Acceptability of Pen Names Today
May 15, 2013
Gawker reports on an intriguing story taking the concept of a pen name (of sorts) to a new level. The Australian Legal Business, a publication owned by Thomson Reuters has seen many articles published by fictional journlalist, Michelle Boatley. Boatley is simply a nom de plume for editors and is not a real person according to the article, “Thomson Reuters Just Making Up Reporters Now.”
Boatley covered layoffs in Bangkok, mergers in Shanhai and hiring in Dubai as a reporter assigned to the topic of business news in Asia and the Middle East. However, as stated by Jim Romenesko, she was simply a guise for the publication to look as if they had a larger staff — and so was her Facebook page and email address.
The article continues discussion on this odd situation:
“A source told Romenesko that Boatley was probably added back to the bullpen after a real journalist had recently left to join a law firm. On top of that, the “reporter” got things wrong in stories that sources were unable to correct (because there was no contact info for Boatley, because Boatley is not a person). Is this a widespread phenomenon? Related: How many Gawker writers are simply an alias of one of the editors? Almost all of them.”
In a sense, this idea is similar to a nom de plume. Of course, historically pen names have not been regarded as a anything offensive but rather indicative of other issues. Think women not being regarded as serious authors and using male pen names in order to publish and sell copies. The point is that attention should be placed on what problems are causing the fabrication of more reporters than actually exist.
Megan Feil, May 15, 2013
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