AP Fires Third Employee Over Terry McAuliffe Mistake; Guild ‘Alarmed’

The guild that represents employees of The Associated Press responded Tuesday to the recent firing of journalists involved in a retracted story about Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, saying the employees’ rights were violated.

“The firings have alarmed AP employees nationwide, and the News Media Guild will vigorously enforce the contractual rights of the employees it represents,” Guild president Martha Waggoner told The Huffington Post in a statement.

The Huffington Post first reported Monday that the AP had fired veteran Virginia political reporter Bob Lewis and Richmond-based editor Dena Potter over an erroneous Oct. 9 report alleging that McAuliffe had lied to a federal investigator.

At the time, HuffPost also reported that a third AP employee was expected to be reprimanded over the incident. Waggoner confirmed there has been a third firing but declined to release the name.

Atlanta-based AP editor Norman Gomlak confirmed Tuesday that he was the third staffer fired over the McAuliffe story. (Politico first published Gomlak’s name after HuffPost revealed a third employee had been fired).

In a statement to HuffPost, Gomlak said he is “extremely disappointed by the AP’s response to this unfortunate incident.”

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