Deadspin: Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend story was a hoax

I would agree with Vers here. As I've said before, and has been mentioned in this thread, I like Craggs. This puts me at odds with many of my friends, but that's ok. I certainly don't think anyone who writes longform (or does any mainstream media work that garners broad critical praise) is above criticism. Journalism is a messy world, and its various friendships and alliances are more complicated that the ones in Game of Thrones. I have close friends who are close friends with Whitlock, for example. I enjoy the work of people who regularly firebomb my employer. Sometimes we pretend the battle lines are sharply drawn for the sake of argument here, but that's hardly the reality. I don't even think you're that rare on this board, Dick. There is more nuance to most posters than the bombastic arguments typically reflect.

 

My argument is that while there may be a divide among the practitioners, the readerships have tremendous overlap.

That, and Tommy Craggs was as good as or better than most long-form writers.

 

Am I missing something. Wasn't Te'o part of the scam? Maybe not in the way "the 80 percent" quote guy meant it. But Te'o knowingly sold BS to the national media about this girlfriend, whether he was embarrassed or not. That's the point of the entire story. How do you know he wasn't playing along to bolster his Heisman hopes?

 

This is an extremely watered down version of the tale that Te'o skeptics began with. Extremely watered down.

 

Definitely.

While sometimes here the situation can be viewed as The Good People (those who believe in "journalism") vs. The Bad People (Those Dastardly Blogger Types), most people just enjoy the content that both produce, on a case-by-case basis. And when The Good People fight with The Bad People, that is solid Internet Gold.

 

No question. But with what we know, which isn't everything, he's the one who spread the story even when he had doubts/knew it was false. Craggs is right in that if they paraphrased that quote to say "Some wonder if he was involved" no one would've blinked an eye. Also if that quote was in a Times story, like the ref story, it would've been overlooked.

 

OK, so, first of all, it wouldn't have been overlooked had it been in The Times. This isn't people after-the-fact nit-picking at Deadspin. That line was what largely made people believe that Te'o was involved. That became their anchor version. That it was at the end of the story is immaterial and revisionist. This analogy is a little tortured, but stay with me: Arguing that the quote didn't matter because it was at the tail end of the story is like saying that the twist regarding Bruce Willis's character in "Sixth Sense," or Kevin Spacey's in "The Usual Suspects," were immaterial because they were at the end of those films. The Deadspin piece was written as a narrative, and everything in it was leading you to that bomb dropping at the end: TE'O INVOLVED! Read it. It unfurls like a mystery. And that's placed, strategically, as the satisfying conclusion.

Second of all, saying he was "involved" now because he answered a question or two about it after he found out what really happened - allegedly to spare himself embarrassment - in no way redeems the Deadspin-inspired version of this. It strains credulity that anybody thought that "involved" meant what you're reframing it to mean now.

And, for the record, I thought Deadspin did a great job on the story.

 

And then it's always fun when the Brotherhood of the Long-Form assume it's their solemn duty and privilege to confer writing talent on all those residing outside the group.

 

What's part of the initiation ceremony? Vein cutting?

 

Is that a reference to our shenanigans, my former fellow Wild and Crazy Guy?

Can't believe how often I tried to be nice to the mother, only to get denied.

 

I totally predicted this alliance before it happened:

 

I am genuinely sad I am just seeing that now for the first time, Vers. Good god.

That renews my theory we need a This Week Is SJ Highlights thread, so you don't miss gems like that.

Ok, maybe month would be better.