NDJournalist said:
DrewJo said:
NDJournalist said:
I highly doubt Deadspin would post something they knew to be false. Deadspin is many things, some bad and some good. One thing they do as good as anybody (most times) is investigative journalism.
I do think the top editors at Deadspin--Tommy Craggs and Tom Scocca--would've been smart enough not to print something if they had evidence it was wrong.
But they weren't the ones actually interviewing the sources. The reporter speaking on the phone with Diane O'Meara was Timothy Burke--and I've caught that guy spreading some ridiculous lies in the past. That's why I don't feel so comfortable giving him the benefit of the doubt. He's the only reporter at Deadspin who would've known for sure what Diane O'Meara said.
Spreadng ridiculous lies? Do tell.
I recapped it in this
blog post.
Basically, he'd been using the Reddit account
X-9er to spam his own Deadspin links. After he got banned for spamming, he went on Twitter and tried pinning the blame on some imaginary pedophile conspiracy. I investigated and cleared up the misinformation for him. However, he kept using sockpuppet accounts on Reddit and denied being a spammer. At which point I stepped in and laid out
all the evidence or why he was lying.
Now, just because he lied in the past, doesn't necessarily mean he was being dishonest about Te'o or that he was suppressing certain pieces of evidence in this case. But that's the reason I don't trust the guy.