Longtime Cape Cod Times reporter admits to fabricating sources since 1998

By Derek J. Anderson, Globe Correspondent

The Cape Cod Times issued an apology to its readers Tuesday after reporting that a longtime reporter wrote dozens of stories that included sources that do not exist. Publisher Peter Meyer and editor Paul Pronovost told readers that reporter Karen Jeffrey, 59, who has worked at the newspaper since 1981, admitted to fabricating people in stories and giving others false names. She no longer works for the Times, they said. After an internal review, editors at the Times were unable to find 69 people in 34 stories over the past 14 years by Jeffrey, said Meyer and Pronovost.