Christopher Newton's Exclusive Talking Heads

Sacked Associated Press reporter Christopher Newton stands accused by his former employer of having made up quotations from fictious sources and invented institutions in 40 news stories published between Jan. 13, 2000, and Sept. 8, 2002. Reproduced here are the disputed talking heads and their quotations and the date moved on the AP wire. Purportedly invented organizations have been italicized.

—J.S.

Jeffrey Roberts
Democratic Party lawyer Jeffrey Roberts said the case is a serious one but it shouldn't be up for debate in court. "There was a clear violation of federal law," he said. "It seems he's going out of his way to make constitutionality an issue, when that has already been upheld in the past."

—Jan. 13, 2000

Angelica Victor
Angelica Victor, a spokeswoman for Education Alliance, a Washington-based group that represents education researchers at universities, said the experiments in Denver and at Colonial are being closely watched, and the outcome will help determine the idea's future elsewhere around the country.

"Will it make a difference on test scores and student performance without wreaking havoc among teachers? These programs will provide hard data either way," Victor said.

—March 28, 2000

Jocelyn Winters
Jocelyn Winters, a spokeswoman for the Texas chapter of the National Organization for Women, said many school boards have no intention of hiring a woman superintendent.

"In the old days, they would seek out three male candidates. Now they seek out four candidates, one of whom is a woman they have no intention of hiring," said Winters, who has studied the situation nationally.

—Oct. 26, 2000

Robert Janson
Robert Janson, a spokesman for Voice for the Disabled, an advocacy group based in Washington, said the lawsuit settlement should send a signal to the other companies who build theaters.

"Sometimes providing access means making sure the disabled have a chance to get the very best product available—not just making sure they can get in the building," Janson said.

—Jan. 17, 2001

Joanne Fu
There may also be an older resentment hidden in the offended Japanese sensitivities, too—a skepticism rooted in the nations' shared history, said Joanne Fu, a social scientist at a think tank in New York called Across Cultures.

"This outcry is rooted in an ongoing emotion with the Japanese that the United States has always shirked taking full responsibility for the wrongs inflicted on them," Fu said.

"It goes back to the World War II detention camps. This isn't just about a submarine crash."

—March 2, 2001

John Martin
"Anyone who has used a database knows it is not an exact science," said John Martin of Consumer Reports.

"I wouldn't expect problems like these to go away."

—March 14, 2001

Morgan Isley
Morgan Isley of TeleResearch, a New York think tank, said a misspelled name or location by the operator can draw a blank in a database. Small companies may not find a way around this problem.

"They are likely to find themselves under similar pressures to handle customers quickly," Isley said.

—March 14, 2001

Michael Hamilton
"Just as in all private companies, there are some incidents of racism, but the focus on youth crime is due in part to the school shooting phenomenon," said Michael Hamilton, director of the California Broadcasters Association. "It has generated an intense interest in the subject."

—April 9, 2001

Edward Briar
Edward Briar, an analyst with the Military Research and Study Group, said that President Bush "is already beginning to look a little weak, a little ragged. An apology would be unseemly and embarrassing for the nation."

—April 11, 2001

Hal Cassidy
"We think it is fair that people understand what bankruptcy can do to your credit," said Hal Cassidy, a Washington-based lobbyist for the credit companies. Cassidy points out that most bankruptcy filers can no longer get low-interest loans.

"There are too many lawyers that are too eager to take the filing fee and don't look to find the person who really doesn't need to file," he said.

—April 17, 2001

Jim McLarnen
Rightly so, says Jim McLarnen, a spokesman for Fair Credit, a group that lobbies for credit companies.

"There are people who are just irresponsible, and it is time we started making them pay for that," McLarnen said. "When someone files bankruptcy, the truth is that all of us pay for it, through higher rates. The companies pass along the bills to the consumer."

