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And Then You Win: Te'o And The Media

By Brian — January 17th, 2013 at 1:06 PM — 85 comments
Filed under:
  • lolnd
  • notre dame

I've been a little out of it the last few days. Not enough to not see every Manti Te'o fake dead girlfriend joke in the world come through my twitter feed, but out of it, more given to trying to keep various fluids in my nose than trying to figure out any deep takeaways from the fact that Notre Dame's star player had a fake internet girlfriend who fake internet died.

I had to get one in a hurry when I went on WTKA this morning, because everyone in the world is talking about it—I hopped into a minimart to grab something to eat and it was on, like, CNN. CNN 2012 is to CNN 1994 as TLC 2012 is to TLC 1994…

161812_slide[1]

cracked

…but it's a big deal when your fake girlfriend turns out dead, I guess. So the brain went and processed and came out with these things.

THIS IS NOT SURPRISING, PART I. We are talking about a Mormon guy from Hawaii who turned down USC to attend a Catholic school in South Bend, Indiana, that had not ever been remotely competitive in a BCS game because of… nice grass or something. A mural on a building. Whatever causes people to go to Notre Dame minus the "I'm Catholic" angle. He left Hawaii for South Bend, Indiana. Clearly this is a gullible man.

THIS IS NOT SURPRISING, PART II. What percentage of massively credulous undergraduate population of Notre Dame do you think has an internet girlfriend? All of them. Every last person participating in the annual Dillon Hall tickle fight has an internet girlfriend they have never met.

She is a princess from Sub-Saharan Africa currently in boarding school, and she doesn't care that by even communicating with Wallace Anglerson The Third she risks her inheritance—her very place in society—as long as you keep talking about how bad the last season of Battlestar Galactica was. It's love. Her name is "Angel," except in one of those clicky languages. Here is a picture of her.

black-cat[1]

Te'o would tell his friends about his internet girlfriend, and they would say "my internet girlfriend is hotter." Jimmy Clausen had two, the cad. Six weeks after graduation it gradually dawns on them that some of the men they hung out with were actually girls.

It would be weird if Manti Te'o didn't have a fake internet girlfriend hailing from somewhere far away from South Bend. If Notre Dame's nickname had been updated to reflect changes in student demographics they would be the Fightin' Lonely Credulous Nerds.

THIS IS NOT SURPRISING, PART III. As Jonathan Chait points out, it wouldn't be an inspiring story about a Notre Dame hero if it wasn't fiction:

Fake, schmaltzy inspirational tales are the essence of the culture of the program. The inspirational story of Knute Rockne and his dying player, George Gipp, became a famous movie that helped enshrine Notre Dame football in the culture. In reality, Rockne was an ethically dubious sports gambler, Gipp a pool hustler, and the main events of the story — Gipp’s dying wish to “win one for the Gipper,” Rockne’s inspirational halftime speech —never happened.

Likewise, Rudy is the inspirational story of a walk-on who overcame the odds to play football at Notre Dame, but the story is also filled with falsehoods. Rudy, by the way, turned out to be a stock scammer.

The only thing that's strange about this is that Te'o's grandmother is not only hale and hearty today but also manipulating Vegas lines with his grandson's collusion.

THIS IS NOT SURPRISING, PART IV… ACTUALLY THIS IS A LITTLE SURPRISING. For a while now Deadspin has been a weird mélange of athlete dong pics, Drew Magary trying to one-up himself until his columns are just lists of insults followed by exclamation points, and the best dang investigative journalism around*. (They've cut down on the wantonly-screwing-people-no-one's-ever-heard-of-in-a-petulant-fit since the departure of AJ Daulerio.)

The best example: A couple years ago Tommy Craggs published internal MLB financial documents that revealed small market teams—including the Marlins, recipients of a new publicly-funded stadium—were simply pocketing revenue-sharing money instead of using it to improve the product they put in front of their fans. This pissed MLB off so much they tried to sue the insurance company they came from to find the person who leaked the documents so they could sue him. When's the last time something a newspaper wrote caused a major league to go on a suing vendetta? I can't recall.

Anyway, the jarring thing is this story comes immediately after the baseball writers refused to vote anyone into the hall of fame for using the PEDs they studiously ignored for a decade. Meanwhile the following Legitimate Media Organizations ran with Te'o's Fake Dead Girlfriend:

1. Us.

2. You (Jack Dickey and Timothy Burke excepted)

3. Sports Illustrated.

4. ESPN

5. The South Bend Tribune

6. Bleacher Report

7. The Chicago Tribune

8. The Chicago Sun-Times

9. The Sporting News

10. USA Today

11. The Boston Globe

12. CBS Sports

13. The New York Post

14. NBC Sports/Notre Dame

15. Yahoo

16. The Associated Press

17. The Palm Beach Post

18. The Miami Herald

19. The Tampa Bay Times

20. Grantland

21. The Los Angeles Times

Go home newspapers, you're drunk.

