Anyone surprised by this?

Is it even news anymore to find out that a reporter is making stuff up?

A longtime columnist of the Sacramento Bee who resigned amid controversy last month may have invented the existence of 43 people she wrote about over several years, an internal investigation found.

I've read many newspaper articles which contained interviews that seemed to very conveniently match the slant of the article. I always attributed that to an assumption that they did dozens of interviews and just selected the ones supporting their position. Turns out I was wrong. They just make up fictional people and interview them. I suppose it cuts down on the leg work. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I don't think she is the only reporter playing this game.