—April 17, 2001

Tim Dale
"This is great because it will hopefully embarrass the Bush administration into action," said researcher Tim Dale of the Malen Clinic in New York. "At the very least it will make them explain themselves."

—May 29, 2001

Arthur Gonzalez
"This basically says, if you have money, we'll let you into our country as soon as we can," said Arthur Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

—May 31, 2001

Jennifer Talles
"If you don't have money, you can wait." Jennifer Talles, a spokeswoman for the Western Association for Immigration Rights said, "Why do we need a program that tells immigrants we value them based on how much money they have?"

—May 31, 2001

Hugh Brownstone
"We're talking about radar technology that can pinpoint almost any disturbance in the atmosphere," said Hugh Brownstone, a physicist at the Intergon Research Center in New York who has worked for the cell phone giant Nokia. "You might not be able to distinguish between a stealth plane and a normal one, but you might not need to. The point is, you can see the stealth plane as a blip."

—June 20, 2001

Roger Paine
"There is no way to produce an accurate picture of mental illness in prisons," said Roger Paine, a psychologist at the University of New Mexico.

"Asking the prisons results in numbers that are pure fiction. They don't have good measures for determining who has a mental illness or not. We need competent diagnosis as a first step to assessing the problem."

—July 15, 2001

George Brownstein
George Brownstein, a political analyst and Nixon author, said Cheney "makes all of the same executive privilege arguments, demanding privacy for the executive branch."

—Aug. 3, 2001

Mark Lenton
"The beef industry has been getting off easy and putting the public at risk," said Mark Lenton, a spokesman for Pure Food, Clean Water, a think tank in New York. "Hopefully, this will mark the end of beef contaminated by drugs."

—Aug. 7, 2001

Patrick Delraj
"It's a two-birds-with-one-stone situation," said Patrick Delraj, a political science professor at the University of California. "He's laying groundwork to be in a stronger position next time around."

—Aug. 20, 2001

Landry Bolville
"In many ways, it is ridiculous, because this information is public, and the Internet is a public domain," said Landry Bolville, a first amendment attorney in Washington. "Any piece of information could be used by a terrorist, and it seems like a lot of what is being altered is not directly dangerous. You haven't made life harder for the terrorist; you've just made it harder for taxpaying citizens."

—Oct. 11, 2001

Jake Parsons
"It's a great mystery and yet we're no closer to solving it than we were twenty years ago," said Jake Parsons, an anthropologist at the University of San Diego. "Every time we get a working model, we get a new mystery thrown at us—like this one."

—Oct. 18, 2001

Victor St. John
New York attorney Victor St. John, an expert in military law, said: "A military court would probably have more control over things like media coverage and location. There is certainly a greater sense of security and formality that might keep things from dissolving into a circus."

—Oct. 18, 2001

Dean Leonard
Such an agreement might be difficult to make in the current political climate, said Dean Leonard, a lawyer and death penalty researcher at Harvard University.

"The public pressure for these suspects to be put to death will probably be overwhelming and considering the Bush administration's support of capital punishment, I would have to believe it would be a top priority," Leonard said.

—Oct. 18, 2001

Aljid Darah
"Inevitably, if America captures bin Laden there will be an outcry to let him be handled by the U.N.," said Aljid Darah, an attorney who works with the Arab American Institute. "How could you possibly argue that he could get a fair trial in the United States. It would basically amount to a hanging—with a mock trial held just for show."

—Oct. 18, 2001

Alan Douglas
"Like nothing else, wars and death change generations of people," said Alan Douglas, a sociologist at Princeton University. "It changes the way they vote, it changes what they think is important. It affects when they get married and how many children they have."

Douglas said the full ramifications of a war won't be known until decades later.

—Oct. 20, 2001

Linda Sveena
Linda Sveena, a sleep researcher at Ohio University, takes the other side.

"We know people perform better after a night of sleep, but we don't know that their brain is working to process information while they sleep," Sveena said. "The evidence of this is scant."

