The Wall Street Journal has fired a reporting intern who apparently made up names for a story about the 103rd Street Pedestrian Bridge. The story now has this note: "Note to Readers: "Bridging a Local Divide," published online on June 17, has been removed from the Journal's web sites. Many of the names contained in the article about the re-opening of the 103rd Street Pedestrian Bridge in Manhattan were fabricated by reporting intern Liane Membis, and the quotes couldn't be independently verified. Ms. Membis is no longer working at The Wall Street Journal. (A version of this article appeared June 26, 2012, on page A15 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Bridging a Local Divide.)" Membis had Tweeted about the bridge story on June 18, "Front paging today for Greater New York section of WSJ."
A WSJ spokesperson told Politico, "Liane Membis was an intern for the Journal for less than three weeks and wrote or contributed to five published pieces - one of which has been removed from our online archives and two of which have been edited to remove quotes that were provided by the intern and that cannot be confirmed. Notes detailing the actions taken have been placed at the original URLs. Ms. Membis is no longer working at The Wall Street Journal."
Membis, a recent Yale graduate and pageant winner, Tweeted yesterday, "Feeling Philippians 4:13 today," which is "I can do all this through him who gives me strength."
Stephen Glass was fired from The New Republic for making up sources and stories while Jayson Blair's career at the NY Times, where he started as an intern, unraveled in 2003 when his plagiarism and fabrication were discovered. As Daily Intel points out, "In the meantime, an obvious note to all other budding media people: It's just not worth it!"
