Great read: New Yorker piece on Kip Litton

Unfortunately behind a paywall, but it's a remarkable piece of narrative sports journalism:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_singer

The basics are that this Michigan dentist has, allegedly, been going around the country cheating in marathons. Allegedly, he's gone as far as to invent races and make Web sites for them, with fake results from fake runners. It's all very elaborate.

He's a University of Michigan graduate, so I had to chuckle a little bit at the fake race director's name he allegedly made up: Richard Rodriguez.

Anyway, well worth your time to read. And a great example of a piece where the writer does eventually inject himself into the story and it works. Reminds me a little bit of the Wayne Drehs piece on Steve Bartman in its structure.

 

Is that a real name? Kip Litton? He should have made up a better name for himself.

 

I read the story. Talk about bizarre.

 

The good dentist has company:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/08/31/paul_ryan_s_marathon_history_runners_world_wonders_aloud_whether_the_vp_candidate_was_as_fast_as_he_claims_.html

It blows my mind that someone in a position like Ryan would just blatantly lie about his marathon finishing time. Something easily verifiable like that. Just dumb-founding.

 

And the NYer unlocked Mark's story.

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_singer

 

To create a better narrative, Ryan created a composite marathon, and compressed the timeline.

 

Thank you.

That's a fascinating, well-written story. that I never would have seen otherwise.

 

I've found a new message board through that article!!

 

The far better comparison is Bill Richardson, phantom draft pick of the Kansas City A's.

But your larger point stands: Why, at least in the cases of Richardson and Obama and Rubio, does the D.C. press corps fall asleep at the wheel when it comes to the public narrative/mythology these guys construct for themselves? It seems like the first time someone runs for city fucking council, someone should be checking out every line of his or her resume. Might not get you a prime seat at the bar at the next D.C. cocktail party, but it seems like a pretty elementary obligation of a political journalist.

 

I save up my New Yorkers for airplane reading and read that article week before last on my way to Montgomery, Alabama. Loved it. I even saved it and have it sitting on my desk.

 

This, though I'm subscribed through Next Issue. Heard a guest on NPR this week remark that he was a few weeks behind on his New Yorkers, which prompted one of the other panelists to ask, "Who isn't?"

I do the same thing with Wright Thompson pieces. I want to have time to read the whole thing, savor it, make sure I'm in the right mindset and I end up reading everything he writes four months after publication.