From KCRW in Placement Theory, this is Question Everything. I'm Brian Reed.

Today in our show, an editor confronts a writer who he suspects of trickery.

I saw that you had a couple of pieces in pop sugar that I was trying to read, but I think they'd been removed.

Do you have any idea of what we're doing on there?

Oh, yeah. I think the editor who published the story and left the publication.

Stick around.

A little while back, I got connected with a journalist who'd found himself embroiled in a bit of a mystery.

Nicholas Hune Brown is an editor at an online magazine based in Toronto called The Local.

It does lots of local coverage to Toronto.

Not long before we were put in touch, Nick had put out a call for pitches from freelancers,

which is something he loved to do as an editor.

Welcome new writers

into the fold, give them a platform. And Nick got what he was looking for. A pitch came in

from a journalist in Toronto that sounded great at first. But then as he looked deeper at it,

and the journalist behind it, Nick began to suspect that this writer might not be who she seemed.

As he told us when we got put in touch, he soon became obsessed with this writer and finding out everything he could about her.

Here's Nick.

Looking for new writers is an important part of my job.

I want to bring in new people with new points of view, young writers or people from communities who aren't always represented in the media.

That's not out of any vague, high-minded idea about diversity.

It's good for the magazine.

It's how we find stories that others don't.

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