Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Archive for June 3rd, 2009

Can you trust the byline?

Add comment June 3rd, 2009

“Did you write this column?”

There are only three answers to that: yes, no, and “sorta.” We’ve started asking every person who submits a guest column for publication in the Rockford Register Star that simple question.

If the answer is yes, we’ll consider publishing it. If the answer is no, into the trash it goes. If the answer is “sorta,” we’ll talk.

Each week, the Register Star’s editorial department publishes half a dozen or so guest columns — all local people, on a topic of local interest, and supposedly written by the person whose byline, mugshot and two-line bio are attached to the column.

I say supposedly because over the past couple years we’ve had recurring and nagging suspicions that some of these guest columns were being written by folks other than the name on the byline.

Nothing heinous, mind you; no whopping lies or plagiarism stuff. Just writing styles too slick and professional to be, well, honestly, to be that of a non-professional writer. Word usage that didn’t ring quite true to how we know the person talks. Pat phrases that seemed a bit too glib.

Think of it akin to having a speech writer or a ghost writer; you’re too busy or important (or illiterate) to write your own material, so you hire a ghost writer or speech writer.

That kind of thing is pretty easy to spot, actually. Most non-professional writers struggle a bit with grammar, spelling, syntax and organization. We do some pretty serious surgery on a lot of guest columns to whip them into shape for publication.

Full disclosure: I’ve written a couple of speeches for my bosses over the years. I’ve edited a column or two, as well. I have never ghost written a column for anyone.

The issue is not that someone else wrote the column and you put your name on it (though I find that slacker-worthy).  Maybe you can’t write well enough or you don’t have time and you need your contracted or staff ghost writer to do it for it. That’s OK.

The issue is you misrepresented yourself, and, in turn, we misled our readers. When I read a column in the newspaper with a mayor’s pix and byline, I am assuming it’s the mayor writing it. Ditto for school superintendents. For executive directors of this and that. For head honchos of that and this.

Unfortunately, I suspect we’ve got a handful of  guest column writers hiding behind ghost writers. Even if it’s only a teeny handful, each damages the credibility of other guest columnist. So, we’re asking the question: Did YOU write this?

If the answer is “sorta” then we talk. We might publish the column, but only if we state clearly something like: Written by public relations professional Sam Jones for and approved by Mayor Suzie Smith. We’ll even run the mayor’s mug.