Why are the Manti Te’o lies so "shocking"?

[SHRED]

Hell, the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate lied us into two wars. Those are REAL FUCKING LIES!!!!!!!!

I swear to God sometimes I think I am living the movie "Idiocracy".



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[BlueStreak]

1. What is shocking is that this is so ridiculous, it should be shocking

Basically this is just another example of a fawning, inept press that is more interested in "telling a story"' than presenting facts.

"Shocking" is not the word, as we all know just haw bad the media has become. But it truly is a new low. Even when, basically, a couple of bloggers thoroughly research the whole thing and lay it wide open beyond any shadow of a doubt, our media's first reaction is to rally around the powerful institution (Notre Dame in this case) and buttress what amounts to an absurd story that Te'o was somehow an innocent victim here.

It isn't shocking. Just another signpost that marks yet another new low for our media.

But nobody should be shocked or even surprised. How long did the Catholic church get away with the shell games moving sexual predators from parish to parish? Why would anybody expect any more critical reporting now?

[MotherPetrie]

4. I don't see why the press should have bothered to "confirm" whether this guy's girlfriend existed

In the overall scheme of things it makes not the teeniest tiniest bit of difference to anyone but him, and I would hope they DID have better things to do.

[BlueStreak]

12. When you go back and look at the transcripts of the interviews

including the stuff that was just background, not included in the articles and broadcasts, there are all sorts of warning signs.

Like when they asked him where he met his girlfriend, he stammered around and fished for a non-answer. One of them asked for contacts for the "girl's" family so they could get a quote from the family or at least add something to the background. Te'o was extraordinarily evasive about that too. I understand privacy, but it is a 2-way street. Te'o was happy to use that publicity to boost his career. You have no right to privacy when you are exploiting a story for pub.

It would have been very easy for any decent reporter to check up on the most basic elements of the story. They could have contacted Stanford, for example.

You seem to be arguing that a reporter should not check sources.

And here's a news flash. If one of those reporters would have done even one hour's follow-up, they would have discovered the real story, that here is a guy who was conning all of the rest of the media.

And after the story broke in December, we still didn't see any mainstream "news" sources willing to do a couple of hours' work to find out the truth. Instead, almost all of them just lined up behind the ridiculous explanation offered by Notre Dame -- just as they did when the same outfit (the Catholic Church) was playing their shell games moving pedophiles from parish to parish for 25 years.

[MotherPetrie]

15. I am saying I don't give a shit about this guy or his fake GF! I don't see why it is even CONSIDERED

news! I never even heard of this guy before this story broke. It's college football! It's a college football player with a fake GF! I can't tell you how little importance I place on that -- exactly none!

I am sick and tired of breaking news and news at the top of the hour on the news station I listen to being about sports figures and celebrities and their lives and foibles.

I want reporters to investigate issues that affect people's health, livelihoods, environment -- this shit does not (except for a very privileged few!) and totally distracts from real life issues.

I am so sick of it.

[slackmaster]

2. Because he's a jock. Jocks are the highest payed people in our society now.

[MotherPetrie]

3. No fucking shit! Talk about a total non-issue!

I can't understand why this shit is headline news.

[Initech]

5. What's shocking is how much time the media is wasting on this non issue.

[Union Scribe]

6. A-friggin-men. It's at best a local interest story.

And like you said, they never seem this interested in lies that kill tens of thousands.

[uponit7771]

10. amen. ..even on a slow news day this is but a mention

[progressoid]

7. Let's talk about Kim and Kanye's baby now.

[Jon Ace]

23. Or how Lohan missed a court date...

AGAIN.

[hollysmom]

8. I think it is

that this guy is in college and he can't even tell a cohesive lie.

[BainsBane]

9. Is anyone truly shocked?

Or is it faux media outrage? I never heard of this guy before, and I don't see what is particularly shocking, except perhaps for the rank stupidity on every side of this story. But what is new about that?

[JVS]

11. I'm shocked when regular people's girlfriends turn out to be complete fabrications.

For it to be the case with someone as well-known and popular as this guy is more shocking.

[randome]

13. It's a lesson in how little to look up to these guys.

It was Lance Armstrong who inspired my new sig line but it applies to this buffoon, too.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. People who have taught in universities are more surprised that the grandmother *actually* died

We usually just assume that that the dead grandparent is a lie.

[Brickbat]

16. I'm guessing a lot of the hoopla is to deflect media criticism. A lot of people totally dropped the

ball here, and no one wants to admit it. The emperor has no clothes -- and if it takes a sports scandal to remind people of that fact, then let's get busy with it.

[NCTraveler]

17. I don't think it is really shocking to me.

But it is very interesting and a big story. It shows how inept reporters are.

If he was in on it, it shows how bad reporters are now.

If he wasn't in on it, it shows that one has to have absolutely no brains to go to college as long as you can play football. And how bad reporters are now.

[Blue_Tires]

18. For the next several months, I'm going to feel sorry for

any athlete or coach who does an interview, because if one word is out of place, it will get pounced on...

[NCTraveler]

19. I agree. They will now go into hyper drive.

The media just loves to put up athletes as hero's. They are passionate about it. The only thing they are equally as passionate about, is tearing them down.

How no one checked this story is unreal to me. It really was used as propaganda to promote him into stardom.

[Blue_Tires]

20. Hero worship is why they didn't check it, probably...

Plus no one in the media even dared to suspect he'd make up something like that, because it would blow up in his face sooner or later (since all it takes is a single phone call and web search to verify)...I know the mainstream sports journalists have red asses and egg on their faces (as they should), but Deadspin ain't exactly ripping the cover off of Watergate, either (to say nothing of the fact that they've jumped the gun on false rumors before, engaged some highly questionable ethics, and worse...)

Although I have no idea why he needed the "propaganda"...He was already one of the top players in the country for a high-profile program, playing on national TV every Saturday...

While being a semi-interesting human interest piece (which we as Americans love to attach to our sports stars), did the original "dead girlfriend" storyline make him ANY more famous or marketable than he already was??

[NCTraveler]

21. It made him much more marketable.

And he knew it. That is why he mentioned it over and over again. He even mentioned it multiple times to media outlets after he said he "found out" she was not real. The week he came out about his girlfriends death was the week they played their biggest game of the year. It was a big deal in the sports world.

NFL fans will always remember Favres game after his father died. Many college football fans will always remember the ND Michigan game after Te'o lost his grandmother and girlfriend. Now it will be remembered for a different reason.

[NCTraveler]

22. And to add.

I don't think it is about hero worship. Building up heros and hero worship are two different things. Many of the sportscaster who build these atheletes up probably don't like them very much. They know them.

[cali]

24. apples meet oranges.