Deadspin: Is an ESPN columnist scamming people on the Internet?

I don't know why, either, but it's fascinating.

 

Yes.

For 90 percent of narrative/"investigative" sports stories.

This is a story about media in the Internet age, that also touches on social media's impact and the fact that a major conglomerate like ESPN can get nailed by a clever scam artist. It's obviously struck a nerve with readers and media consumers, if the Intertubes' various blogs and Tweets about it are to be believed.

It's interesting and insightful. It's outside the box. It's not the standard fare we've all sen a million times, it's not just some overwrought piece about how some freaking high school football team has "helped a community!" or some kid who plays sports has done a bunch of charity work, or how important it is that we like watching people play games.

 

It's fascinating to me, because it just seems unfathomable, a major player like ESPN would hire a anonymous messageboard poster - pretty much sight unseen - without doing much of a background check.
I would love to find out more about the hiring process. Is this out of the ordinary?
Is Hoppes that gullible to believe an internet poster is who and what they say they are without checking?
And that this person, real, fake or a composite of people would continue doing what they are doing while holding down a legitimate and potentially lucrative and high(er)-profile job?

 

This is exactly it. It's just like the Jayson Blair or Stephen Glass situations. An editor or publication decides someone is a star and nothing matters after that, all evidence to the contrary.

 

Az needs more context.

 

I only wish The Plain Dealer were so cavalier with its hiring practices.

 

This just isn't an interesting story.

How could it possibly move the needle the same way as Mitt Romney Bank Account Intrigue?!?!?!

 

Az needs for it to be about someone/something other than ESPN.

A real blind spot for him.

 

This just seems insane... When I started freelancing for ESPN in 1999, I had pretty extensive phone conversations with 2-3 editors there and I never did anything of substance for them. It was all preview boxes and crap like that, not that I'm complaining because the pay was absurd.

I interviewed for a NFL blogger job there. I maintain that I was never a serious candidate even though I had three phone interviews. They never brought me in and there was never serious talk about bringing me in to interview. The guy who they hired was such a no-brainer that I wasn't even upset when I didn't get it. But they were so thorough, even for a fringe candidate, that it blows my mind that they could be so careless with someone for a much higher-profile gig.

 

This is the most Mizzou post ever.

 

Deadspin deserves big-time kudos for this story. would have liked a stronger nut graf higher in the original story but a very minor quibble. Thought it was a page-turner.
And how in god's name does ESPN hire ANYONE without an in-person interview?? Seems like their pursuit of hipness bit them in the ass big-time. IMO this is worse internal failure than the Lin headline.

 

It's narrative journalism. No nutgraph. Not any moreso than, say, a movie has a nut graph. You just have to read it.

OK, back to discussion of the story and not of the craft.