It wasn't that long ago — March 18, to be exact, when this column was devoted to the subject of people who try to play asinine little stunts on newspapers.

The headline was "Pranks usually aren't funny."

Well, what happened in The Daily Star's editions of April 8 went a bit further than a mere prank such as signing a phony name to a letter-to-the-editor.

And no, I didn't think it was at all funny.

I won't recount all the details here because we have already done that, perhaps ad nauseam. But for those of you who may have been out of town or just missed reading the newspaper for a few days, here's the gist.

At the suggestion of a Hartwick College official who thought it might make a good story, The Daily Star assigned a reporter to interview a 27-year-old Hartwick sophomore who said he had spent his spring break training military policemen at Fort Drum for duty in Iraq.

The reporter interviewed the man and also talked to someone claiming to be a staff sergeant at Fort Drum who backed up the student's story.

The story ran on Page 1 of the April 8 paper along with a photo of the man in his Hartwick dormitory room showing off what he claimed was a military-issue M-4 assault rifle.

We found out the next day that the young man had fabricated virtually his whole story — both to the college and to the newspaper. He had not trained anybody at Fort Drum and had apparently gotten an acquaintance to back up his story.

For that matter, for all I know, he might have used another voice himself to call our reporter and pretend to be the staff sergeant.

He has been charged by Oneonta police for having the gun on school property and could receive as much as a year in jail. He has been suspended by Hartwick, pending possible further disciplinary action.

As the painful truth that we had been hoodwinked by this guy became apparent to us at The Daily Star on April 8, there were important decisions that had to be made.

How do we tell our readers? Where should we play the story or stories about the episode? It was obvious to Managing Editor Cary Brunswick and me that this kind of thing could not be handled in our usual Page 5 space for corrections.

It was decided that the reporter who wrote the initial story should do another one — correcting all the erroneous information — and I would do a commentary telling our readers how it all happened.

Daily Star President and Publisher Dan Swift was consulted, and he, of course, agreed that the only policy was to be as up front and honest as possible. Both the story and my commentary were prominently played on the front page of the April 9 Daily Star.

I am convinced that we reacted properly. Oh, we took our lumps from some quarters. A few local folks seemed to take a bit of pleasure in our discomfort, but others said they admired how we admitted our errors.

The incident was reported in Jim Romenensko's Poynter Institute media website — probably the most popular among national journalists.

I then heard from several journalists from around the country. Some I knew from this and other newspapers where I have worked, and they all called or e-mailed with words of encouragement.

I also heard from some prominent journalists and journalism professors I didn't know personally. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive.

One person who described himself as "a former longtime journalist who teaches ethics in journalism and works in public relations," wrote this:

"I expect there may be a lot of humble pie eating going on in your newsroom. However, having read the original story and then your commentary, I wanted to give you my two cents. You turned an embarrassing mistake into a truly remarkable story for your readers to hold onto. You admitted the newspaper's mistake, and in so doing, boosted your credibility tenfold.

"I found your column a classic example of what newspapers do best: staying in touch with their readers at all costs. I kept waiting for you to badmouth this phony baloney who tricked your reporter. But you didn't do that. I am sure your readers respect you for that."

I certainly hope the man was right, because our readers' respect is so precious to all of us.

We made mistakes. We did a lot right in preparing the story, but we didn't do enough. We've looked at our procedures and we've talked about being more vigilant.

I got a phone call April 11 from Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, who writes what is probably the most popular column about the media in the country. He included a short item about us in his column the following Monday. The first thing he asked was did I know why this hoaxster did what he did.

I told him I didn't. With all his problems with the college and his legal woes, the man has seemed to have given up an awful lot just to get his name and picture in the paper.

I would like to think that the next time some poor soul tries to pull a fast one on this newspaper, we will do a better job, no matter how elaborate the hoax.

I would really like to think that.

Questions from readers are more than welcome. E-mail Sam Pollak at spollak@thedailystar.com or write to him at P.O. Box 250. Oneonta, NY 13820.