Foundation Regrets Paying Disgraced Journalist for Speech

$20,000 from organization devoted to quality journalism

The Knight Foundation, a Washington-based non-profit that exists to promote quality journalism, has expressed regret for paying a disgraced journalist $20,000 to speak at a lunch event.

In a blogpost published late on Wednesday night, the institution said it had been "inappropriate" to pay Jonah Lehrer, who fabricated quotes from Bob Dylan for a book and recycled previous work in blogposts for the New Yorker.

In a speech at the Knight Foundation's 2013 Media Learning Seminar, Lehrer issued a public apology and tried to explain his fall from lauded young journalist to poster boy for media plagiarism.