The Big Lead posts false story about Billy Donovan's real estate struggles

You mean "blow job?"

 

Wasn't there another BLOG!!!! jackass around here who had a hard-on for all things real estate?

The things that make me go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

And hey, The Big Lead is a big deal! It's part of the Fantasy Sports Network!!!

 

I like the Big Lead. I make no apologies about it. His stuff is usually funny and informative.

So he was duped by this story big deal. I read the story and missed that SSN reference too. Big deal.

The holier than thou attitude here is just silly. It isn't like he quoted Heywood Jablome as if he was a real source. Or made things up out of whole cloth (hello NYT, Boston Globe and Wash Post). You can't go a week without a legacy paper making the news for making a mistake similar to what TBL just did.

You should get the beam out of your own eye before trying to take the splinter out of TBL's. Or you can just sit on your ass and complain here (which I'm guessing will be the popular course of action). I'm not even sure why this is posted on the journalism board. Sand in the vagina threads belong on Anything Goes.

 

A "tearful" Billy Donovan.

Puhhhlease.

 

Um, he printed a bunch of names of Florida State football players he heard might be connected with the cheating scandal recently - no attempt to verify, never contacted the players or the school. He got two names wrong.

Good thing no one reads TBL or else some of this shit could come back and bite him. One of the people he misnamed was De'Cody Fagg, who will probably be drafted this year. You could cost a player a lot of money being so careless. Oh, and it's completely reckless and unethical.

 

And then there was Le Affair De Reilly.

 

Then there are times like when the LA Times published that Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were named in the Jason Grimsley affidavit.

All the Times had to say is "The Times regrets the error" and end of story.

Papers run corrections all the time. TBL admited he was wrong - how is that any different from the half-dozen corrections most papers run every single day?

 

So Chris, in your mind, it's ok to leave the item up, but post -- in the fucking comments -- opps, my bad?

I know you want to defend your blogging brethren, but don't do it by making the argument that it's ok for TBL to do this stuff because newspapers do it too. It's not ok for either. And go ahead and show me a newspaper that would have printed an item about Matt Leinart having "several" baby mommas that he pays hush money to, according to a friend of a friend of someone's girlfriend.

 

Yeah newspapers never get important issues completely wrong.

 

I'm going to beat a dead horse here, but look at TBL's ethics--or lack thereof--with the Reilly in the LSU pressbox story. He posted a story without doing the slightest bit of legwork. And when it blew up in his face, what did he do? He said, "Oops, my bad" and now he continues to post bullshit blind items to his heart's content.

 

No one is saying that newspapers are completely right and blogs are completely wrong.

 

Hockeybeat - not for nothing but if you went through Peter Gammons trade rumors over the years you'd find more than your share of "bullshit blind items". That didn't make the other 99% of what he wrote any less informative or entertaining.

I'm not saying that the Billy Donovan thing is good and I think TBL would be better served by noting it was satire and posting his mea culpa on the main page. However, there was no malice in the mistake TBL made. There is, however, lots of malice here toward TBL.

I'm also amused by the "good thing nobody reads him" attitude because obviously the person posting that sentiment has read him. Also - I'd guess TBL's readership to be about 10,000 per day and I know a number of the posters on this thread have readerships that don't come close to TBL's level. It smacks of jealousy.