UPDATE: 'Blade' Publishes Probe on Reporter Fired Last Week -- He Responds

By: E&P Staff The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, Sunday published a 3,200-word story detailing an internal investigation of one of its reporters. The lengthy piece focused on reporter George Tanber, a 14-year staffer who was fired last week after admitting he sent an anonymous letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board earlier this year alleging that the Blade?s heralded "Coingate" series was tainted.

The report, authored by special assignments editor Dave Murray, reveals how the paper reacted to word that someone had written an eight-page letter to the board in March charging that some elements of the Coingate series -- which detailed how a GOP fundraiser lost millions of dollars in state funds through a rare coin scheme -- were at first not investigated for months.

The Tanber letter also focused on Fritz Wenzel, the paper?s former politics reporter, claiming his ties to Noe caused him to hold back on information tying Noe to the scheme, and to unrelated illegal campaign contribution allegations. Blade editors and Wenzel have denied any effort to sit on either story.

Sunday?s story details how the Blade utilized a local law firm, two private investigators and two forensic computer firms to unearth the identity of Tanber. He revealed his authorship of the letter last Tuesday, was suspended Wednesday, and fired Thursday.

?Our purpose is not to bash any individual, including the author of the letter, or anyone else who may have been directly or indirectly involved,? Executive Editor Ron Royhab wrote in an editor?s note accompanying the story. ?Our purpose is to do what newspapers are supposed to do: to uncover the truth, to tell readers what we know.?

In a statement on Monday, Tanber wrote: "Since I couldn't write the story myself, I was a source for reporters, providing them with leads to help them get information on ethics violations related to Coingate. All activity was done on my time and through two personal Web-based e-mails addresses, which The Blade hacked into as part of their investigation. I don't know if that's illegal, but it certainly raises serious questions that could have far-reaching ramifications."

Sunday's Blade story offers numerous criticisms of Tanber, noting alleged examples of past problems and incidents at the paper involving the reporter, describing them as ranging from ?pranks to insubordination.?

The report also cites, and in a sidebar re-prints, several e-mails Tanber allegedly sent to E&P's Joe Strupp, and a couple of Strupp's alleged replies -- a rare step for any newspaper in an industry which touts the principle of respect for reporters' sources.

The Blade story notes that E&P has refused to comment on any sourcing.

Last August, E&P published a lengthy feature story hailing the Coingate reporting. That same issue carried a Shoptalk column (also published online) by Joe Strupp, which discussed certain allegations against Wenzel, but stated clearly that "nothing at all" had been proven.

The Blade, in Sunday's story, and in a statement released by Editor Ron Royhab on Wednesday, referred to Strupp's Shoptalk opinion column as a "story."

Royhab's statement this week also pointed to unidentified inaccuracies in the Strupp column. A response from E&P pointed out that the Blade, in the more than nine months since that column appeared, has never asked for a correction or a clarification.