MIT publication retracts two stories
Boston.com: "A technology publication run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has retracted two stories it published on its website this year, after it was unable to verify the existence of an anonymous source cited in both stories.

The articles, both written by New York-based freelance journalist Michelle Delio, were about last month's dismissal of Carly Fiorina as chief executive of computer and imaging company Hewlett-Packard Co. Jason Pontin, Technology Review's editor-in-chief, ordered the articles removed from the site after receiving a complaint from HP officials. ''HP gave me a phone call,' said Pontin. ''When I checked the sources, I could not in fact verify that the anonymous quotes were accurate. So we killed the story.'"

......In the second, titled ''Carly's Way" and published March 4, he is described as a Hungarian immigrant with the initials ''G.S." and as ''an electrical engineer who worked as a research scientist at the Hewlett-Packard Imaging Systems Laboratory starting in 1975 until he resigned in 2003.

''No record was found of any person with those initials," said Burk, nor were they able to find an employee with a similar background and work record. HP contacted Pontin, claiming that G.S. did not exist."
- posted by Sophont @ Tuesday, March 22, 2005