Kathleen Carroll, a former executive editor of The Associated Press, and Thomas E. Fiedler, dean of the College of Communication at Boston University, reviewed Mr. Cullen’s columns and broadcast appearances after the bombings on April 15, 2013.
In the second review, Scott Allen, The Globe’s assistant managing editor for projects and investigations; Brendan McCarthy, its deputy projects editor; and Joseph Kahn, a former staff writer, reviewed 100 randomly selected columns by Mr. Cullen for “authenticity and accuracy.”
The first review uncovered “significant problems” with radio appearances and public comments by Mr. Cullen the morning after the bombings and in the months that followed, the statement said.
In one interview the morning after the bombings, Mr. Cullen told the story of a firefighter he had spoken with by phone who rescued a 7-year-old girl hurt by the bomb before going back to search for her lower leg, which had been blown off.
The firefighter, a lieutenant in the Boston Fire Department, denied that account and said he did not speak with Mr. Cullen by telephone on the day of the bombing. He called the story of him searching for the child’s leg “crazy,” according to the report.
In another instance from August 2013, Mr. Cullen was a panelist at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication when he described an encounter with a deputy fire chief outside a pub the night of the bombing.
Mr. Cullen said the chief was on the phone trying to get the lieutenant, who had been with a child killed in the bombings, to come out for a drink. The report called the story “problematic for several reasons, including the question of whether the situation occurred.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/16/us/kevin-cullen-boston-globe-suspended.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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