HARRISBURG, Pa. - A daily newspaper fired its courthouse reporter after he posted anonymous opinions on the public forum portion of the publication's Web site, including comments critical of his own employer, the reporter said.
Justin Quinn said he was fired last month from the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, where he had worked for more than six years. He declined to discuss the content of his postings.
Editor Ray Shaw confirmed that Quinn no longer worked at the newspaper but declined to comment further on a personnel matter.
Quinn, 33, said he regretted the postings and apologized in a letter to a company official. He said he began posting to "set the record straight" about topics he covered but eventually began offering his opinions, as well.
"It is extremely hard to sit idly by when people are misstating facts," Quinn said.
Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at The Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, said traditional guidelines to keep reporters from giving opinions about subjects they cover apply equally to the Internet.
"If you express opinions that are critical of a public agency that you cover, and the public knows that you have expressed those opinions - not reported facts, but opinions - the members of the public have reason to doubt your ability to fairly cover that agency," she said.