If you're not going to call, to confirm, to make sure someone actually exists, what do you have left? If Deadspin has you beat on the low end and the high end, what is your purpose?

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”

― George Orwell

Remember when writers at regional Iowa papers looked down their nose at bloggers and their unverified voracity?

In the new "journalism of assertion," as the report calls it, information is offered with little time and little attempt to independently verify its voracity. [sic]

I don't either. Long time ago, in a different media place. The only people still pretending sportswriters aren't PR are the baseball writers, long may they stew in their curly-haired uselessness.

IN CONCLUSION

I have met my wife.

*[With apologies to Charles Robinson.]

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:19 PM
#2
AAB
Joined: 01/14/2009
MGoPoints: 7940
Orwell

Only pointing this out because of the subject of the post, but I think that Orwell quote is apocryphal.  Which, in context, is kinda funny.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:22 PM
#3
M-Wolverine
M-Wolverine's picture
Joined: 10/04/2009
MGoPoints: 42199
I'm am rarely surprised by what I see on here anymore.

But I never expected to see cosplay Black Cat on here. Particuarly not on the front page.

Not that I'm complaining....

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:37 PM
(Reply to #3) #4
JonSnow54
JonSnow54's picture
Joined: 08/26/2011
MGoPoints: 623
Wallace Anglerson The Third's

Wallace Anglerson The Third's girlfriend is hot!  Lucky dude.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:24 PM
#5
Bando Calrissian
Bando Calrissian's picture
Joined: 07/02/2008
MGoPoints: 60109
Don't forget that George

Don't forget that George Gipp's death, if memory serves (John Bacon wrote the definitive article about this, but it's been a while since I read it for his class), came as a result of him sleeping outside in the cold after a late night of gambling, booze, and women.  

A real profile in courage.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:42 PM
(Reply to #4) #6
Craig
Craig's picture
Joined: 07/30/2009
MGoPoints: 204
Sports media and Bacon's class

I'm sure that one could relate this back to American Exceptionalism, Max Weber and Sports Space! In fact, I bet there is an essay there current Bacon students.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:46 PM
(Reply to #9) #7
Bando Calrissian
Bando Calrissian's picture
Joined: 07/02/2008
MGoPoints: 60109
I'll see you at office hours.

I'll see you at office hours.  Have a Ghiradelli square.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:34 PM
#8
South TX MFan
Joined: 10/13/2011
MGoPoints: 2556
Rudy was offsides.

Rudy was offsides.

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January 17th, 2013 at 3:40 PM
(Reply to #5) #9
eamus_caeruli (not verified)
Rudy was also in the Navy

Rudy was also in the Navy until he was 24, got the GI bill while at Holy Cross. It took him several years before he even tried out for the team.  The Myth and the movie are wrought with swiss cheese like exaggerations.  

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:34 PM
#10
Craig
Craig's picture
Joined: 07/30/2009
MGoPoints: 204
Norte Dame girls

So let me wrap my mind around this: Teo, a football star at a football crazy school, who could date any woman on ND's campus, instead prefers to "date" a women in California that he has never met in person. Say Whaaat?

What does that say about
Norte Dame girls?
..BOOM

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:12 PM
(Reply to #6) #11
Jeff
Joined: 07/01/2008
MGoPoints: 1432
A few years ago they had a

A few years ago they had a couple players arrested for soliciting prostitutes.  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E7DB1E3FF93AA1575BC0A9619C8B63

Now they're making up online girlfriends.

How do they get ANY recruits?

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:58 PM
(Reply to #6) #12
LexieGoBlue
Joined: 12/07/2011
MGoPoints: 24
No mention of Te'o

in the girlfriend's obituary...

 

Oh wait...there wasn't an obituary.

 

Strange story indeed.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:36 PM
#13
CrabCakes_and_F...
Joined: 11/18/2012
MGoPoints: 153
Hey Brian,

Hey Brian, have you confirmed the sourcing/accuracy of that Orwell quote? My 5 seconds of google-fu turned up this:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:George_Orwell#Attribution.3F_-_.22Jour...

