I don’t understand how the Village Voice’s acting editor-in-chief, Doug Simmons, can consider not firing Nick Sylvester, the reporter who admits fabricating details of his story on pick-up artists.
Simmons says he never spoke with Steve Lookner, which I assume is the correct name of the “Steve Lucien” TV writer character quoted in the story at Bar 151. (which Sylvester now was never at … shades of Jayson Blair).
“The thought of firing him is a painful one for me,” Simmons tells Gawker. “I hope this review can bring an understanding to the paper — and to Nick — about the boundaries of journalism.”
Umm … yeah. What kind of signal will it send to your readers if you keep him on staff?
My understanding is that the Voice let go its last factchecker very recently, perhaps last week, as part of the New Times merger. Pretty ironic…
amen. i’m surprised i haven’t seen more calls to fire sylvester. pretty appalling really. simmons’ pain aside, the kid should be canned. even pitchfork made him resign.