Georgia State student paper retracts article for faked quotes, fires writer

Georgia State University student newspaper The Signal pulled an article and dropped a writer after discovering he lied about talking to a school spokesperson and made up quotes.

The paper tells Retraction Watch that the undergraduate, Rico Johnson, has been removed from the staff of the paper.

Here’s the notice for “Georgia State planning renovation for new media production center”:

We have retracted an article published in The Signal Jan. 13 titled “Georgia State planning renovation for new media production center” due to a fabrication of quotes.

Upon investigation, we found that the reporter, Rico Johnson, did not speak to Georgia State spokesperson Andrea Jones for quotes related to the article. It is important to us that we report accurate, honest and fair information to our readers. We sincerely apologize for this incident, and we hope to continue bringing accurate information our community.

Further investigation on this reporter’s work is underway, and the reporter has been suspended from The Signal until further notice. We will be taking further steps to ensure future sources of information are honest and accurate.

Thank you.

And for the record, Johnson is not the undergraduate football player at University of Georgia with whom he shares a name – we checked.

Hat tip: Rolf Degen