[sportscurmudgeon]

There is a world of difference in getting a story wrong and making stuff up that was never true in the first place. Wise did the latter. In journalism there is no excuse for that.

A stunt such as the one he pulled is something one might expect from a young kid early in his/her career working at a small-time outfit. Wise is not a young inexperienced kid and he is working at a newspaper that is clearly one of the ten best in the US.

Plagiarism will get reporters/columnists fired. So will making stuff up - - see Jayson Blair and Janet Cooke (who made up stuff in a Wash Post feature, won a Pulitzer Prize for it and then had the fabrication discovered). Mike Wise walked a VERY fine line here in terms of keeping his job at the Post. Even the Post ombudsman said he was lucky not to have been fired.

Interestingly, if this kind of ethical breech had occurred in a government agency, the Post would probably be leading the parade calling for heads to roll. But when it is one of their "star writers"...