Posted on 06/27/2005 7:01:26 PM PDT by wagglebee
A longtime columnist of the Sacramento Bee who resigned amid controversy last month may have invented the existence of 43 people she wrote about over several years, an internal investigation found.
The paper announced yesterday it had completed a probe into Diana Griego Erwin's writing, stating: "We have been unable to verify the existence of 43 people she named in her columns. This doesn't prove these people don't exist, but despite extensive research we have been unable to find them."
Bee Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez wrote that recent tightening in editorial standards at the paper led to questions about the columnist's writing.
Wrote Rodriguez in a preface to the paper's story on the scandal: "I'm sorry our work with Diana Griego Erwin didn't meet our expectations or yours. Our recent lessons have been painful, but you have my word that we are committed to improving. Nothing means more to us than your trust and readership."
Erwin, whose column ran three times a week in the paper's Metro section, resigned May 11 after failing to substantiate details from several recent columns. She claims she has not fabricated any information.
The apparent creative license appeared to become more prevalent in the last several months. Though Erwin worked for the Bee for 12 years, 30 of the 43 unverifiable people were mentioned in columns between January 2004 and April 2005. Those 30 names occurred in 27 columns of the 171 Erwin wrote during the 16-month period, the Bee reported.
The 30 names could not be found in voter registration rolls, property records, telephone books, identity databases or through scores of phone calls.
Reported the paper: "Many of the columns in question fit a template: essays, often with a surprising O. Henry twist, about a singular person who faces a challenge and surmounts it. Their stories frequently reflect a theme taken from current headlines – wildfires, for example, or prison brutality, school shootings, murderous road rage or a high-profile trial."
One column that ran May 13, 1997, described Victor Budriyev, a Russian immigrant who supposedly lost his sweetheart to the bright lights of Los Angeles. The paper could find no Victor Budriyev in the United States, nor a single citation for "Budriyev" in all of the massive Google search engine.
"These are people we should have been able to find," said Rodriguez. "It kills us that we can't. We still hope they will turn up, but we're presenting the facts as we found them. Obviously, we feel strongly that we should have been able to find these individuals."
Suspicion was raised when the columnist couldn't identify the bar at which she supposedly interviewed a bartender – the day before she was asked about it. Shortly before she resigned, Erwin was asked to provide information about four people she mentioned in recent columns – but to no avail.
The columnist still claims the people in question exist.
Erwin wrote to the Bee in a June 9 e-mail: "The story has been told and I am sad that The Bee continues to pursue this."
She took issue with the continued scrutiny, saying it is undeserved, and then concluded: "Surely there are more important stories out there than another about me. I know there are. Even now, I come across them every day."
At age 25, Erwin worked on a project that won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for public service for the Denver Post and has been the recipient of other national awards as well.
"With a high-profile columnist, especially with the credentials present in this case, it is not first nature or even second nature to ask them if the person they're writing about actually exists," Rodriguez said. "Columnists are given more latitude in their writing style. It's more personalized. They share their voice and their views with the community."
Marv Essary wrote on ChronWatch.com that Erwin's offenses "dwarf those of Jayson Blair," the New York Times reporter who was ousted in 2003 for making up news stories.
Warning: Contents can be harmful to user. In studies they have been shown to cause a loss of perspective and damage one's moral compass.
I was getting my taxes done in Burbank today and actually picked up the LA times. It was the first time I picked up an actually newspaper in 3 to 5 years. I thumbed through it and noticed most of the stories I read on free republic within the last 72 hours. Newsprint is dead.
I would surmise that was her real source.
When they took the fifth amendment,
I was quiet because I didn't own real estate.
When they took the fourth amendment,
I was quiet because I didn't deal drugs.
When they took the sixth amendment,
I was quiet because I was innocent.
When they took the second amendment,
I was quiet because I didn't own a gun.
Now they've taken the first amendment,
and I can say nothing about it.
She gave an important voice to people who didn't exist. These words that were never spoken by anyone will reverberate down journalism's hall, as we all remember the forlorn nobody who uttered the famous words..."Dan? Is that you?"
:-)
I remember her when she used to write for that litter box liner (AKA The Los Angeles Times.) She used to wax eloquent about the trials and tribulations of the illegal aliens. Its amazing to what lengths a liberal will go to prove their rightousness.
Don't forget Stephen Glass, another up-and-coming, flawed liberal journalist, for the formally acclaimed NEW REPUBLIC... They just have no personal ethics or conscience.. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/07/60minutes/main552819.shtml
Don't forget Stephen Glass, another up-and-coming, flawed liberal journalist, for the formally acclaimed NEW REPUBLIC... They just have no personal ethics or conscience.. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/07/60minutes/main552819.shtml
Oops.. computer hiccups
That, however, would involve work! -- something modern day journalists are allergic to.
Plus, as you point out, the real story might not be the story the journalist wants to tell...
I was talking with my brother-in-law a few weeks ago and he had just heard some "new" piece of "breaking" news (I wish I could remember what it was) on CNN or something like that, I looked at him and told him I had known about it for almost a week. Look at what happened with Dan Ratherbiased and Memogate, FReepers knew all about it before there was any mention in the media.
But the bar should at least exist. Writing about a bartender when the bartender and the bar do not exist is, well, setting the "bar" too low -- even for a liberal rag like the Sacramento Bee.
A good number of syndicated columnists write opinion pieces. I'd think that would be good enough for the editors without making up scores of fictitious folk to make the articles more exciting.
Maybe what the reporter was churning out wasn't anything to write home about, so she tried to spice it up. ;)
yeah I know. I find it amazing when someone in Iraq or isreal reports on FR an attack as it is happening. scary and amazing.
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