The Boston Globe has admitted that large parts of a story it ran on the Newfoundland seal hunt were fabricated.

An excerpt from a cbc.ca story:

The story, which was published Wednesday, contained details that "hunters on about 300 boats converged on ice floes, shooting seal cubs by the hundreds, as the ice and water turned red."

(CP File Photo)

However, the seal hunt was actually delayed until Friday morning due to bad weather.

The newspaper said the story should not have been published, and the Globe has discontinued use of correspondent Barbara Stewart.

"The author's failure to accurately report the status of the hunt and her fabrication of details at the scene are clear violations of the Globe's journalistic standards," the Globe said in an editor's note on its web site.

Addendum:

Here's some additional info from an April 16 Washington Post article:

Foreign Editor Jim Smith reached Stewart on Thursday morning. "She's very upset and distraught about what happened," he said.

Stewart said she had done much of the reporting about the hunt in advance and "wrote a top assuming it was going to start on Tuesday," Smith recalled. He said she could not remember whether she spoke to a hunter who said the annual event was about to begin on Monday night or Tuesday morning. "Clearly, that doesn't in any way forgive the many errors that took place on her part and our part," Smith said.

Stewart did not respond to a message left at her Nova Scotia home.

Her downfall carries echoes of the recent controversy at the Detroit Free Press, where star sports columnist Mitch Albom has been suspended and remains under investigation for writing about a Final Four basketball game the day before it took place. Albom described two former Michigan State University players as being in the stands rooting for their alma mater, but while they had told Albom they planned to attend, neither made it to the game.