Manti Te'o a fraud?

[ChicosBailBonds]

This can't be. NDers are perfect in every way. Just ask them.

Only people that perpetuate that claim are non NDers

[ChicosBailBonds]

THAT IS AWESOME!!!

[TallTitan34]

Nice summary here:
http://outkickthecoverage.com/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend-breaks-the-internet.php

[TallTitan34]

Buy that t-shirt here:
http://boston.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/play-like-you-had-a-fake-dead-girlfriend-shirts-now-on-sale/

[reinko]

Read the twitter feed of @justinrmegahan of the past 18 hours, more sleuthing

[real chili 83]

SB Trib is in big time denial.  Too funny.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/sbt-legacy-just-one-aspect-at-risk-20130116,0,4330042.column

[StillAWarrior]

+1. Again, people complain about MU's PR... This effort was a thousand times worse.

Also, I hope ND and Te'o realize that the sports media is going to find out every possible detail of the story. If you're not telling the truth or if something is being covered up, it will be found.

Beyond the implications for Te'o and ND, the second huge part of this is how bad the media was played. SI, ESPN, and alike look like fools. Deadspin embarrassed them.

This is one of the most interesting things about the story to me.  I suspect that ND does realize this and yet they still went "all in" behind Te'o.  Now that the story is out, it honestly should not be terribly difficult to determine whether or not Te'o was involved.  Either ND is amazingly stupid in this, or they are 100% convinced based upon the results of the investigation that they commissioned that Te'o wasn't involved.

Swarbrick deferred questions about the inaccuracies in the story to Te'o.  I suspect that the official story is going to be that when Swarbrick and Te'o talked, Te'o admitted that he lied and embellished the story about the relationship.  Swarbrick knows Te'o lied and is leaving that for Te'o to explain.  But, they're going to insist that he was duped and there should be plenty of electronic fingerprints that will either confirm or disprove that.

Whether the press conference was a PR debacle will be revealed in the future. It Te'o was involved, then the presser was a huge mistake and ND will, at best, have egg on its face (at worst will appear complicit).  But, if the inevitable investigations prove that Te'o was not involved, I think the presser was a a good idea because it had the desired effect:  people who initially were convinced that Te'o had to be involved are noticing that ND is convinced that he is not and are taking more of a wait and see approach.

The press is going to work really hard to keep the focus on what a strange and bizarre story this is in the hopes of deflecting attention from the fact that they really blew it on this story.

[mu03eng]

+1. Again, people complain about MU's PR... This effort was a thousand times worse.

Also, I hope ND and Te'o realize that the sports media is going to find out every possible detail of the story. If you're not telling the truth or if something is being covered up, it will be found.

Beyond the implications for Te'o and ND, the second huge part of this is how bad the media was played. SI, ESPN, and alike look like fools. Deadspin embarrassed them.

The Big Lead is siting two sources that say ESPN knew about the story 11 days ago(2 before the NC game) and didn't publish because "they couldn't confirm".  Once the initial shock of the story and focus on Te'o I wonder how quickly the attention will turn to the media outlets complicity in this whether intentional or not.

ESPN had every reason to squash the story before the NC game, which adds yet more evidence that they are not any better than TMZ and not an actual news organization.  Even if I buy 2 days wasn't enough time to vet the death of the girlfriend, you can't do it in 10 days???  Strikes me as lacking in integrity that ESPN will apologize less than 24 hours after Brent Musberger points out that a hot girl is hot, but drags it's feet about an explosive story that involves it's own television coverage.

[StillAWarrior]

Even if I buy 2 days wasn't enough time to vet the death of the girlfriend, you can't do it in 10 days???

I heard the Deadspin writer on the radio last night.  He said that they got an anonymous email last Friday and that started the ball rolling.  So Deadspin managed to publish a fairly detailed story in five days after being tipped off.  He mentioned that their big "break" was discovering the identity of the girl in the pictures, but I didn't hear how they found that information.  So, conceivably if you didn't get that break, it might have been a lot harder to put the story together.  But with ESPN's resources, I can't imagine why they couldn't have moved with a story at least as fast as Deadspin.

