The media world has been abuzz for most of this month about the phony column that Mitch Albom, the bestselling author, wrote for the Detroit Free Press. Although Albom clearly screwed up and should be punished, I've been stunned by the level of outrage directed at him. Nothing less than a public beheading would seem to satisfy some of his critics.
Best known to the public nationwide for the mega-success of his books "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," both of which were made into television movies, Albom has been a big name in Detroit since long before either book struck gold.
But now his name is mud.
Albom, who has written a highly regarded sports column for the Free Press for 20 years and also writes a column for the paper's Sunday commentary section, really screwed up in his Sunday, April 3, column (which, like his other columns, was syndicated nationally by Tribune Media Services, a division of Tribune Co., which also owns The Times).
For that particular column, about how the college sports experience is often the best time in an athlete's life, Albom interviewed Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson, two former Michigan State basketball players, both now in the NBA. They told him they planned to attend Michigan State's NCAA semifinal game against the University of North Carolina the next evening, Saturday, April 2.
Albom filed his column Friday afternoon for publication in the Sunday paper. He described the two former players' attendance at the game in the past tense, as if it had already happened: "They sat in the stands, in their MSU clothing, and rooted on their alma mater," is the way one line read.
But the Free Press' Sunday commentary section, in which that column appeared, was actually printed before the game, and when scheduling conflicts led Cleaves and Richardson to change their minds and not fly to St. Louis for the game, Albom was in deep trouble.
His column described as fact -- their presence at the game -- something that never happened. That was a major mistake -- but not, in my view, a hanging offense.
He's since written -- and the Free Press published -- an apology. The paper also published a Page 1 apology by Carole Leigh Hutton, the editor and publisher, which promised an investigation of how this violation of basic journalistic ethics happened -- and whether there is any evidence that Albom has been guilty of similar mistakes in the past.
Pending completion of that investigation -- now being conducted by the paper's assistant managing editor and four reporters -- Albom is on a paid leave of absence from the paper, and his columns are not being published.
Some journalists -- and some Free Press readers -- have called for Albom's dismissal. "If the Free Press does not fire him for this breach of journalistic integrity, I can no longer have faith that truth matters to the editors," wrote one reader.
Not everyone favors such draconian measures. When Editor & Publisher magazine, the industry's trade journal, questioned editors at the annual convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors two weeks ago, most who were willing to comment said they did not think Albom should be fired -- "not yet anyway," as Editor & Publisher reported.
"I don't know that one single incident -- given his overall career -- is enough to fire him," Editor & Publisher quoted Phill Casaus, editor of the Albuquerque Tribune, as saying. "You have to take it in the context of what he has done for the newspaper."
I agree -- unless it turns out that he's done this before.
The Free Press was right to suspend Albom (although I think the suspension should have come without pay and for a longer period of time than the internal investigation is likely to take).
But I disagree with those who liken Albom's one screw-up -- however egregious -- to the serial fictionalization and plagiarism of those other recent journalistic miscreants, Jayson Blair of the New York Times, Stephen Glass of the New Republic and Jack Kelley of USA Today. I don't even think that what Albom did was as bad as the series of mistakes and substandard reporting in Eric Slater's March 29 Los Angeles Times story on controversies surrounding fraternity hazing at Cal State Chico. The Times fired Slater last week after an investigation concluded that his article "fell far short of Times standards."
I think some journalists have overreacted to Albom's foolish mistake in part because they're justifiably worried about our collective credibility after those earlier, embarrassing disasters -- and in part, in some cases, perhaps out of envy for Albom's huge successes.
