Mayor created fake identity to write positive stories about town for area newspapers

By Dylan Stableford | The Cutline
Nov. 12, 2011

The mayor of a Salt Lake City, Utah, suburb has confessed to creating a fake name to write stories for area newspapers in order to disseminate "good news" about his town.

West Valley Mayor Mike Winder admitted he used the name Richard Burwash to contribute more than a dozen stories over a two-year span. Winder got his falsely bylined pieces published by the Deseret News, Oquirrh Times and on KSL.com. KSL-5 News also reported that a photo taken by Winder--but credited to R. Burwash--appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune in October 2010.

Winder quoted himself in his stories and used anonymous city employees as sources, Deseret News said.

Winder created a fake email account for Richard Burwash to communicate with his editors and pretended to be Burwash in phone conversations with them. He even created a faux Facebook profile for his pen-name, taking a photo from a Google image search.

The mayor also admitted that one of the stories published was written by his sister.

"There will be people who will be disappointed in me because of this," Winder told KSL-5. "But there will also be people who respect me for putting my neck on the line to get good coverage for our city."

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