Globe’s Kevin Cullen on paid leave for alleged fake details

The Boston Globe has placed columnist Kevin Cullen on paid administrative leave while it investigates allegations that he fabricated details about the marathon bombings.

“The integrity of each of our journalists is fundamental to our organization,” the Globe said in a statement yesterday. “In light of questions that have publicly surfaced, Kevin Cullen has been placed on paid administrative leave while a thorough examination, involving a third party with expertise, is done of his work. We will be transparent with the results of the review.”

The newspaper would not identify the third party, however, despite its pledge of transparency.

The decision follows allegations by Boston sports radio station WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan” that Cullen — a member of the Globe team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for coverage of the April 15, 2013, bombings — led readers to believe he was at the scene of the blasts in their immediate aftermath.

In a BBC interview, however, Cullen later said he was a mile away from where the bombs went off. He also said he knew the firefighter who carried Jane Richard, the sister of 8-year-old bombing victim Martin Richard, to the ambulance after she lost her leg. Matt Patterson, the firefighter who actually rescued her, told WEEI morning host Kirk Minihane he does not know the columnist. Cullen also claimed he heard the “death wail” of one of the marathon victims.

Cullen did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.

Doug Struck, who spent more than 35 years at the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun, called the allegations “pretty egregious.”

“If they are true, it’s pretty distressing,” said Struck, senior journalist in residence at Emerson College. “If you have a respected journalist at a respected paper like The Boston Globe who is lying or misleading, it sullies all journalists.”