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Dr. V's magical putter

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!, Jan 15, 2014.

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  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    I've read the story, thank you. And, I've gone back over it.

    Hannan needlessly outed the woman. No one at Grantland thought there was anything wrong with that.

    And, we're emphatically told that Hannan did nothing else unethical:

    He never, at any time, threatened to out her on Grantland. He was reporting a story and verifying discrepancy issues with her background. That’s it. Just finding out facts and asking questions. This is what reporters do. She had been selling a “magical” putter by touting credentials that didn’t exist. Just about everything she had told Caleb, at every point of his reporting process, turned out not to be true. There was no hounding. There was no badgering. It just didn’t happen that way.

    If Caleb had already outed her to her investor, how could she not have been terrified he would out her to others, including the general public?

    And, we still don't know that the investor is the only person he outed her to either -- since he hasn't answered any questions.
     
  2. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Sure, we've had a debate.

    But, big time sportswriter but the term in quotes, because he thought it was silly to even have a debate. To him it was a "debate".
     
  3. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Nearly everyone has acknowledged that he should not have outed her to the investor. But he didn't do it maliciously. And only your reading of it seems to find that he did it with glee. You're reaching on this one. And I will almost guarantee that she never knew he had mentioned it to the investor. As someone else said, all of her lies were unraveling, and that is likely the biggest reason she took the extreme step of taking her own life.

    And what in the Grantland apology that you cited above do you disagree with. He was asking questions because it was his job to verify the facts. And he could not. Do you not understand what reporters do?
     
  4. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    I wonder if the investor contacted Dr. V after Caleb told him.
     
  5. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Why would he? He was not dissatisfied with the product or the relationship other than that she could be difficult to work with. It's highly unlikely anyone would call a person right away after finding out something like that. But let's ask YF. He knows everyone's motives and thought processes.
     
  6. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Let's remember a time when being transgendered got you sympathy on SportsJournalists.com.

    Sports reporter to undergo sex change: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/40676/

    Topic: Christine Daniels -- Apparently, it didn't take: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/62624/

    Topic: RIP Mike Penner: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/74653/

    Maybe we just sympathize with the sportswriter, whether they're transgendered, or whether they are outing a transgendered woman.
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    As was previously pointed out, he wasn't just an investor. He was -- at least by his own description -- the VP of Marketing for YAR Golf. I'm going to guess they spoke once in a while:

     
  8. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    To Caleb he may have been cool but that doesn't mean he didn't want answers too. Maybe he did call and maybe he said Caleb outed her and it freaked her out and made her think the secret was going to be exposed to the public.
     
  9. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Again, trying to assign blame and decide what our thought processes are. I can feel sympathy for Dr. V's difficult life and death and still believe the writer did nothing wrong in writing this story. You are SO hung up on the outing aspect of this story that you can't see anything else. That is a very small part of this story, and whether you think it matters or not, she was dead when she was outed. And as your own citation previous to this one points out, she was never threatened with outing or anything of the sort. Her story, and her life, unraveled in a tragic fashion. I don't sympathize with the reporter even a little bit. But I am not calling for an apology for doing his job as a reporter.
     
  10. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    It's definitely possible, but I would bet against it. Not sure anybody knows.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm not sure what the point is. I certainly sympathize with trans-gendered people. That said, my support of an individual trans-gendered person's decision is likely to be extended on a case-by-case basis. I don't know a ton about it. I know the process entails a lot of psychological counseling. I know the New Yorker piece was convincing regarding whether we are too quick to support teens who jump into this.

    You think it's hypocritical that trans-genders din't receive the amount of media coverage that gays do. There is a civil rights debate driving the coverage of gay rights. It has been to the Supreme Court. What is the trans-gender analogue? We are all in agreement that they shouldn't be murdered.
     
  12. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Kinney's letter sounds like a bad infomercial testimonial.
     
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