LOCAL MAN FESSES UP TO TAKING HUMORIST'S BYLINE IN VAIN.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

Question: What do renowned humor columnist Dave Barry and a Eugene hospital advocate have in common?

Answer: A lesson in misrepresentation.

Rob Zako, a member of a group opposed to PeaceHealth's plans to build a $400 million hospital in Springfield, has apologized for passing himself off as the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer in a column he distributed last month.

The fraudulent column got swept onto the Internet, and Barry asked Zako for - and received - an apology and clarification.

"It's annoying," Barry said Monday. "I calmed down after I exchanged e-mail with him, and I realized he meant no harm. He probably didn't realize when you do something like that, nothing ever leaves the Internet."

Zako is a member of the Coalition for Health Options in Central Eugene-Springfield, or CHOICES, which wants PeaceHealth to relocate Sacred Heart Medical Center in the urban core, not the suburban fringe.

For months, he has e-mailed newsletters that recap the latest on the project, which is expected to break ground next year pending the outcome of court challenges.

The newsletters go to 100 or so CHOICES subscribers and in each, Zako leads with his own thoughts, often critical of PeaceHealth's plans to move Sacred Heart across the river.

But he apparently crossed the line last month when he wrote and distributed a column and claimed that Barry had written it.

An excerpt:

"Sacred Heart is moving from Eugene to Springfield and McKenzie-Willamette is trying to move from Springfield to Eugene. So why don't the two hospitals simply swap facilities and save the community a total of $480 million? Because things are rarely simple in Oregon."

Springfield's McKenzie-Willamette hopes to avoid PeaceHealth's shadow by building an $80 million hospital elsewhere, with Eugene a likely destination.

Zako said he should have identified the column as parody but at the time, "it was just too tempting to pretend that the column was real, dropping enough hints that I thought people would recognize the column as a hoax."

Barry, a writer at The Miami Herald since 1983 and arguably the nation's best-known humor columnist, said people have sometimes put their names on his work, but he couldn't think of an example of someone putting his name on their work.

It wasn't the first time that a local person has tried his hand at Barry's style to ill effect: In 2001, a Springfield principal apologized after aping Barry in a back-to-school letter with over-the-top comments about students.

Barry e-mailed Zako, promising not to sue but requesting that Zako clarify who wrote the column.

"My career is my words," Barry wrote. "I work very hard on them; they're my job, my business, my life. By representing your words as mine, you tamper with that."

Zako sent the clarification e-mail to subscribers Sunday, with an apology.

"I regret crossing that line," Zako said. "It would have been better to say, `This is a parody intended for humor.' '

Barry, who said he considers the issue resolved, also offered a critique of Zako's imitation.

"He had actual information and a point, which was a fatal error," Barry said. "I would never have made that mistake."