A reporter got tossed at the L.A. Times because the paper's editors had major problems with a story about a fraternity hazing death.

But the reporter, Eric Slater, is blaming editing errors for some of the problems with the story, although he took responsibility for others.

Excerpts from the NYT story:

The newspaper announced the dismissal of the reporter, Eric Slater, at the end of an editor's note in its Tuesday issue. The note said that the article, which was published on March 29, relied on poor reporting techniques, used quotations from anonymous sources whom editors could not verify and included a string of factual errors.

"The paper concluded that the article fell far short of Times standards," said Martha Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the newspaper.

Mr. Slater's article, which drew complaints and swift requests for a correction, described a fraternity hazing incident that led to the death of Matthew Carrington on Feb. 2. He was a 21-year-old student at California State University, Chico.

Here's the complete text of the LAT's editor's note:

FOR THE RECORD

Editor's Note

On March 31, The Times published a correction of four errors in a March 29 article about controversies arising from fraternity hazing at Cal State Chico. At the same time, editors began a full review of the story, which was published on the front page of the California section. Based on that inquiry, which included a visit to Chico by a Times editor, the paper has concluded that the article fell far short of Times standards.

Beyond the specific errors, the newspaper's inquiry found that the methods used in reporting the story were substandard. The quotations from anonymous sources and from two named sources, a Mike Rodriguez and a Paul Greene, could not be verified.
Additional inaccuracies found during the investigation include the following:

•  In describing a hazing death this year, the article said that the victim died after drinking five gallons of water from a "rubber bladder bag." The Butte County district attorney reported that the amount of water exceeded five gallons and that it came from a plastic jug, not a bladder bag.

•  The story also reported that the victim was alone at the time of his death. The D.A. reported that this was not the case.

•  The article attributed to "medical examiners" the idea that the victim may have experienced a moment of euphoria shortly before his death. That belief has been expressed by the victim's father, who told the Chico Enterprise Record that he based it on his own research. Butte County's district attorney said it does not appear in any medical reports related to the current case.
•  The article said that the parents of Adrian Heideman, a hazing victim who died in 2000, showed their son's day planner to hazing expert Hank Nuwer. Nuwer informed The Times' readers' representative that he was not shown Heideman's day planner by his parents; he heard it described by Heideman's father over the phone.
Separate from the March 29 article, a review of an earlier story on the same subject revealed another error. On March 5, The Times reported that eight fraternity members had been charged with involuntary manslaughter. In fact, eight were charged with hazing, and four of them were also charged with involuntary manslaughter.

The writer of both articles, Eric Slater, has been dismissed from the staff.

 

The Jim Romanesko blog at Poynter.org had this item from the Chico Enterprise-Record:

 

"The Los Angeles Times fired me before it completed an investigation of a single, small story, let alone of my career," said Slater, who spent 11 years with the Times.

Slater was referring to an inquiry by Jim Newton, an editor and former Times reporter, whose April 7 trip to Chico was part of a full review of the story, according to the Times editor's note a nearly 400-word response.

In addition to correcting a number of inaccuracies, the editor's note addressed what critics of the story have called questionable sources.

"...the newspaper's inquiry found that the methods used in reporting the story were substandard. The quotations from anonymous sources and from two named sources ... could not be verified."

The report follows a correction that ran two days after the printing of the March 29 article.

Slater said he was supposed to write a story about 1,300 words long, but that he turned in a much longer version. And the reporter alleges several of the problems in the article are the result of editing a process he said cut his story in half.

"It had grown from a story about Chico State University to a story about hazing in the United States, the world, and the history of the rituals going back before the ancient Greeks," Slater said.

That unedited version, he said, had quotes from a Chico State official. Slater said it also had the correct population of the city of Chico, an error that was righted in the Times correction.

The reporter doesn't claim the story was perfect.

"I made mistakes," he said. "I've admitted every single one of them."