Editor’s note (April 21st, 2026): This story has been retracted because it contained multiple fabricated quotes. A statement from the editors has been provided below.

The Benson Orbit recently became aware of a serious ethics violation in an article about the Benson swim team published on February 20th, 2026. Our investigation confirmed that multiple quotes in the story were fabricated by a staff reporter and falsely attributed to swimmer Marley Best Brown.

Trust is the foundation of journalism. While the fabricated quotes were not substantial, it does not change how we view this incident; our community trusts us to report the truth, and making up information fundamentally violates that trust. It jeopardizes the credibility of all of our work, not just the single story where this occurred.

We take our integrity extremely seriously. Upon learning about this incident, we immediately retracted the story, and removed the individual responsible from our staff. The story was co-authored by a second reporter, Kynzee Ferguson, who was unaware of the fabrication and remains on staff. Before we knew about this incident, we had already updated our editorial process to require verification of interviews before publication, preventing this kind of issue in the future.

We apologize to Marley, who quotes were falsely attributed to, the swim team as a whole, and our audience at large. We are committed to accuracy in our journalism, and will always be transparent when we make a mistake.

— Editors Nick Oates, Zahra Faruqui, and Zayd Faruqui