Deadspin: Teen tricked Rovell on escort service/NBA lockout story

I think if Rovell wasn't so condescending and willing to declare what is and isn't proper Twitter etiquette or behavior, people (even Deadspin) would probably be more forgiving. He's a Twitter bully. I think that's obvious. And I think that probably plays into the motivation to dupe him.

I think there is obvious schadenfreude going on, in part because he doesn't make for a very sympathetic victim.

 

I don't think that's true. Financial reporters don't audit the companies they cover before reporting earnings numbers. Political reporters regurgitate all sorts of information from "White House sources" without verification. Science reporters don't re-run experiments before reporting on studies they've read. Journalists can claim plausible deniability to say they accurately reported on what those people said, even if those things turned out to be false, but that's sort of bullshit--I'm going to have less faith in a reporter for passing along false information, even if he had a name he could attribute to it.

 

Good analysis by a journalism prof at Auburn:

http://johncarvalhoau.tumblr.com/post/24583389554/the-fake-pimp-and-darren-rovell

 

Sorry to sidetrack things, but what was the Sons of Sam Horn episode about? (I searched for "Sons of Sam Horn" just now and came up empty.) Just curious.

 

I can totally see how in these days someone would run with it. Whose going to claim to be a pimp by name in print anyway? Who are you libeling? You aren't naming any names.

So you go with it. Hell, who knows? It might even be true.

 

He trolled for stories on Twitter and gets a response from a pimp and the bullshit meter doesn't go off? How many pimps are following Darren Rovell to see his tweets about the foie gras he has having at a NYC restaurant?

 

I think there are some reporters with broken bullshit meters.

I think there are some who disable theirs and are all-too-willing to fall back on "I am just printing was this person told me."

 

Assuming Rovell fits into one of these categories, does it matter which one it is?

Regardless of intention, the outcome was still the same.

 

I don't think either is good. The second is probably worse.