Deadspin: Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend story was a hoax

This is good. Basically, it seems like Craggs is less troubled by the lack of investigative reporting in this story than the impulse to write fake Gary Smith stories in the first place. I think that he would say that getting a fact wrong is forgivable when it's given to you by a trusted source. Writing it up the way Thamel and others did? Not so forgivable.

What’s your reaction to the reality that no other journalists thought to look into this story? Well, I understand how this slipped through the cracks initially. If I’m a beat guy and I have 500 words to file after practice come hell or high water and the best player on the team has just told me a story about his dear, departed girlfriend, I’m not going to go spelunking through SSA death records to make sure he’s not full of shit. They won’t say that out loud in journalism classes or anything, but that’s just the nature of covering sports on a hard deadline.

I have less sympathy for the folks who crafted those painstaking “Love Story”-in-cleats feature stories about Manti and his dead girlfriend. Those were dumb, infantilizing stories to begin with, and they were executed poorly and sloppily, and if there’s any lesson to be drawn from this, it’s that this kind of simpering crap should be eliminated from the sports pages entirely.

 

Not if Notre Dame KNEW he had an agent before the NCG & still allowed him to play. Then they would have a whole lot of 'splainin to do...

 

When asked about his reaction to The Boston Globe calling Deadspin “a website that has broken some high-profile stories but not an outlet regarded for journalistic standards,” Craggs says: “Whatever. Why should I care what a craven, slipshod outfit like the Boston Globe thinks of my ‘journalistic standards’?”

Deadspin is awesome. Fuck yous to the Boston Globe and Donald Trump in the same day. Well done, gentlemen.

 

Notre Dame doesn't explain, it dictates.

 

People who can do those things cost more.

 

The thing is, I don't think Pete Thamel is making peanuts. I don't think Gene WoJo is making peanuts. These are two of the highest paid men in the business, I suspect.

 

I give Deadspin credit. They did a great job with the story, even though they still left some holes. But Jesus Christ, they're acting like the fourth-string offensive lineman who gets in during the fourth quarter of a blowout and lucks his way into a fumble recovery or something. Then stands up and waves around the football for five minutes as if he just saved the fucking world, only to retreat to the sidelines rarely to be heard from again.

Deadspin has spent the day calling out Donald Trump -- Donald fucking Trump!! -- for calling one of the authors by the wrong name. And posting a story about all the ways the media got the Te'o story wrong.

Sure. They beat everyone on the story, but they're making themselves look like dipshits in the process. I bet those guys are just a joy to work with.

 

Scocca came off like a consummate professional this morning on Scarborough. Blind squirrel finding a nut, I suppse.

 

I don't doubt it. I heard one of the authors (I can't remember which) on the radio last night and he seemed fine, too. But overall, the vibe coming from Deadspin today is one of "HAHAHAHAH WE GOT THE STORY LOOK AT US AND ALSO LOOK AT HOW BADLY YOU REAL MEDIA GUYS BOTCHED IT HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

Just a bad look. Not a huge deal. Par for the course from those guys, who I enjoy reading 95% of the time.

 

Just hand the ball to the ref and act like you've been there before.

 

Goes to nature of social media and believability online. Massive story for how old-school media outlets failed, and a blog nailed it.

Relevant for development of media.

 

That's the thing. They're rarely there.