By Joe Guzzardi
05/23/2005
Disgraced former Sacramento Bee columnist Diana Griego Erwin offered up a lame attempt to exonerate herself in an interview with Jeffrey M. Barker of the weekly Sacramento News and Review.Griego Erwin now admits to fabricating the names of her sources but insists that she did so to "protect" the "privacy" of her subjects. (See Eric Hogue’s post, Diana Griego Erwin Writes Fiction ) While refusing to discuss the specifics of the anonymous, and possibly imaginary characters described in her column, she cast herself as the victim of a "witch hunt."
In her April 10th column, He Works, Has a Family, Pays Taxes — but Can’t Leave to See His Folks — about illegal alien "Israel Bueno", Griego Erwin did not inform her readers that "Bueno" is not his real name until half way through her piece.
If "Bueno" isn’t his real name, then how can we believe the rest of what Griego Erwin writes — that he came to the US when he was only 13 after hiding in a desert bush for safety, that he now works seven days a week and that he longs to be an American?
Griego Erwin justified her deception by saying, "I changed it ["Bueno’s" name] because he is here illegally."
But in fact, "Bueno" has next to nothing at all to worry about. His employers and everyone else in his town knows he is illegal. Only an infinitesimal chance exists that "Bueno" would be detained — and less that he would be deported.
So why doesn’t Griego Erwin go with the truth? And if "Bueno" isn’t willing to talk on the record, then why doesn’t Griego Erwin find someone who will?
That shouldn’t take long given that there may be 20 million illegal aliens in the U.S.
Update: Griego Erwin Not Only Made Up People, She Made Up Cats, Too
This week Sacramento Bee readers demanded to know more about the fraud perpetuated on them by fiction-writer and former columnist Diana Griego Erwin.
And the Bee agrees that the readers have a right to know
According to an "on-going" investigation into Griego Erwin’s columns, the Bee could not verify names or places referenced in seven of her last twelve articles. The specifics are listed in public editor Armando Acuna’s Sunday column, Specifics allow readers to judge for themselves
Further details will appear in the Bee as they unfold, promises Acuna.
In what may be her biggest breach, Griego Erwin not only made up people’s names, she also created two cats, "Christine" and "Queen Sweetness."
Pets should be left out of this mess.
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