Plagiarized and Fabricated Material Used in Chicago Tribune Stories

July 14, 2012 (CHICAGO) — The Chicago Tribune says it has indefinitely suspended its use of local news content provider Journatic after discovering plagiarized and fabricated material in one of its stories.

Hours after that announcement, Journatic’s head of editorial, Mike Fourcher, said in a post on his blog that he had resigned because of disagreements with senior staff over “ethical and management issues.”

The Chicago-based company has come under scrutiny since the public radio program “This American Life” reported two weeks ago that Journatic was using poorly paid writers overseas to produce material under fake bylines published in several major U.S. newspapers.

Journatic had produced content for the Tribune’s suburban TribLocal publications. The newspaper said in its Saturday edition that one of those stories, published earlier in the week, contained plagiarized and fabricated quotes.