The University of Minnesota newspaper has fired a student reporter after learning he fabricated interviews for three sports stories this month.

The Minnesota Daily said Wednesday that it has added online corrections to two of Grant Donald's stories and deleted the third and was reviewing his other work.

Ben Gotz, the newspaper's sports editor, said the U's athletics communications director emailed July 9 to say swim coaches quoted in the previous day's paper didn't recall giving the interviews. When Donald didn't respond to questions about the interviews, the Daily removed the story from its website.

Donald met with Gotz on Sunday and admitted fabricating interviews for three stories, Gotz said. He said Donald admitted he faked:

Donald, an incoming junior in the U's journalism school, did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday.

A U spokesman said it's unlikely Donald would face academic discipline.

"This is an employment issue and not an academic one," Joe Koktan said.

Keep up kid, you might have a very bright future at some cable news channels. 

H/T Pioneer Press