We done wrong

We violated your trust, says the Tampa Tribune. They asked for a resignation from a reporter for writing a story that involved friends and making up the reaction of someone else as a lead-in to the story.

The mea culpa though was hysterical.

This ethical breach does not represent who we are as journalists at The Tampa Tribune. We recognize that we have a covenant with our readers: to be truthful, to be fair, to be credible. I am sorry that we've failed you in this case. We will rededicate ourselves to earning and keeping your trust.

The reason why, one suspects, is because the compainant was a former ABC reporter featured in the fabricated story. It turns out that the disgraced reporter wrote the story to promote pending legislation to impose stricter regulation of tow truck operators. No apology for that though. It was creative writing at it's best, and you have to wonder if a reader had complained, if the email or letter or phone call would have evinced the same self examination at the newspaper. Readers, of course, being less reliable than former reporters.