Richard Perez-Pena of The New York Times writes Wednesday that a former business reporter at the paper apparently made a number of payments to a person who eventually became a source for a story about child pornography.
The reporter, Kurt Eichenwald, now works for business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio.
Perez-Pena wrote, “Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times, said in a statement: ‘What we published in December 2005 was a disturbing portrayal of a pernicious online world. It is clear, however, that the methods employed in gathering the material violated Times standards. Had Kurt disclosed to us the full extent of his involvement with his sources and subjects we would have been obliged, at least, to have his work verified by another reporter.’
“Mr. Eichenwald wrote several articles on Mr. Berry and Internet child pornography, the first of them published in The Times on Dec. 19, 2005.
“‘I have no independent memory of any payments I am alleged to have made in June 2005 through PayPal,’ he said in a written statement yesterday. ‘If these PayPal payments did occur in June 2005, I am deeply sorry that my inability to remember them has resulted in permitting a series of convicted felons to cast doubt on the nature of my wife’s and my efforts to save a young man who was caught in the grip of a cycle of drugs and abuse.'”
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