 

So to paraphrase you, if you're not going to do the research, to confirm, to make sure a quote is accurate, what do you have left? *Of course if you can come up with a legitimate source this post is rendered irrelevant. But if it's fake, it sure is a bit ironic given the circumstances.

 

edit: yeah, what AAB said

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:20 PM
(Reply to #7) #14
Ccapilla
Joined: 02/11/2012
MGoPoints: 454
He's right, you know...

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:43 PM
#15
Magnus
Magnus's picture
Joined: 07/17/2008
MGoPoints: 122906
This post was excellent,

This post was excellent, minus (perhaps) the Orwell thing. I don't care enough to fact check you.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:50 PM
#16
Anonymosity
Anonymosity's picture
Joined: 06/30/2008
MGoPoints: 2480
The only thing that's strange

The only thing that's strange about this is that Te'o's grandmother is not only hale and hearty today but also manipulating Vegas lines with his grandson's collusion.

I think you're missing a negative and a "her," unless you actually believe Teo's grandmother is alive, involved with gambling, and a man.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:50 PM
#17
LightTheLamp
Joined: 04/20/2012
MGoPoints: 1854
I almost spit coffee all over

I almost spit coffee all over the place when I read the last sentence.

On a similar note, I have been joking with my wife about this all day.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:23 PM
(Reply to #13) #18
Wave83
Wave83's picture
Joined: 03/09/2011
MGoPoints: 1134
In the history of journalism

In the history of journalism (or law, or police investigations, or ANYTHING), has anyone ever uttered the question "Have you met your girlfriend" before yesterday?

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:54 PM
(Reply to #31) #19
Ccapilla
Joined: 02/11/2012
MGoPoints: 454
That's pretty much the

That's pretty much the cornerstone of every "To Catch a Predator" type sting and prosecution...

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January 17th, 2013 at 8:59 PM
(Reply to #31) #20
Mike420GoBlue
Mike420GoBlue's picture
Joined: 09/02/2012
MGoPoints: 4412
Before now

I don't think I've ever heard that question, "have you met your girlfriend?" But if I did I would think it were sarcastic, like I've done something stupid, and I'm convincing myself it's ok, she won't mind. That's when my friend says "ha ha, have you MET your girlfriend? Ha ha "

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:53 PM
#21
Michael Scarn
Michael Scarn's picture
Joined: 01/21/2011
MGoPoints: 1603
Brian, genuine question.

Brian, genuine question.  You're buying his (and Notre Dame's) story right now?  Maybe I'm cynical but I need a lot more questions answered before I can possibly go "wow, Te'o got duped."

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:55 PM
(Reply to #15) #22
Cosmic Blue
Cosmic Blue's picture
Joined: 10/13/2008
MGoPoints: 488
i dont buy it either

i find it really hard to believe that te'o was tricked. there are just too many contradictions in the story. how could he not know it was fake after her "death?" i can get that he couldnt attend the funeral because of football commitments, but dont you at least send flowers to the home or call the parents to share in remorse? neither of those exist either so things should have broke then.

i have a feeling it will come out that te'o had a relationship with this Ronaiah Tuiasosopo guy. perhaps they were trying to disguise it as a heterosexual relationship due to religious and/or PR pressure. then they tried to cover up the whole lie by having her "die" but that just made it worse.

even if my theory is incorrect, i need some way better explanation from Te'o before i can believe he wasn't in on it

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:58 PM
(Reply to #15) #23
Brian
Brian's picture
Joined: 05/26/2008
MGoPoints: 117999
If I had to guess I'd say it

If I had to guess I'd say it started off as Te'o being nice and quickly spiraled into some I Love Lucy shit once things got going. So yes and no. Not manufactured but had an opportunity to come clean a long time ago, chose not to. 

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:19 PM
(Reply to #18) #24
Hannibal.
Hannibal.'s picture
Joined: 09/09/2008
MGoPoints: 6297
There is a South Bend tribune

There is a South Bend tribune article from a few months back talking about how they "exchanged glances, then handshakes, and then phone numbers" after the Stanford-ND game in 2009. 

Teo never claimed that this was an internet-only girlfriend that he had never talked to on the phone.

So yes, this was absolutely 100% manufactured.  I can't see a plausible explanation other than that.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:29 PM
(Reply to #25) #25
Ty Butterfield
Joined: 09/07/2009
MGoPoints: -84422
That article has since been

That article has since been taken down. Luckily I was able to read it before it disappeared.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:34 PM
(Reply to #33) #26
CRex
CRex's picture
Joined: 09/28/2009
MGoPoints: 9002
If you happen to have the

If you happen to have the link, could you post it?  I can try to pull it up via internet archive and link to that then.

