Reuters pulls stories on anti-doping agency

Reuters has pulled two stories about the World Anti-Doping Agency after it was discovered that one of its officials obtained a Reuters news agency accreditation to attend the Masters golf tournament, reports Martyn Ziegler of The Times of London.

Ziegler reports, “Senior Reuters staff were unaware that Fitzgerald had been accredited as an agency representative. He is not thought to have worked at the tournament as a journalist.

“Reuters said in a statement: ‘A journalist who no longer works for Reuters has acknowledged that they helped a representative of Wada obtain a Reuters press credential for the 2024 Masters tournament, a violation of our journalistic standards.

“‘Consequently, we have withdrawn the stories ‘Athletes Undercover? Global and US anti-doping Agencies Clash Over Tactics’ and ‘Wada renews call for Usada to get tougher on testing’.

“‘While we stand by the accuracy of the reporting, Reuters’ standards for newsgathering were not met, specifically as they pertain to avoiding the appearance of bias in our sourcing.'”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.