Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen has been suspended without pay for three months after "serious violations" in remarks he made about the Boston Marathon bombings - a penalty his union says he's going to fight.
Scott Steeves, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, told the
Herald last night Cullen will take his case to arbitration.
"Kevin looks forward to defending himself," Steeves said. "The guild stands behind Kevin 100 percent."
The
Globe announced last night Cullen will be demoted to general assignment reporter for the first two months upon his return before being allowed to write his column again.
The suspension comes after Cullen was called out by WEEI's Kirk Minihane for embellishing his reporting of the Boston Marathon bombings - including a broadcast report of him supposedly urging a city firefighter to come out for a drink the night of the bombings.
"Our review leads us to a conclusion that Mr. Cullen damaged his credibility," Publisher John Henry and Editor Brian McGrory wrote, adding they were "serious violations for any journalist."
A scrub of his work was led by Kathleen Carroll, the former executive editor of The Associated Press, and Tom Fiedler, dean of the College of Communication at Boston University.
A second review was done by two
Globe editors and a former reporter who fact-checked some of Cullen's columns.
Comment: Not to all news watchers: sometimes, contradictions in news reports aren't evidence of cover-ups, they're just evidence of journalists making things up. Unfortunately, that happens a lot, and it doesn't make our job any easier.