A young reporter who I had a role in hiring, to whom I’d been a bit of a mentor, had been fired the night before. At practically the moment the editor had realized that the reporter, unable to find out why the superintendent of a rural school district was no longer employed there, had turned in a story that said the official had been fired. Just because it was deadline and he needed to file something.
The Washington Post returned the Pulitzer Prize won by Janet Cooke’s made-up story about a pre-teen heroin addict.