Melville House Books

The Detroit Free Press has announced disciplinary actions against star columnist—and mega-selling author — Mitch Albom, but it isn’t saying what those actions are, as an Editor & Publisher story reports. In fact, the headline of the explanatory article noted that Albom’s column was returning (after being briefly halted), not that he was being punished. The newspaper also announced that it had “taken some unspecified action against four other employees who had some involvement in his April 3 phantom NCAA basketball tourney column.” Albom had filed a story reporting on two former ball players watching the tourney. The players, however, never showed up at the game. Albom had filed the story the night before.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.