Also, this article does a great job of summing up the questions about scam vs dupe.  

Deadspin also has compiled all the lies/errors in Teo's story.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:47 PM
(Reply to #35) #27
M-Wolverine
M-Wolverine's picture
Joined: 10/04/2009
MGoPoints: 42199
USA Today did some good listing

Of the questions he needs to answer-

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/01/17/the-questions-that...

And the craziest things about the story-

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/01/16/teo-deadspin-story-eight...

 

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January 17th, 2013 at 3:22 PM
(Reply to #35) #28
Ty Butterfield
Joined: 09/07/2009
MGoPoints: -84422
Link

CRex,

Here is the link to the South Bend Tribune article. This one actually still seems to work.

 

http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2012-10-12/sports/34419536_1_brian-and-ottilia-manti-te-o-irish-head-coach 

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:24 PM
(Reply to #15) #29
CRex
CRex's picture
Joined: 09/28/2009
MGoPoints: 9002
Even if he was duped, Teo

Even if he was duped, Teo claims to have found out he was duped in Dec.  Yet in the run up to the NC game he was still talking about missing Lennay.  So really it is academic, in that at some point he did lie to the national media.  

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January 17th, 2013 at 3:21 PM
(Reply to #32) #30
turtleboy
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Joined: 04/22/2011
MGoPoints: 17686
He definitely lied, whether

He definitely lied, whether he masterminded the entire hoax, or he lied after he found out because it was extremely embarrassing being already all over the media. I have a difficult time believing the former, and I guess I can kind of understand the latter. I can't see any point to him orchestrating it to his whole family and killing it off right when his grandma died, and it just makes more sense lying to cover it up because he'd be crucified for it after all the press, and charity stuff being set up. Still, some of the gross overreactions are almost as disheartening to me as the hoax itself.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:57 PM
#31
Everyone Murders
Everyone Murders's picture
Joined: 12/14/2010
MGoPoints: 64815
Chait

Chait nails the Notre Dame mythology with his closing statement (between Chait and Bacon, our school has some damned fine writers representing it!):

If Te’o's dying girlfriend story had been invented 80 years ago, it would have been memorialized in film and people would still believe it today.

I'm still trying to figure out to what degree T'eo's been complicit in this, but what a Charlie Foxtrot this has been!

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January 18th, 2013 at 9:57 AM
(Reply to #17) #32
French West Indian
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Joined: 12/28/2011
MGoPoints: 1840
Good point.

And it serves as a reminder that we should probably question more of our assumptions about the past.  Propaganda isn't just a tool of dictators.

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:58 PM
#33
Hardware Sushi
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Joined: 03/08/2010
MGoPoints: 6379
Great post

Great post. It went from hilarious to insightful. I'm glad it wasn't a bunch of condemning Teo as an outright liar and therefore evil person, which is my only issue with the way everyone is looking at it.

 

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:53 PM
(Reply to #19) #34
CompleteLunacy
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Joined: 11/13/2010
MGoPoints: 6609
Well...

I'm not condemning the guy but there are waaaay way too many holes you can poke in the story that simply do not make sense that it was a simple "online dating only" relationship hoax. 

Who calls themselves "boyfriend/girlfriend" without ever at least skyping to see each others' face? What about all the stories published about meetings with each other?

There's more to this story than meets the eye. It's certainly plausible that Teo was duped the whole time, but I find that much less likely than any scenario where Teo knew and was in on it (for reasons that are obviously not clear right now).

 

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January 17th, 2013 at 1:58 PM
#35
jg2112
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Joined: 11/25/2008
MGoPoints: 7764
The only reason I like George

The only reason I like George Gipp is because the movie Airplane! spoofed it with a character George Zipp, and Leslie Nielsen tells a story for the "boys to win just one for the Zipper."

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:02 PM
#36
Asgardian
Joined: 12/08/2010
MGoPoints: 1199
Can I Get A Source For That?

http://xkcd.com/978/

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:04 PM
#37
DonAZ
DonAZ's picture
Joined: 12/05/2011
MGoPoints: 9478
I look at the news about T'eo

I look at the news about T'eo and I find myself unable to muster much care.

Nothing would surprise me -- T'eo duped or the whole thing a planned PR thing or both.

What a circus ... and ultimately, who cares?

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:22 PM
(Reply to #22) #38
Buzz
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Joined: 10/10/2010
MGoPoints: 399
Because the schadenfreude on this is more delicious

...than being hand fed chocolate covered strawberries by Kate Upton.*

Buzz

* This may be a gross exaggeration.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:33 PM
(Reply to #29) #39
DonAZ
DonAZ's picture
Joined: 12/05/2011
MGoPoints: 9478
That wins "Internet Mental

That wins "Internet Mental Image of the Day."

