Florida Reporter's New Job Raises Questions About Past Articles

Michael Fechter, a reporter the Tampa Tribune, quit his job Monday (7 May 2007) to do writing and editing work focusing on Islamic extremists for Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, according to the newspaper. Now critics are claiming that Fechter's work at the paper was tainted by his relationship to Emerson and his project.

Fechter has for a decade claimed in his writing for the newspaper that Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor, was linked to the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad. He never named Emerson as a source of the information, but Emerson used the information from Fechter's articles in his own writing about the subject.

From Editor & Publisher