Fictitious News Now

Last week, a local news website published a fictitious news story. Their retraction raised more questions than it answered.

Last Monday, the local news website Cville Right Now posted a peculiar retraction:

“Cville Right Now recently published a report that told a fictitious story about an individual who does not exist — Deion Taylor. Our article claimed this man was represented by UVA’s Innocence Project and that he received $580,000 from the General Assembly. Neither is true. It also quoted the former director of the Innocence Project — Deirdre Enright — when, in fact, Ms. Enright had never been interviewed about this non-existent person or payment.” [see the fictitious story at the bottom of the page]

Cville Right Now was launched last April by Saga Communications, which operates a collection of radio stations in the Charlottesville area known as the Charlottesville Media Group, including 1070 WINA Newsradio. WINA news staff write the stories for CRN. Jaclyn Piermarini, who was…