Promise she'd lick the chocolate off her fingers? :-)

My wife has no idea I just typed that ... and yet I promise she's already pissed at me. :-)

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January 17th, 2013 at 3:07 PM
(Reply to #37) #40
RunTheFootball
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Joined: 05/26/2011
MGoPoints: 873
CAN'T FOOL ME

Have you ever MET your wife IRL?

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:17 PM
#41
Laser Wolf
Joined: 07/09/2008
MGoPoints: 17644
The only surprising thing

The only surprising thing about this is that Deadspin broke it? Really?

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:17 PM
#42
champswest
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Joined: 10/04/2009
MGoPoints: 18356
I guess I missed it in the early reporting, but

how exactly did Te'o find out that his girlfriend was dead?

Will this story ever go away without an in-depth interview that isn't afraid to ask all the right questions?

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January 17th, 2013 at 3:02 PM
(Reply to #24) #43
xxxxNateDaGreat
xxxxNateDaGreat's picture
Joined: 11/28/2011
MGoPoints: 2930
Whoa, I never thought about

Whoa, I never thought about that... Mind. Blown.

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January 17th, 2013 at 3:04 PM
(Reply to #24) #44
InterM
InterM's picture
Joined: 01/16/2009
MGoPoints: 1921
Not to worry . . .

Oprah is booking it as we speak.

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January 17th, 2013 at 5:17 PM
(Reply to #24) #45
I Bleed Maize N Blue
I Bleed Maize N Blue's picture
Joined: 09/27/2008
MGoPoints: 16688
How did he find out his girlfriend was dead?

503 error, I'd guess.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:19 PM
#46
yossarians tree
yossarians tree's picture
Joined: 08/19/2010
MGoPoints: 8914
*

 Popcorngif.com

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January 17th, 2013 at 3:01 PM
(Reply to #26) #47
xxxxNateDaGreat
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Joined: 11/28/2011
MGoPoints: 2930
"It's nauseating, mon!"

"It's nauseating, mon!"

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:20 PM
#48
WolverineRage
WolverineRage's picture
Joined: 01/07/2011
MGoPoints: 183
Surprise & Believability

Honestly, very little shocks me anymore in the sporting world.  Lance Armstrong being doped registered as a "Oh well, that's a shame".

 

The Te'o thing though, really surprised me.  To me, he came off as a stand-up guy and as much as I despised Notre Dame, I really found it hard to get snarky at him.  Instead I got snarky with the media that made it seem like he was the only one to suffer personal tragedy ever.

 

That being said, I admit that I allowed the media to bias my opinion to the positive about a man I had never met, which happens all the time.  For the most part, we barely know these people.  We see prepared packages about them and interviews where the players have been coached how to respond.

 

I don't feel stupid for having believed what was reported as truth.  I feel stupid for being surprised and shocked.

 

On the believability front, I think this is the snap judgement reaction: A lie has been exposed so therefore everything surrounding said incident must also be a lie.

 

I think Brian's article sums up pretty well that the story should not really be surprising and any outrage should be directed towards MSM which has turned into narrative building and story telling for ratings as opposed to actual journalism.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:23 PM
(Reply to #27) #49
DonAZ
DonAZ's picture
Joined: 12/05/2011
MGoPoints: 9478
"... narrative building and

"... narrative building and story telling for ratings as opposed to actual journalism."

Those who wave the banner of "journalists" are the least likely to actually practice the craft.

"Bloggers" are maligned, yet they consistently produce the most insightful commentary ... sports or otherwise.  Not all bloggers, but many.

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:30 PM
#50
LightTheLamp
Joined: 04/20/2012
MGoPoints: 1854
I HEARD, that Mike Golic is

I HEARD, that Mike Golic is behind the whole thing. He turned to Te'o ever since Brady Quinn told him to stop because it was "too creepy"

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January 17th, 2013 at 2:30 PM
#51
BlueMan80
BlueMan80's picture
Joined: 01/21/2011
MGoPoints: 7559
When you lose control of the narrative

things can go to hell in a handbasket quite quickly.  Given who Te'o is, lots of people would willingly play "telephone" with the story and pump hot air into what may have started as a seemingly small exaggeration of the truth.  I doubt Notre Dame's SID would go on their own fact checking mission instead of running with the story to further pump up the Te'o for the Heisman story.

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