Boston Herald pulls Ron Borges column on Tom Brady

I also think that the talk show hosts, Kirk and Callahan, are scum to give this prankster time on the show. Giving people like that attention only encourages more such behavior. Which is not an attempt to defend Borges.

 

Ed Werder is hitting twitter hard defending Borges.

 

Younger me would have probably been outraged at Borges' work.
Older me - the guy with family and financial obligations - is not happy a douchbag like "Nick in Boston" gets to torpedo this guy's career. I'm with Ed Werder.
Yeah Borges could have and should have done more, but damn ...

If I am Borges, and I lose my job over this... I'll swim the River Styx uphill to find "Nick in Boston" and make his life a living hell for decades.

 

Don’t do shitty work and you won’t be fired.

As journalists, shouldn’t you guys be pissed off that this one time plagiarist does not vet his sources?

Makes you wonder how his other stories from sources hold up.

Isn’t this the supposed difference between bloggers and the “real” media?

 

Rawn Bawges is nawt a fan of the Patriots but this is about prawpa ethics in jahnalism!

 

Douchebag Nick - and I'd agree with the assessment because I don't know what kind of person gets jollies doing this - doesn't deserve an ounce of blame. He didn't make Borges write the piece.
Think about it this way - you get an email from StateUCoach@yahoo.com saying hi. You've never emailed him before, so what's your next step? Casual conversation? See if you can get any info? All of a sudden you get an email from the same address and it says "I'm quitting this weekend, you can go with it."
At any point do you stop to think that this is probably a hoax? Because any journalist with half a clue would.
Borges' mistakes
-Believing Don Yee, who's never texted him previously, sent him a text out of the blue
-Believing Don Yee's cell number with has a 401 area code when he's based on Los Angeles
-Doesn't check with one of his beat writers or any of his other connections to see if the number is real
-Calls, talks to "Don Yee" and doesn't find it strange that the soft-spoken agent has a decidedly Northeastern accent.
-Writes the column, claims "sources," which we know he made up because the tip came from a person who wasn't who he said he was.
-Sends it to his bosses not knowing for sure if he actually talked to Don Yee, knowing that's the only source, but it's a juicy topic

 

Same show Brady was mad at 2 weeks ago. Is he miffed their prankster chose his name to sully with a false story or is this all off his radar I wonder

 

Except he talked with this guy - posing as Yee - for a week or two, right? It wasn't one, out-of-the-blue phone call or text.

"Hey this is Abe Lincoln and I am going to wicked free the negros and I wanted to let you know about it first.
Forescore and Peace. Lincoln Out!"

Scoop Columnist: Sweet.

I'm not saying Borges is blameless. He's not.

And this isn't about his plagiarism. This is apples and oranges. Is he lazy? Maybe. Probably.
But it doesn't change the fact he was lured/pranked/punked/catfished by some fucktard seeking his jollies. I don't think he should lose his job, that's all.
And what happens Nick in Boston? Not a damn thing.

 

Ron fucked up. But he shouldn't lose his job because whatever editorial processes are left at the Herald all fucked up as badly or worse. Didn't any editor inquire as to how tightly this story was nailed down and how well it was sourced? Obviously not. Makes me feel very sad for a paper I loved when I worked there, when the odds of something like this happening were much lower.

 

I laughed at it, wish there was video of the guy taking Borges' call.

 

Texts went on for a couple of weeks. One phone call that took place last night.
He reported he had multiple sources. He didn't. He had one and it wasn't real and he didnt bother to check it.

If you're the Herald, what do you do now? Because I'd start with every story he's ever done with an unnamed source and see how many weren't accurate or how many multiple unnamed sources were just one.

Guys who are lazy don't do it once.