The Big Lead posts false story about Billy Donovan's real estate struggles

[daemon]

Did anyone else catch this? Apologize if it's already been pointed out.

Looks like The Big Lead posted a story about Billy Donovan "tearfully" talking about his struggles with the tough housing market.

Problem is, the story the site posted was actually satirical.


http://thebiglead.com/?p=4645

[fishwrapper]

BuckW, can you explain that photo reference to me?
It comes up all the time, and I must be lame.

[buckweaver]

BuckW, can you explain that photo reference to me?
It comes up all the time, and I must be lame.

Thebiglead's been busted on here plenty of times for his shoddy "ethics". On one of those occasions (I think the Matt Leinart rumor posting), Double Down posted the Fozzie photo ("Sources! Sources!") in response to TBL's defense that he got the story second-hand from another rumor-mill and so it wasn't his fault if it wasn't true because "he just linked it", etc., etc.

[Simon_Cowbell]

BuckW, can you explain that photo reference to me?
It comes up all the time, and I must be lame.

Thebiglead's been busted on here plenty of times for his shoddy "ethics". On one of those occasions (I think the Matt Leinart rumor posting), Double Down posted the Fozzie photo ("Sources! Sources!") in response to TBL's defense that he got the story second-hand from another rumor-mill and so it wasn't his fault if it wasn't true because "he just linked it", etc., etc.

These fuckers are SOOO lucky they are not held to the standard that the permanence of ink on paper requires.

[Write-brained]

BuckW, can you explain that photo reference to me?
It comes up all the time, and I must be lame.

Thebiglead's been busted on here plenty of times for his shoddy "ethics". On one of those occasions (I think the Matt Leinart rumor posting), Double Down posted the Fozzie photo ("Sources! Sources!") in response to TBL's defense that he got the story second-hand from another rumor-mill and so it wasn't his fault if it wasn't true because "he just linked it", etc., etc.

These fuckers are SOOO lucky they don't have the standard that the permanence of ink on paper requires. their subjects apparently don't read their piece of shit website.

[Frank_Ridgeway]

If TBL didn't suck off media types by "interviewing" them with softball questions via e-mail, nobody here would read his site to begin with. So the fact that he screwed up this one is a dog-bites-man story to me.

[hockeybeat]

Frank, I don't think it's a matter that TBL fucked up this story. It's that he's routinely posting bullshit and then raising his hands and claiming it's an honest mistake when SJers call him on his bullshit.

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Frank, I don't think it's a matter that TBL fucked up this story. It's that he's routinely posting bullshit and then raising his hands and claiming it's an honest mistake when SJers call him on his bullshit.

I understand that. My point is that the only reason his incompetence and lack of ethics come to our attention is because some in our business have a narcissistic need to check his site regularly to see if he's blowing another sports columnist this week. His blog would have zero traffic otherwise, and his inability to discern satire from a real news story would happen without our knowledge or interest.

[hockeybeat]

Frank, I don't think it's a matter that TBL fucked up this story. It's that he's routinely posting bullshit and then raising his hands and claiming it's an honest mistake when SJers call him on his bullshit.

I understand that. My point is that the only reason his incompetence and lack of ethics come to our attention is because some in our business have a narcissistic need to check his site regularly to see if he's blowing another sports columnist this week. His blog would have zero traffic otherwise, and his inability to discern satire from a real news story would happen without our knowledge or interest.

Frank, I agree with you. I just wish someone would sue TBL for libel.

[fishwrapper]

Frank, what exactly do you mean by "blowing another sports columnist this week"?

(And thanks for catching me up, BuckW.)

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Frank, what exactly do you mean by "blowing another sports columnist this week"?

(And thanks for catching me up, BuckW.)

I didn't mean you somehow missed the fellatio photos. I mean it's pretty obvious that to attract our attention, TBL panders to our self-absorbtion by regularly interviewing sports writers. And if he didn't, probably no one here would look at his blog.

[Double Down]

For those interested in the history of the TBL/Fozzie photo, here is the thread and exchange that gave birth to the picture. From that day forward, it has been my official one-man protest about The Big Lead's shitty ethics.

As I've said before, I really don't care that TBL posts false shit and that he mainly gets traffic because he posts pictures of Megan Fox's vajayjay and Adriana Lima doing the splits, I just want sports writers to stop taking the site seriously. If you're going to do the Q and A, know who you're getting in bed with. Everyone who did one previously -- Jones, Wickersham, Drehs, Wilbon, etc. -- gets a free pass. TBL wasn't posting stuff then about who Matt Lienart was impregnating.

But if you do an interview with him now, you care more about your ego than you do ethics.

[fishwrapper]

You mean "blow job?"

[BYH]

Wasn't there another BLOG!!!! jackass around here who had a hard-on for all things real estate?

The things that make me go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

And hey, The Big Lead is a big deal! It's part of the Fantasy Sports Network!!!

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

I like the Big Lead. I make no apologies about it. His stuff is usually funny and informative.

So he was duped by this story big deal. I read the story and missed that SSN reference too. Big deal.

The holier than thou attitude here is just silly. It isn't like he quoted Heywood Jablome as if he was a real source. Or made things up out of whole cloth (hello NYT, Boston Globe and Wash Post). You can't go a week without a legacy paper making the news for making a mistake similar to what TBL just did.

You should get the beam out of your own eye before trying to take the splinter out of TBL's. Or you can just sit on your ass and complain here (which I'm guessing will be the popular course of action). I'm not even sure why this is posted on the journalism board. Sand in the vagina threads belong on Anything Goes.

