Arizona Paper’s Columnist Fired; Quotes Questioned
A columnist at the Arizona Republic has been dismissed after editors there were unable to track down people whom she had quoted, the newspaper said Saturday.
The state’s largest newspaper also apologized to its readers in a front-page announcement that Julie Amparano was fired after just one month of writing her three times-a-week column called “Conversations.”
“We have discovered that some of the people quoted in that column are untraceable,” the newspaper said.
“We can’t find them or prove they exist,” the newspaper said. “Nor has Amparano been able to substantiate those sources to date.”
The newspaper said Amparano, who had been with the newspaper for five years, denied any impropriety. Reuters could not reach her for comment Saturday.
Amparano’s last column appeared Wednesday.
The newspaper said it was alarmed that it did not uncover the problems sooner. It pledged to make changes to prevent it from happening again.
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