San Antonio columnist caught using a ghost writer gives worst cheating excuse of all time: "I was just trying to be the best writer I could be"

A newspaper columnist has resigned after admitting a ghost writer helped write more than 100 of his columns and stories. MySanAntonio.com:

Well-known San Antonio Express-News music writer and columnist Ramiro Burr, facing allegations that he hired a ghost writer to produce more than 100 stories and columns since 2001, tendered his resignation Tuesday afternoon as the newspaper's investigation into this and other violations of the newspaper's ethics policy by Burr was drawing to a conclusion.

Burr, 52, covered the local and international music scene for the past 25 years. He worked for the San Antonio Light from 1983 until the Light folded in 1993 and has been with the Express-News since. He is also a local correspondent for Billboard magazine and in 1999 wrote a book, the "Billboard Guide to Tejano and regional Mexican music."

"Ramiro caused the Express-News to unknowingly publish work under his name that was not, in fact, his own work," said Robert Rivard, editor of the Express-News.

"It was the work of at least one other writer who did not receive credit and who we did not know about. Ramiro decided on his own to resign just as our investigation was concluding and we were preparing to take appropriate action. We have a zero-tolerance policy whenever someone on our staff presents work as their own that is not their own."

Burr's resignation came 24 hours after his lawyer, Glenn D. Levy, sent Rivard a letter contending that Burr is a syndicated columnist and the Express-News "never questioned" how he performed his duties.

So it's the boss' fault for not questioning him if anyone else wrote his columns? I don't think any parents or school teachers are going to buy that lame excuse. But it gets better as Burr explains it was really all about trying to be the best he could be.

"I may have been a little overzealous, or overreached in trying to be the best reporter/syndicated columnist I could be," he said.

How exactly do you improve your writing skills by paying a ghost-writer? You don't. That's like Rosie Ruiz saying she wanted to be the best runner she could be by jumping into the race a half-mile before the finish line.

If he really wanted to improve his writing he could have taken some courses or asked a better writer to mentor him. But since he didn't do the hard work of actually improving his own skills, he finds himself unemployed at 52 - and his skills are still mediocre.