On Sunday at 7:46 p.m., tucsonnewsnow.com (home to both CBS affiliate KOLD and FOX affiliate KMSB) posted a story which claimed that notorious Scottsdale family-killer Robert Fisher had been captured.
The story turned out to be incorrect. According to the Phoenix New Times, the article appeared to confuse the facts and went off a false tip which claimed that Fisher (who killed his wife and two children in 2001) was seen at a Colorado home. The tip led to the arrest of two different men over the weekend.
The inaccurate KOLD article stated that Fisher “is now behind bars.” It even claimed that investigators confirmed the arrest. In reality, Fisher was never at the home, much less arrested, and authorities never said that he was.
Writer Colton Shone’s byline appears above the error-filled article, but KOLD news director Michelle Germano told The Phoenix New Times that he only posted the article online and didn’t write it. She declined to name the author.
Germano told the Times‘ Ray Stern that she didn’t want to get into how the error happened. But she assured him “there have been consequences.” Germano added that the reporter should have corrected the facts instead of removing the article entirely from the website.
“All those involved have been talked with,” Germano told Stern. “We take these matters very seriously.”
The story was on the website for about 10 minutes before it was taken down. The false info was never broadcast on-air.