A reporter for the real estate listing website Domain has been dismissed for allegedly fabricating quotes and misrepresenting sources and their professions over multiple articles.
In an apology published online, Domain’s editorial director, Adrian Lowe, said the journalist had published quotes attributed to people she had not interviewed or who had not provided her with quotes.
“We were recently alerted that two lifestyle articles misrepresented someone as a source,” Lowe said. “When this became clear, we removed these articles and the journalist involved has since left Domain.
“Unfortunately it soon became clear that this was not an isolated incident and the journalist had in fact misrepresented other people and their professions.”
The Sydney Morning Herald, whose parent company Nine owns 59.3% of Domain, said the journalist has worked for Domain since April 2019 and had written hundreds of articles.
In two articles, published on 18 July and 23 August, a Melbourne psychologist, Dr Sarah Barker, was quoted. In an earlier apology, posted last week, Domain said Barker was “not interviewed for these articles and the quotes in these articles were not provided by Dr Barker”.
“Domain apologises unreservedly to Dr Barker for any distress or difficulties caused.”
One of the articles, now deleted was titled “What Melburnians are doing differently in lockdown 2.0”. It quoted Barker as saying: “It makes total sense to feel sad, to feel out of whack and not motivated …Last time, the whole country was in the same predicament but now that it’s just Melburnians going through this, isolation can feel even more isolated.”
The reporter’s profile on Domain and all her published articles have been deleted pending a full investigation by Domain into all her work.
The Herald reported that three stories written by the journalist had been published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, but all had been checked and had met editorial standards.
Domain articles frequently appear on both newspapers’ online newsfronts, and as a printed liftout section.
