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Deadspin: Teen tricked Rovell on escort service/NBA lockout story

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by bigpern23, Jun 6, 2012.

  1. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    mediaguy: You cannot prove it, you don't use it.

    bigpern: I completely agree with your recent posts. That comment was pure passive-aggressive, but I wonder if it stems from something his management said.
     
  2. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    x2 on bp23's post
     
  3. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    Bingo, Billy. You simply do no run something you can not verify. It's basic journalism.

    Even a phone call would have probably tipped him off that the kid was full of shit. If he's talking to the kid and starts getting into the very specific questions he asked via email, there's a good chance the kid stammers or pauses to think, something that might have told Rovell he was making it up off the top of his head.

    Instead, the kid sees the email, thinks to himself for a minute and types it up. Maybe he has second thoughts and changes the numbers to something more believable, but Rovell would never know that because he was too lazy to dial a phone.
     
  4. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Would you honestly even consider using that anecdote if that's all you had from the guy?

    Rovell saying he's going into shutdown mode over this is a pretty clear sign that he doesn't see what the problem is. The problem is him, not the guy jerking his chain.
     
  5. CarlSpackler

    CarlSpackler Active Member

    He won't get fired or even suspended. I will continue to do the right thing, toil paycheck-to-paycheck, get shitfaced on cheap vodka after work tonight, and wake up tomorrow hoping someone noticed the first article of this sentence.
     
  6. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    You run a shop. Is it? (And I say that in all seriousness, not as some snark.)

    For me, it's a big-time talking to at a minimum. But as an editor, I see the word "anonymous" in any story, I'm asking questions and want to know who/what it is before it gets published.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    If nothing else, Rovell is proof that ESPN isn't the cause of everything bad in the sports media world, because he has become 10 times the doof since he left there.
     
  8. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Yes - but we also have people in place (I hope) to check that out before it appears. That would not have appeared on my watch and I suspect many of us would say the same thing. Some email exchange with a random responder from Twitter? Seriously? Our man didn't see the potential trouble there?

    How can you verify? You can promise him he'll stay anonymous to your readers - but not to you. You better meet him and have him provide some kind of proof.

    No WAY you run with it based on an email exchange started by a Twitter question.

    No way in hell. Ever.
     
  9. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Rovell is verbal diarrhea, and Twitter is his toilet bowl.

    There really isn't enough time in the day for him to verify the "stories" he "breaks".
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    We had one of these at my first paper. The story ran and we found out a couple days later that every bit of the story was bullshit and that the writer just took the source at his word. The writer didn't verify any of the claims.

    The paper took the brave stance of just hoping that nobody would call them out on it publicly and that's exactly what happened. This was 1996 and before every story was ready on the Internet so there were only a few people at the paper who even knew it happened. I found out about it at least two years after it had happened when one of our deputies got drunk and started sharing too much...
     
  11. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    I don't think what he did is a fireable offense, but his reaction to it sure is. He's simply not going to do any work because not doing work before got him burned? Inexcusable.
     
  12. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Turns out the kid is headed to the University of Illinois.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
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