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Could Deadspin have known Manti Te'o was innocent?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by DrewJo, May 27, 2013.

  1. DrewJo

    DrewJo New Member

    Hello,

    This is my first post, and hopefully it's interesting. I've been analyzing how Deadspin covered the whole Manti Te'o/Lennay Kekua story, and something has been bugging me for quite a while...

    A big reason Deadspin's article blew up is because they implied, by way of anonymous sources, that Manti Te'o helped perpetrate the dead girlfriend hoax. However, Deadspin also spoke with a woman named Diane O'Meara--the girl whose photos were used to portray Lennay--and they said that Diane told them "everything she knew" about the guy who was really behind the hoax, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.

    Diane spoke on the phone to Ronaiah a few days before Deadspin published their article. Ronaiah confessed that he was behind the hoax, and he likely told her--going by his previous behavior--that Manti was completely innocent. Diane also would've had access to circumstantial evidence which suggested Manti was being duped. Roniah had been hounding Diane with strange requests even into early January, and he had asked for:

    A photo of Diane saying, "Good luck No. 5."
    A video of Diane saying, "Good luck on the 7th."

    Manti Te'o wore number 5 on his uniform, and the BCS title game was on January 7th, so obviously those requests were meant for his sake. I think that any objective reporter would have looked at those facts and realized that Manti and Ronaiah probably weren't in cahoots. Yet Deadspin never mentioned those requests, and they haven't mentioned Diane O'Meara a single time since breaking the story.

    Simply put: Does anyone else find that suspicious? Could Deadspin have known a lot more than they were letting on?

    Again, any feedback is welcome. I go into a lot more detail over on my blog, but my main points are all in this post.
     
  2. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    I don't think I remember getting the feeling that Manti Te'o was somehow involved from reading the Deadspin coverage. I'm pretty sure theirs was the only article I read on it.
     
  3. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    So Teapot Dome was a hell of a scandal, huh?
     
  4. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Thank goodness there is a new blog commenting on Manti Teo. We have a desperate shortage of those.
     
  5. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    I love lamp.
     
  6. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    I think there was a second fake girlfriend on the grassy knoll.
     
  7. Diego Marquez

    Diego Marquez Member

    That whole BCS game was faked. Those players never went to Florida. It was all done on a sound stage in Hollywood. All those early touchdowns? Trick photography. I mean ... c'mon that Golson isn't even on the Notre Dame roster.
     
  8. House M.D.

    House M.D. Guest

    Roll Tide.
     
  9. SportsGuyBCK

    SportsGuyBCK Active Member

    And Nick Saban in really an android, sent back from the future to kill John Connor ...
     
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Really? Go back and read it again. I like Deadspin well enough, but that was their working theory of the case. And if it wasn't clear at the time, it was certainly clear as the story continued to develop elsewhere - Deadspin mercilessly mocked anybody who remotely suggested that Te'o wasn't in on the deal from the get-go.
     
  11. H.L. Mencken

    H.L. Mencken Member

    The suggestion it wouldn't have blown up without implying he was in on it -- which is the premise of the conspiracy that relates to media topic here -- seems silly.

    It would've been a big deal either way, just for the car wreck nature of it all.
     
  12. DrewJo

    DrewJo New Member

    I don't think it's outrageous to think Deadspin wanted as juicy a story as possible.

    Regardless, we seem to agree that Deadspin implied Te'o was in on the hoax. So I'm just wondering if they had evidence that the implications were wrong.
     
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