Carl Spackler Lives: There was a brief to-do about the story of a sports journalist who made up a quote. Here's the WSJ weighing in:

Gregory M. Jones, the sports editor of the Roswell Daily Record in New Mexico, was fired recently for inserting a quote from the movie "Caddyshack" into a news story about a Father's Day golf tournament. Unlike Messrs. Blair and Glass, Mr. Jones didn't bother inventing an interesting character or a killer quote; he simply stole one from Hollywood.

Bored with the facts, the 24-year-old editor cited the words of Carl Spackler , the demented but lovable groundskeeper brought to life by Bill Murray in the 1980 comedy classic. What exactly did Carl say to our young reporter at the Father's Day tournament? That he had invented a new kind of "grass" for the event.

Here's the quote (note that Mr. Jones calls him Spangler, presumably to lend an air of authenticity to the citation): "This is a hybrid . . . of bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, featherbed bent and Northern California sinsemilla,' said Spangler. 'The amazing thing about this, is that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on the stuff."

Jones's defense:

"I was trying to be light and breezy," he told an AP reporter after his dismissal. "I was trying to put out a story that people might like to read."

Well I, for one, am with him all the way. This is harmless fun -- and it's a sports story, for god's sake. It's not like he went to a summit meeting and faked a quote from some bEurocrat who claimed to be "not amused by the President Bush's attempts at levity by making armpit-fart noises whenever Jacques Chirac tried to speak." The WSJ takes a haughtily ironic tone, transparently pretending to support Jones's shot at lightening up the news by offering other silly suggestions. Humbug. Somebody give Jones a goddamn Pulitzer.