—Nov. 1, 2001

Russ Carter
"It seems clear that the brain does help us learn and process information while we sleep," said Russ Carter, a psychiatrist at the Leonard Institute in Austin, Texas. "Any college student who takes enough tests know they have better access to the information in their head after a good night of rest."

—Nov. 1, 2001

Paul Stevens

Paul Stevens, a lawyer and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says tougher laws are needed on all fronts.

"We need less guns in society in general," Stevens said. "The problem is that there are so many guns and they are so easy to get that it is impossible to keep the wrong people from getting a hold of them."

—Nov. 4, 2001

Jeffrey Wendell
"What this shows is that making it harder for stores to sell guns does nothing to deter criminals from getting weapons," said Jeffrey Wendell, a criminal justice professor at the University of Texas.

"They just turn to other sources. No one is walking into a store, finding they can't buy a gun and then deciding not to commit a crime."

—Nov. 4, 2001

James Thomas
"These are people who can dissolve away into crowds, return to their families and live among refugees for long periods of time," said James Thomas, a specialist on conflicts in Pakistan and Afghanistan at the Center for Defense and International Security Studies, a Washington think tank.

"We're proceeding on the idea that these terrorists can't hide forever, but maybe they can," he said.

—Nov. 5, 2001

Mason Digby
"Even if you turn to a few former U.S. judges or prominent former lawyers, you have an appearance problem," said Mason Digby, a professor of international law at Ohio State. "It will still look as though the United States has rigged the trial to gain a desired outcome."

—Dec. 1, 2001

Richard Daisly
"We desperately need to bring China into the fold and stop having silly spats that keep our relationship off track," said Richard Daisly, a professor of foreign trade and economics at Vanderbilt University and an adviser for AOL Time Warner.

"Every step China has ever made toward opening up its society has come because it has sought economic benefits for its people. We must continue to show them that opening up to the world has benefit," Daisly said.

—Dec. 28, 2001

Ralph Tagern
"There is no question that terrorism is the flavor of the month and that explaining something as an anti-terrorist action is the quickest way to get the United States on board," said Ralph Tagern, a researcher for The Institute on Middle Eastern Policy.

"But in truth, many of these struggles are not about terrorism. They are about long-standing fights for independence and other matters," Tagern said.

—Jan. 16, 2002

Jennifer Williams
"It's unfortunate because a pipeline means permanent jobs, permanent income and lots of supporting companies," said Jennifer Williams, a business researcher and professor at the University of Texas.

"You would have to have a telephone system, a transportation system, along with constant utilities and supplies. This was probably the best hope for Afghanistan and it died prematurely because of war."

—Jan. 18, 2002

Dennis Tyler
"These are people who have been at war with the United States long before Sept. 11," said Dennis Tyler, an independent analyst who has done research for the Center for Defense Information in Washington. "The truth is, they would go right back to business as usual if they were allowed to escape."

—March 7, 2002

Jennifer Wayton
Jennifer Wayton, a researcher at Texas Tech University who studies released prisoners, said security alone won't solve the problem.

"Just trying to keep terrorist groups or criminal groups out of prison won't be effective," Wayton said. "We've tried that for years and gotten nowhere.

"We must provide a better chance for people in prison to be reintegrated into society, or they will go back to crime and they will be ripe possibilities for all sorts of criminal groups."

—June 11, 2002

Justin Hammerstein
"As long as no one was being arrested or detained solely on the basis of the test, there is no law against scanning someone's face with a device," said Justin Hammerstein, a civil liberties attorney in New York.

—June 21, 2002

Dale Jenang
"We should try to avoid a society where suspicion is based on a machine and not on evidence," said Dale Jenang, a sociologist and philosophy researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. "Guilt and innocence are too important to leave to a machine."

—June 21, 2002

Thomas Jakes
"Voices can shake because people are scared about being interrogated by police," said Thomas Jakes, president of People for Civil Rights. "This technology is nothing but a way to scare people."

