Regret the Error

This ranks as one of the stranger recent examples of journalistic malfeasance. As noted by Romenesko (and a variety of readers who sent it in), a syndicated music columnist has resigned after a paper he wrote for became aware that he had used a ghost writer “to produce more than 100 stories and columns since 2001.” From the paper’s story about Ramiro Burr:

“Ramiro caused the Express-News to unknowingly publish work under his name that was not, in fact, his own work,” said Robert Rivard, editor of the Express-News.
“It was the work of at least one other writer who did not receive credit and who we did not know about. Ramiro decided on his own to resign just as our investigation was concluding and we were preparing to take appropriate action. We have a zero-tolerance policy whenever someone on our staff presents work as their own that is not their own.”
Burr’s resignation came 24 hours after his lawyer, Glenn D. Levy, sent Rivard a letter contending that Burr is a syndicated columnist and the Express-News “never questioned” how he performed his duties…
The Express-News began to look into allegations against Burr in April after lawyers for Douglas Shannon contacted Rivard, seeking “formal byline credit” for stories Shannon claimed he “ghost-wrote” for Burr in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Shannon also claimed that he transcribed and translated from Spanish to English interviews Burr conducted in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Shannon’s lawyers presented to Hearst Corp. lawyers a binder thoroughly documenting Shannon’s working relationship with Burr. It contained invoices, e-mail correspondence, copies of stories Shannon said he either wrote or substantially helped Burr write and other allegations, among them:
That Shannon wrote all 80 of Burr’s Latin Notes columns published in the Express-News Weekender section between Dec. 14, 2001, and June 27, 2003.
That Shannon wrote – over the same December 2001-June 2003 time frame – 24 other stories that were published under Burr’s byline, and;
That Shannon worked as Burr’s intern during that time period from the offices of Munoz Public Relations, a local firm that represents at least one musical organization (Mariachi Vargas) that fell within Burr’s beat.
Cynthia Y. Munoz, president of the firm, Wednesday confirmed the arrangement with Burr.
Shannon’s lawyers sent a similar letter to Houston Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen, making similar claims against five articles that appeared in the Chronicle under Burr’s byline.
In their April letter to Rivard, Shannon’s lawyers described their client’s arrangement with Burr:
“On various occasions,” wrote Shannon lawyer Kenneth S. Saks, “Burr would give our client some leads to use. In most cases, after our client finished writing the drafts, he would call Burr over the phone and read aloud the article.

The full story is worth reading. This incident reminds me of a rather controversial Craigslist ad from last year. It read in part:

Looking for an experienced article ghostwriter that knows how to meet deadlines:
I do the marketing and editing, you do the research and writing. I am an experienced and published freelance writer with credits from more than 20 national publications including Woman’s Day, Oxygen, Business 2.0, For Me, Cooking Light, Men’s Journal, Backpacker, and Robb Report and I can’t execute all the ideas I have. That’s where you come in.
You will ghostwrite some of the articles for me and I will give you anywhere between $0.25 & $0.35 per word. If you dazzle me with your work, you’ll get $0.35 per word. Over time, that fee may increase to $0.40 per word.”

Some analysis of the ghostwriter issue is here.