Wednesday, January 16, 2013

SINCE 1975, NO OTHER NOTRE DAME PLAYER HAS CARRIED OFF A HOAX LIKE THIS:  Manti Te'o, wow. Tremendous reporting by Deadspin, which I'm assuming will hold up.

on the other hand: Especially given the vehemence of Notre Dame's efforts to defend him, I am not willing to dismiss the possibility that a gullible Te'o fell in love with someone he met online, told lies about having met in person out of embarrassment, and then got scammed on the whole death thing when she decided to hurt him, or just as a way to end it, or ... well, we'll see.

19 comments:

  1. The Pathetic Earthling5:43 PM

    http://www.theonion.com/articles/canadian-girlfriend-unsubstantiated,1484/

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  2. Jordan6:14 PM

    ESPN is saying that it was a hoax on Te'o: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8851033/story-manti-teo-girlfriend-death-apparently-hoax but after reading the Deadspin piece earlier, it's hard to believe he wasn't in on it. You'd think ESPN would have figured it out months ago when they did follow up while reporting...oh wait, never mind.

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  3. girard317:06 PM

    I've always been suspect of that whole "Gipper" thing as well.

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  4. Meghan8:29 PM

    Notre Dame. No(tre) Dame. No dame. There we go.


    My favorite Twitter response was the one that said Brent Musberger still thinks she's hot though. Ha ha. Anything that rips on both Notre Lame and Musberger is a win in my book.

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  5. isaac_spaceman9:25 PM

    I only watched the first quarter of the Alabama game, but after that, I wasn't sure if Manti Te'o existed either.

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  6. Randy9:28 PM

    "She cooks like my mother and sucks like a Hoover..."

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  7. MidwestAndrew10:09 PM

    Lance Armstrong just got a great idea on a way to spin the whole "steroids" thing. "It's an elaborate hoax by Oprah! I promise! I swear I was the victim in this whole thing!"

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  8. Marsha10:22 AM

    Lester Munson from ESPN was interviewed on our local NPR morning news show today, and he couldn't say enough complimentary things about the Deadspin reporting. Tt's a very compelling piece, and if this really is Te'o getting scammed, then he is a very, very gullible dude. That said, the Deadspin piece shows evidence that "Lennay" was used to scam others before Te'o.....I'll definitely be following this.

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  9. Sophietje11:18 AM

    My favorite twitter response was something like "Real people play 'fantasy football', so it makes sense that football player play 'fantasy real person' "

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  10. Heather K12:30 PM

    I'm fascinated by this both if it is a hoax on everyone or on Te'o. I mean it's kind of a sad story either way although for very different reasons.

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  11. ESPN actually crediting Deadspin on this is one of the more interesting things of this to me. ESPN has been pretty horrible on sourcing work by other people in the past (which Deadspin has actually been on them about) so for out WWL to note who did the actual work (as they should) is interesting.

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  12. Marsha12:46 PM

    Well, Munson credited them. Not sure that's the same as ESPN crediting them. Though Munson did make a point of noting that there's no love lost between Deadspin and ESPN.

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  13. ESPN.com has been crediting them from the beginning in their online coverage; no idea about the network.

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  14. Clay Travis from Outkick the Coverage provides some really well-done followup.

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  15. Fred App2:34 PM

    As someone who has spent 30 years as a professional journalist, I say that I am disappointed but not surprised. For two reasons.

    First, reporters (especially in these days of small staffs) are asked to churn out a large number of stories in a short amount of time, and they neither have the time nor often the inclination to fact-check as thoroughly as they should.

    Secondly, reporters are forever chasing the "good story," and when they find it -- even if it sounds too good to be true -- they often look the other way. That's especially true for sportswriters, where covering a team game-in and game-out can start sounding monotonous if they can't continually dig up new angles. I think one reason that so many reporters looked the other way at the allegations at Lance Armstrong was that they didn't want to ruin the good "Lance overcomes cancer and becomes world champion" narrative.

    It's important to note that as much as we praise Deadspin for their reporting, they didn't start looking into it until they got a tip. It's not like they were somehow more conscientious than anyone else.

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  16. Dan F4:22 PM

    I had ESPNEWS's SportsCenter on last night, around 7 p.m. when nobody had any follow-up reporting ready, and they were great about credit. The anchor repeatedly said "According to the Deadspin report", "Deadspin's source", and such. Very fun for this Deadspin reader.

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  17. Does any writer for any newspaper anywhere start looking into a story without a tip?

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  18. isaac_spaceman5:24 PM

    Any sense that ESPN is more willing to credit Deadspin since Daulerio left? I always had the impression that ESPN's disdain for Deadspin was 95% for the (Daulerio-spearheaded) outing of affairs involving off-camera personnel to expose the hypocrisy of ESPN's handling of affairs involving on-camera talent and 3% because of the "you're with me, leather" thing (with the other 2% "miscellaneous"). With Daulerio gone (and, as of last week, gone from Gawker, period) and Deadspin being less in ESPN's face, I can see why there might be a thaw.

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  19. Not a bad thought, Isaac, and makes sense since it's not like Deadspin has let up on ESPN since Daulerio left. They're just not as obnoxious about it.

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