How one careless act became a really big deal

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.