CHICAGO TV CRITIC FIRED FOR FAKING REVIEW

Paige Wiser, the television critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, has been fired after writing a review of a “Glee Live!” concert, part of which she never saw. She told the newspaper that she brought her 6- and 7-year-old kids to the concert, one of whom became sick during the performance “What I should have done was written that I had to leave early, but I didn’t want to let the paper down, so I tried to make the review seem complete. … So it was a lie.” In a separate interview with the Chicago Tribune‘s media critic Phil Rosenthal, Wiser expressed regret that her colleagues at the Sun-Times had to devote time to the fiasco when they are already burdened by additional workload due to recent cutbacks. “There’s a lot of running on the treadmill and losing ground, and I’m exhausted and to try to have kids and do this is really tough,” she said. “But I don’t want to make it sound as though that’s an excuse because there’s no excuse for doing something stupid.” The Sun-Times removed Wiser’s review from its website and posted a note from Editor-in-Chief Don Hayner, who wrote, “Accuracy and honesty in reporting are essential parts of the promise we make to our readers. We regret the incident and apologize.”