Rafael Ramos update

Still no reaction from La Vanguardia re my query of last Wednesday, documented here. Are ethics something of a sore point for them? When John Chappell exposed plagiarism by Màrius Serra, another of their writers, the paper’s ombudsman basically told him to go away and do penance for being a bellicose Anglo-Saxon. I was initially surprised by the lack of editorial comment on the Jayson Blair scandal–why miss a chance to do down the Americans?–I’m beginning to wonder whether this was out of solidarity.

Update 2003/05/23

I asked Ramos for comment on Tuesday. Neither he nor the original La Vanguardia address I wrote to has responded, so last night I wrote to the paper’s ombudsman. After spending 15 minutes this morning looking through other Ramos pieces, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that:
1) His work is a rehash, almost always uncredited, of pieces from The Times and (less frequently) The Guardian. Both these organs are, of course, available from newsagents in Spain and over the internet.
2) He does not live (and probably never has lived) in London (or the UK), although he may take a weekend break there every now and again.

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