The talk around the virtual water cooler this Monday morning is the mysterious firing of a Boulder Daily Camera reporter over a September 11 anniversary feature article.
The story was completely retracted less than a week after it was published, but the paper waited until this weekend to offer a bizarre explanation that suggests the reporter either made it up, or got pretty much everything wrong except the date.
The reporter is even blamed for a misleading headline.
Apparently, there are no actual editors left at the Boulder Camera to read a story before it is printed.
Reached Friday evening, the author of the paper’s retracted 9/11 story, April Morganroth, whom the paper did not name in its retraction, declined to comment on the record.
Prairie Mountain Media Publisher Al Manzi said Thursday he was dealing with a personnel issue. Multiple sources close to the paper said the author is no longer there.
Here’s a link to the original story that is saved on a different website.
Here’s the front page correction.
The Camera is retracting an article that appeared in its Sept. 11 edition, headlined “Reflections on finding peace.” The newspaper has concluded the article substantially misrepresented the stories of its primary subjects — Mark Pfundstein, John Maynard and Danna Hirsch.
The Camera has determined that multiple statements attributed to these sources, including purported direct quotations, were fabricated.
Daily Camera reporter Mitchell Byars is all torn up over the firing, and how it, uhm, affects him.
He reveals he didn’t like her from the beginning and brags he is vindicated over his suspicions.
Here’s his entire self-serving thread about how her misfortune is his worst nightmare.
I believe we should be just as transparent as the institutions we cover. And so since I would not accept “editors have taken internal steps” from a source, I will come out on my own and at least say this: The reporter is no longer employed here. We were informed Thursday
— Mitchell Byars (@mitchellbyars) October 3, 2021
We’re not buying it.
There’s another side to this story, namely April’s, and we would very much like to hear from her what really happened.
We encourage April to reach out to us at: [email protected]