[GGGG]

I heard the Deadspin writer on the radio last night.  He said that they got an anonymous email last Friday and that started the ball rolling.  So Deadspin managed to publish a fairly detailed story in five days after being tipped off.  He mentioned that their big "break" was discovering the identity of the girl in the pictures, but I didn't hear how they found that information.  So, conceivably if you didn't get that break, it might have been a lot harder to put the story together.  But with ESPN's resources, I can't imagine why they couldn't have moved with a story at least as fast as Deadspin.

Are you surprised at this?  Deadspin is more of a news organization than ESPN is....and that's pretty sad.

[RJax55]

The Big Lead is siting two sources that say ESPN knew about the story 11 days ago(2 before the NC game) and didn't publish because "they couldn't confirm".  Once the initial shock of the story and focus on Te'o I wonder how quickly the attention will turn to the media outlets complicity in this whether intentional or not.

ESPN had every reason to squash the story before the NC game, which adds yet more evidence that they are not any better than TMZ and not an actual news organization.  Even if I buy 2 days wasn't enough time to vet the death of the girlfriend, you can't do it in 10 days???  Strikes me as lacking in integrity that ESPN will apologize less than 24 hours after Brent Musberger points out that a hot girl is hot, but drags it's feet about an explosive story that involves it's own television coverage.

ESPN ceased being a journalistic entity long ago. Instead of reporting and questioning, ESPN is much more interested in creating or managing a story. The fact that the most power sports media company has basically ceded investigative reporting to Yahoo! and Deadspin, tells you all you need to know about the company ethos. And, I don't expect ESPN to provide a follow-up on how they covered the story. They are much more interested in finding a new race baiter to appear on First Take and trying to sell America on the merits of Skip Bayless.

[StillAWarrior]

Are you surprised at this?  Deadspin is more of a news organization than ESPN is....and that's pretty sad.

Not at all...just providing some context for mu03eng's post.  We all "know" that ESPN could have put the story together in 10 days, but the fact that Deadspin actually did is pretty conclusive proof.

[mu03eng]

ESPN ceased being a journalistic entity long ago. Instead of reporting and questioning, ESPN is much more interested in creating or managing a story. The fact that the most power sports media company has basically ceded investigative reporting to Yahoo! and Deadspin, tells you all you need to know about the company ethos. And, I don't expect ESPN to provide a follow-up on how they covered the story. They are much more interested in finding a new race baiter to appear on First Take and trying to sell America on the merits of Skip Bayless.

Agreed, and I think with the proliferation of sports networks that will start to take content away from ESPN they are looking shaky in the next 5-10 years.  For the last 15 years they've been pretty much the only game in town if you aren't the NFL for content delivery.  The general consensus is their news content sucks, so once they start losing games to other networks, why would people go to ESPN?

[StillAWarrior]

ESPN ceased being a journalistic entity long ago. Instead of reporting and questioning, ESPN is much more interested in creating or managing a story. The fact that the most power sports media company has basically ceded investigative reporting to Yahoo! and Deadspin, tells you all you need to know about the company ethos. And, I don't expect ESPN to provide a follow-up on how they covered the story. They are much more interested in finding a new race baiter to appear on First Take and trying to sell America on the merits of Skip Bayless.

Glad to see some love for Yahoo! out there.  I've been reading comments saying that Deadspin is the last bastion of real sports journalism, but Yahoo! has done some great work recently.  In my opinion, they're probably the best.

[jficke13]

Deadspin has it's instances of Media-Lemming Syndrome, but they at least have taken on the role of criticizing the media more than not. A good example is the weekly destruction of the utterly without a single redeeming quality TMQ article.

[mu03eng]

Not at all...just providing some context for mu03eng's post.  We all "know" that ESPN could have put the story together in 10 days, but the fact that Deadspin actually did is pretty conclusive proof.

Plus this is the second time ESPN has sat on a story, Bernie Fine being the other.  At some point this is all going to start impacting TWWL.

In a more broad context, I hope but am not counting on, this whole thing being a wake up call to media in general to slow down a step, vet stories and general report info not conjecture and fluffy.  I'm thinking it won't happen because there is no one to hold their feet to the fire and twitter and the public will have moved on within the next 12 hours.