—June 21, 2002

Irma Gonzales
Immigration researcher Irma Gonzales, who works at the University of Chicago, said the influx of applications was prompted by controversy over the detention of immigrants in connection with the terror investigation.

"It is not a good time to be an immigrant in the United States," Gonzales said. "Immigrants are being detained and deported with a great deal of secrecy and people are looking for the certainty that comes with having citizenship."

—July 16, 2002

Edward Murrell
Edward Murrell, an immigration attorney in San Jose, Calif., said the measure would further separate immigrants from the INS.

"This is a crafty way of gaining the power to deport just about anybody the government wants," he said. "The result will be that immigrants refuse to work with the Justice Department."

—July 22, 2002

Donald Terrel
"The agency has never had the ability to assess sophisticated intelligence in the way that the CIA can," said Donald Terrel, a former agent and a researcher at George Washington University. "The FBI historically has been kept from collecting and assessing information for fear that it would abuse the power. The CIA has also been reluctant to share information out of fear that it would become public in a court case. Now the FBI's hands are no longer tied."

—July 24, 2002

Janice Paine
"Hezbollah leaders understand that al-Qaida is too hot to touch right now," said Janice Paine, a terrorism expert at Harvard University. "It's very easy for Hezbollah leaders to imagine the bombs that are falling on al-Qaida could be falling on them if they get connected to any terrorism in the United States.

"A connection between the groups would also undo the work that some Hezbollah leaders have done to make the group seem more moderate," Paine said.

—July 26, 2002

Justin Willard
"This is a federal court weighing in, saying that those people detained at U.S. bases outside the country are, in essence, not being held in the United States," said Justin Willard, a constitutional lawyer in Washington. "There is no reason why this tactic couldn't be used indefinitely. Why bring a suspected terrorist to Washington when you can put them in Cuba and never have to answer questions about who they are or what they've done?"

—Aug. 1, 2002

Carl Baron
"This is a fancy way of racial profiling," said Carl Baron, an immigration attorney and researcher at the University of Texas. "Just on the basis of where a person is from the government is going to subject them to these measures. You're going to see fewer Middle Easterners willing to come to the United States and I wonder whether that isn't the real agenda."

—Aug. 12, 2002

Lynne Hallard
"Attorney General John Ashcroft has been more concerned with cracking down on civil liberties than actually finding the people who are guilty of a specific crime," said Lynne Hallard, a spokeswoman for Civil Liberties Focus, a Chicago-based think tank.

"The Justice Department has only arrested one person in connection with Sept. 11 but has eroded the entire nation's civil rights in an attempt to smoke them out."

—Aug. 23, 2002

Francis Neil
"It's not that people don't remember Sept. 11. It's that they do remember the Constitution," said Francis Neil, a University of Colorado civil liberties researcher.

—Aug. 26, 2002

Vanessa Thompson
"Where is the hard data that allows the (government) to break up major attack plans?" said Vanessa Thompson, a researcher who studies law enforcement interrogations at the University of New Mexico.

"It seems as though every time they get someone down there to talk, the government puts out an alert and nothing happens. I think all we're getting is a lot of disinformation."

—Aug. 30, 2002

Ralph Myers
"Despite our perceptions, based on television or chats around the water-cooler, it is clear crime is on the decline in a significant way and has been for some years now," said Ralph Myers, a criminologist at Stanford University.

—Sept. 8, 2002

Bruce Fenmore
The effect of tougher sentencing laws can best be seen in the drop in the rate at which people in the United States are assaulted, said Bruce Fenmore, a criminal statistician at the Institute for Crime and Punishment, a Chicago-based think tank.

"There is overwhelming evidence that people who commit assaults do it as a general course of their affairs," Fenmore said. "Putting those people behind bars drops the rate."

—Sept. 8, 2002

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