The weekly alternative newspaper The Village Voice has pulled a freelance writer’s piece on college debt after concluding he fabricated sources and quotes, prompting a separate review by the Daily News of dozens of articles the writer contributed to the tabloid.
The Voice’s editor, Tony Ortega, said in a statement posted on its website that New York-based writer Rob Sgobbo had invented a Berkeley College student and a U.S. Government Accountability Office spokesman quoted in a Wednesday article about for-profit colleges. Both organizations contacted the Voice and said the people did not exist.
“The Voice apologizes sincerely to Berkeley College and the GAO that this false material appeared in our education supplement,” Ortega wrote.
Sgobbo did not immediately return a telephone message left by The Associated Press on Friday. He said he hadn’t fabricated any information in pieces he wrote for the Daily News, the newspaper said in a statement.
Since February his byline has appeared 86 times on Daily News stories, including several about city schools.
“The Daily News has terminated its relationship with freelancer Rob Sgobbo,” the newspaper said in a written statement. “He has assured us he never fabricated anything that appeared in the Daily News; however, we are reviewing his stories for any inconsistencies.”
The Voice said it removed Sgobbo’s article “For-Profit Blues” from its website after learning he had invented student Tamicka Bourges, who claimed she had become saddled with debt while attending Berkeley College, a New Jersey-based business school.