[Simon_Cowbell]

I like the Big Lead. I make no apologies about it. His stuff is usually funny and informative.

So he was duped by this story big deal. I read the story and missed that SSN reference too. Big deal.

A "tearful" Billy Donovan.

Puhhhlease.

[Write-brained]

I like the Big Lead. I make no apologies about it. His stuff is usually funny and informative.

So he was duped by this story big deal. I read the story and missed that SSN reference too. Big deal.

The holier than thou attitude here is just silly. It isn't like he quoted Heywood Jablome as if he was a real source. Or made things up out of whole cloth (hello NYT, Boston Globe and Wash Post). You can't go a week without a legacy paper making the news for making a mistake similar to what TBL just did.

You should get the beam out of your own eye before trying to take the splinter out of TBL's. Or you can just sit on your ass and complain here (which I'm guessing will be the popular course of action). I'm not even sure why this is posted on the journalism board. Sand in the vagina threads belong on Anything Goes.

Um, he printed a bunch of names of Florida State football players he heard might be connected with the cheating scandal recently - no attempt to verify, never contacted the players or the school. He got two names wrong.

Good thing no one reads TBL or else some of this shit could come back and bite him. One of the people he misnamed was De'Cody Fagg, who will probably be drafted this year. You could cost a player a lot of money being so careless. Oh, and it's completely reckless and unethical.

[hockeybeat]

I like the Big Lead. I make no apologies about it. His stuff is usually funny and informative.

So he was duped by this story big deal. I read the story and missed that SSN reference too. Big deal.

The holier than thou attitude here is just silly. It isn't like he quoted Heywood Jablome as if he was a real source. Or made things up out of whole cloth (hello NYT, Boston Globe and Wash Post). You can't go a week without a legacy paper making the news for making a mistake similar to what TBL just did.

You should get the beam out of your own eye before trying to take the splinter out of TBL's. Or you can just sit on your ass and complain here (which I'm guessing will be the popular course of action). I'm not even sure why this is posted on the journalism board. Sand in the vagina threads belong on Anything Goes.

Um, he printed a bunch of names of Florida State football players he heard might be connected with the cheating scandal recently - no attempt to verify, never contacted the players or the school. He got two names wrong.

Good thing no one reads TBL or else some of this shit could come back and bite him. One of the people he misnamed was De'Cody Fagg, who will probably be drafted this year. You could cost a player a lot of money being so careless. Oh, and it's completely reckless and unethical.

And then there was Le Affair De Reilly.

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Then there are times like when the LA Times published that Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were named in the Jason Grimsley affidavit.

All the Times had to say is "The Times regrets the error" and end of story.

Papers run corrections all the time. TBL admited he was wrong - how is that any different from the half-dozen corrections most papers run every single day?

[Double Down]

Then there are times like when the LA Times published that Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were named in the Jason Grimsley affidavit.

All the Times had to say is "The Times regrets the error" and end of story.

Papers run corrections all the time. TBL admited he was wrong - how is that any different from the half-dozen corrections most papers run every single day?

So Chris, in your mind, it's ok to leave the item up, but post -- in the fucking comments -- opps, my bad?

I know you want to defend your blogging brethren, but don't do it by making the argument that it's ok for TBL to do this stuff because newspapers do it too. It's not ok for either. And go ahead and show me a newspaper that would have printed an item about Matt Leinart having "several" baby mommas that he pays hush money to, according to a friend of a friend of someone's girlfriend.

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Yeah newspapers never get important issues completely wrong.

[hockeybeat]

Then there are times like when the LA Times published that Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were named in the Jason Grimsley affidavit.

All the Times had to say is "The Times regrets the error" and end of story.

Papers run corrections all the time. TBL admited he was wrong - how is that any different from the half-dozen corrections most papers run every single day?

So Chris, in your mind, it's ok to leave the item up, but post -- in the fucking comments -- opps, my bad?

I know you want to defend your blogging brethren, but don't do it by making the argument that it's ok for TBL to do this stuff because newspapers do it too. It's not ok for either. And go ahead and show me a newspaper that would have printed an item about Matt Leinart having "several" baby mommas that he pays hush money to, according to a friend of a friend of someone's girlfriend.

I'm going to beat a dead horse here, but look at TBL's ethics--or lack thereof--with the Reilly in the LSU pressbox story. He posted a story without doing the slightest bit of legwork.  And when it blew up in his face, what did he do? He said, "Oops, my bad" and now he continues to post bullshit blind items to his heart's content.

[hockeybeat]

Yeah newspapers never get important issues completely wrong.

No one is saying that newspapers are completely right and blogs are completely wrong.

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Hockeybeat - not for nothing but if you went through Peter Gammons trade rumors over the years you'd find more than your share of "bullshit blind items". That didn't make the other 99% of what he wrote any less informative or entertaining.

I'm not saying that the Billy Donovan thing is good and I think TBL would be better served by noting it was satire and posting his mea culpa on the main page. However, there was no malice in the mistake TBL made. There is, however, lots of malice here toward TBL.

I'm also amused by the "good thing nobody reads him" attitude because obviously the person posting that sentiment has read him. Also - I'd guess TBL's readership to be about 10,000 per day and I know a number of the posters on this thread have readerships that don't come close to TBL's level. It smacks of jealousy.

[Ben_Hecht]

Yeah newspapers never get important issues completely wrong.

Those damn early press runs.