Journos, if you have any temptation to type the world "Pulitzer" on your résumé without actually coming close to winning one, think long and hard about how hard it will be to wipe the embarrassment off your name.  Today's fake Pulitzer nominee and the latest head on msnbc.com's Bill Dedman's mantle is Fox Business' Charles Gasparino. Gasparino, Dedman reports, claimed the nomination on his Fox bio and the "nomination" also appeared on his publisher's website, in a promotional video, and in a claim by his agents. 

Dedman has been on a fake Pulitzer tear of late, taking down Jonah Goldberg and most recently, Bloomberg's Betty Liu. Unlike Goldberg and Liu (Bloomberg quickly made us aware that it was a marketing error and not Liu's fault), Gasparino challenged Dedman, allowing for this teachable moment to all journalists out there:

"When asked on Tuesday in which year he was nominated, former boxer Gasparino jabbed back in a one-line email: "I was nominated by the wsj sir."

But the news organizations don't choose the Pulitzer nominees, any more than the record studios choose Grammy nominees. By Gasparino's reckoning, thousands of journalists each year could sell books and earn speaking fees by calling themselves "Pulitzer nominees."

Gasparino's resistance didn't last long and his bio now reflects the Dedman-inspired change (right). For the last time, submission and nominations are different things, people. And if you don't believe us, we're pretty sure msnbc.com's Bill Dedman will find you.

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Alexander Abad-Santos