Reporter's sources in dispute
By Ted Bridis
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — An investigation over 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.
The review determined that dozens of people cited in articles by Delio primarily during the past 18 months could not be found, 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 found 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 yesterday. "I wouldn't dispute any of that," he said.
None of the information attributed to the disputed sources was considered significant. The disputed quotations typically supported details elsewhere in the articles.
Delio did not respond yesterday 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 offices 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.
