were."
Johnson says, in the end, 20 sources could not be found or substantiated.
"Then we turned over 15 names to a private investigator, and he found that 11 could not be traced," Johnson says.
Amparano says some of the names of sources cited in her stories were untraceable because they were those of people she met on the street. She says no reporters check the identification or telephone number of every source, especially for man-on-the-street type stories. "People can't always be found in databases," Amparano says.
The former columnist also defended her use of the Jennifer Morgan source, asking, "Is it inconceivable that you could find more than one person with that name?"
Amparano vowed to track down those sources that have been disputed, even if she has to retrace all the steps that led to finding each interview.
But she says she will have difficulty finding some sources again because, she claims, the paper has refused to release files and other reporting material left at the newspaper.
Amparano joins a handful of reporters and columnists who have lost their jobs over the past year or so due to high-profile allegations of fabricated sources or other ethical indiscretions.
Just a few months ago, reporter Kim Stacy of the Owensboro (Ky.) Messenger-Inquirer lost her job after making up stories about a battle with cancer. Before her, Boston Globe columnists Mike Barnicle and Patricia Smith were fired in 1998 for separate incidents of alleged fabrication.
Last year also saw the firing of former Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Mike Gallagher, who lost his job after revealing he had stolen voice-mail messages to create what the newspaper later called "untrue" stories about Chiquita Brands International Inc.
"It's a disturbing kind of thing for our industry, but I think the vast majority of journalists are as honest as they've always been," says Jim Patten, journalism department chair at the University of Arizona.
Orville Schell, dean of the graduate school of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, blamed at least part of the Republic incident on competition. "The pressure with which things must be done now is intense," he says. "Everyone is a little bit more off balance."
Amparano joined the newspaper five years ago after working at The Associated Press, The Philadelphia Daily News, and The Wall Street Journal.
Julie Amparano
was fired for alleged source fabrication,
but vows to clear
her name.
(Editor & Publisher WebSite:http:www.mediainfo.com) [Caption]
(copyright: Editor & Publisher August 28, 1999) [Caption]