[GGGG]

So we know Te'o is a liar....either he lied earlier about meeting the girlfriend in person.  Or he is now lying about him being deceived.  Either way, why is Swarbrick doing a press conference???

[jficke13]

In a more broad context, I hope but am not counting on, this whole thing being a wake up call to media in general to slow down a step, vet stories and general report info not conjecture and fluffy.  I'm thinking it won't happen because there is no one to hold their feet to the fire and twitter and the public will have moved on within the next 12 hours.

No chance. All you gotta do is say "sources tell us..." and you're covered! (at least that's what passes for journalism these days).

They should take a page from the anti-doping folks and strip everyone's pulitzer who has won one since twitter was invented.

[GGGG]

Plus this is the second time ESPN has sat on a story, Bernie Fine being the other.  At some point this is all going to start impacting TWWL.

In a more broad context, I hope but am not counting on, this whole thing being a wake up call to media in general to slow down a step, vet stories and general report info not conjecture and fluffy.  I'm thinking it won't happen because there is no one to hold their feet to the fire and twitter and the public will have moved on within the next 12 hours.

They report conjecture and fluffy because the public eats it up.

[mu03eng]

So we know Te'o is a liar....either he lied earlier about meeting the girlfriend in person.  Or he is now lying about him being deceived.  Either way, why is Swarbrick doing a press conference???

According to Pat Forde(Yahoo), an ND source said Swarbrick's whole goal was to put all the inconsistencies on Te'o.  I think it was clear he was trying to do that, but I agree it ultimately was a terrible idea, especially answering questions.  At the end of the day, ND came out and said we knew something was up December 26th and had a "complete" answer 3 days before the NC game but did nothing about it.  Also opens up all sorts of angles for people to resurrect the Declin Sullivan and Lizze Seeburg fiascos.

[mu03eng]

They report conjecture and fluffy because the public eats it up.

I know and it's just depressing

[StillAWarrior]

No chance. All you gotta do is say "sources tell us..." and you're covered! (at least that's what passes for journalism these days).

On a related note, that is what I find so remarkable about the ND press conference.  It would have been very easy for Swarbrick to say, "Our initial investigation suggests that Manti Te'o may have been a victim of an elaborate hoax..."  I would have expected lots of wiggle words.

I am truly stunned that ND was so unequivocal in its support of Te'o.  There are only two options here:  1) ND is 100% convinced that Te'o was duped, or 2) ND is complicit in covering this up.  Given how easy it will be to find the truth, my money is on option No. 1.  That doesn't mean they're right, but I have little doubt that ND genuinely believes it.

[GGGG]

According to Pat Forde(Yahoo), an ND source said Swarbrick's whole goal was to put all the inconsistencies on Te'o.  

The press release did that...there was no need to actually appear in front of a camera.  

[StillAWarrior]

According to Pat Forde(Yahoo), an ND source said Swarbrick's whole goal was to put all the inconsistencies on Te'o.  I think it was clear he was trying to do that, but I agree it ultimately was a terrible idea, especially answering questions.

I agree.

[mu03eng]

On a related note, that is what I find so remarkable about the ND press conference.  It would have been very easy for Swarbrick to say, "Our initial investigation suggests that Manti Te'o may have been a victim of an elaborate hoax..."  I would have expected lots of wiggle words.

I am truly stunned that ND was so unequivocal in its support of Te'o.  There are only two options here:  1) ND is 100% convinced that Te'o was duped, or 2) ND is complicit in covering this up.  Given how easy it will be to find the truth, my money is on option No. 1.  That doesn't mean they're right, but I have little doubt that ND genuinely believes it.

I would agree with 1 more if ND didn't sit on it.  I mean sweet jebus they could have gotten out in front of this 2 days after the game and spun a whole Te'o is a victim, was rattled by this and hence the poor play of the team and may have gotten a ton of sympthay from fans.  Instead they are a step behind and look like they are playing catch up.  And again Deadspin had 6 days to pull this story together and did so pretty thoroughly it seems.  ND had a 2 week jump on them and still gets caught with their pants down.  This says a lot about Swarbrick.