Reuters editor quits over discredited story

Terri Cullen, pictured, wealth management editor, has gone only days after Reuters was forced to kill her story claiming the White House’s deficit reduction plan relied on raising taxes against the middle class by allowing tax cuts to expire. The story ran on Monday and was withdrawn that night after the White House complained. Numerous errors were discovered.

On Wednesday, a senior Reuters editor sent a memo stating, “This is an important reminder about our second-pair-of-eyes rule… Any content intended for reuters.com needs to be run past an editor PRIOR to publication. This applies to any and all content, including that intended for the blog platform.”

A Reuters spokeswoman confirmed Cullen’s departure but declined further comment. She apparently resigned, the website Talking Biz News said.

Reuters had trumpeted Cullen’s hiring. She was picked to serve as both editor of personal investing coverage on reuters.com as well as the editorial lead for Reuters wealth management initiative, a new service due out later this year that it said "will leverage Thomson Reuters business to business wealth assets in an effort to create an online consumer offering for Reuters.com's vast audience of affluent, business professionals”.

Based in New York, she reported to Richard Baum, global editor of consumer media. The reminder about the need for a second pair of eyes was sent by Keith McAllister, global editor of online, to blog editors and the global online staff. ■