Sacramento Bee Columnist Quits Amid Probe

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 12, 2005
Filed at 6:13 p.m. ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A Sacramento Bee columnist resigned in the midst of the newspaper's investigation into whether she fabricated some of the people she mentioned in several recent columns, the newspaper reported in its Thursday editions.

Diana Griego Erwin, who won a Pulitzer Prize and George Polk award while working at the Denver Post in the 1980s, came to The Bee 12 years ago.

''During our inquiry we found we could not authenticate the existence of several people even though they were identified by name, age and sometimes by the neighborhoods in which they were reported to have lived,'' Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez wrote in the space usually reserved for Griego Erwin's three-day-a-week column. ''When asked to provide confirmation ... she was unable to do so to our satisfaction.''

Griego Erwin maintained her innocence even while resigning for personal reasons, Rodriguez said. She said in a statement that, ''I did nothing wrong, but could not fully prove that to The Bee.''

In addition to her awards while at the Denver Post, she won the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for best column writing in 1990 while at the Orange County Register along with other awards at The Bee.

Rodriguez noted her resignation ''comes at a time when the news industry has been hit with a series of high-profile ethical lapses in print and broadcast. And this kind of unfortunate story can't help but cut into our credibility.''

He said readers are rightly demanding more accountability and the paper is determined to maintain their trust.

He said more cases are becoming known in part because the authenticity of sources is easier to verify. In Griego Erwin's case, he said a handful of individuals named in recent columns couldn't be confirmed, after an inquiry into a single column began more than two weeks ago

I can find no record of one Will Pulitzer.

The Pulitzer name remains popular today because it is associated with the most prestigious award in American journalism. Yet many historians revile the award's benefactor with charges of irresponsible reporting and sensationalism like the lies that lead to the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Oh, and he was Hungarian