Globe Columnist Steps Down

Friday's Boston Globe features what the newspaper says will be the final column it carries from metro columnist Patrica Smith. It's an open apology - for making up people and quotes in four of her columns.

The newspaper says Smith resigned Thursday, after being asked to do so by the paper's editor, Matthew V. Storin

In her column Friday, she apologized to everyone who has ever read her column and to her father, who taught her the love of storytelling. "... it is much too late to apologize to him for compromising that love. But it's not too late to apologize to you," writes Smith to the public.

She goes on to say that an ever-present need to overachieve drove her to "tweak" stories in order to create "the desired impact" and "jolt" the reader. "From time to time in my metro column, to create the desired impact or slam home a salient point, I attributed quotes to people who didn't exist."

Smith, who has won awards for her columns, is also a well-known poet.

She contends that none of the columns considered for the American Society of Newspaper Editors award or this year's Pulitzer Prize were doctored in any way.