By: E&P Staff Dave Ramsey, the best-selling author, sent financial columns to newspapers in which the identities of those seeking help were duplicated or falsified, according to The Tennessean in Nashville.
As a result, that newspaper and four other papers owned by Gannett Co., are dropping the column.
Ramsey's program is syndicated to more than 200 stations nationwide. He said he was not aware of the problem until a Tennessean reporter contacted him. ''That's something that shouldn't be happening,'' Ramsey said. He apologized for what he described as a mistake by a lower-level employee, adding that his company would refund money received from newspapers for the repeat columns, at least 15 in number.
Besides his radio program and newspaper columns, Ramsey is the author of three best-selling books. His company, the Lampo Group, "employs 90 people involved in work from financial counseling and workshops to supporting Ramsey's live events schedule," according to The Tennessean.
"Concerns about the column emerged recently when a copy editor for the News Star, a Gannett newspaper in Monroe, La., discovered that a column submitted for the May 25 newspaper was nearly identical to one the paper ran on Sept. 23, featuring a question from a 'Steve in Monroe, N.C.' The only difference in the new column was that the questioner was identified as 'Steve in Joplin, Mo.'"
Further investigation revealed at least seven other instances of questions duplicated using different names.
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