Karen Jurgenson, editor of USA Today, the nation's largest newspaper, resigned recently amid scandal regarding erroneous articles submitted by star reporter Jack Kelley.
The sudden Tuesday resignation came a week after the paper's publisher, Craig Moon, received a report from a group of outside journalists asked to investigate the validity of Kelley's articles and how it was possible they were published by USA Today without detecting the deceptions.
The report, currently confidential but projected to be released publicly later in the week, also called for USA Today to recommend ways it might make amends for its previous mistakes regarding Kelley's reporting.
Kelley resigned under pressure in January after he was found to have fabricated material in several major articles over a 10-year period, including an article that was the basis for one of Kelley's five nominations for the Pulitzer Prize.
It is unclear whether Jurgenson resigned under pressure or voluntarily, but her abrupt departure from the paper is the first instance where a senior editor has taken responsibility for Kelley's fraudulent journalism.
Regardless of the reason for Jurgenson's departure, the news of her resignation was met with much regret from her former colleagues.
Peter Prichard '66, former editor of the USA Today, called the situation "a tragedy."
"Karen was as distressed and as saddened by the events as anyone," said Prichard. "She was in charge, but other issues will probably surface when the report comes out later this week."
Prichard cited the speed of communication technology and the pressure to nab a story as causes behind the recent numbers of journalistic fraud, including incidents at The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
"With the speed of communication today, we can check what people say more quickly, and it's much easier to complain about infractions," Prichard said. "Reporters before this age of technology were probably not under the same scrutiny as they are today."
Pressure to report top stories before competing papers is another reason for the outbreak of journalistic infractions, according to Prichard.
"There's a lot of commercial pressure to get scoops, which can cause people to go over the line," Prichard said. "That may have happened to Kelley. He was eager to please and very sincere and likable. It was difficult to pick out his digressions."
