Deadspin scorches source

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Like I said, he owned it.

"But whatever the case, the most damning implication of our story, that Gardner didn't actually play high school ball, is wrong. That's ****ty of us. As serial collectors of media ****-ups, we add this self-portrait to the gallery."

I guess we'll agree to disagree, but this section right here is pretty clear-cut. Is he supposed to just give the source a free pass for doubling back? As far as Deadspin apologies go, this is about the most you can expect from Craggs.

No. He didn't own it. He questioned the motives of old man to change his story.

We're still not sure what happened with Pfalmer between his certainty Tuesday that Gardner hadn't played and his certainty Wednesday that Gardner had—Pfalmer told us last night he'd checked his records after our initial conversation and discovered Gardner's forgotten three years—nor can we explain why he is now giving Gardner a year on the varsity team that the candidate himself isn't claiming.

Sorry, that's not owning it.
Take that sentence out, OK.
Leave it in, you're taking a cheap shot at a fallable source.
You ****ed it. Leave it at that and move on.

And OBTW: This is a nothing story. And it was a really long nothing story.

 

[Songbird]

^ So it belongs in the BASW?

 

[Double Down]

Not to knock McKenna too much because he's typically great, but it seems like covering DC-area sports (and preps) kinda skewed his view on the "play both ways" thing. Hell, I grew up in a town of 60,000, played in a state title game at my state's highest classification, and everybody worth a damn played both ways. Everybody. Our all-state wide receiver was a defensive end. Our all-state quarterback was the hardest hitting free safety in the league. Western states aren't populated enough to keep good athletes on the bench for half the game. Of course it sounds like Caldwell Gardner was garbage as a player and was at the very least telling misleading tales about his role on the team, but the "play both ways" thing wouldn't have sounded much of an alarm.

EDIT: I have no idea why I thought the dude's name was Caldwell.

 

[dreunc1542]

Hell, Terrelle Pryor played both ways in high school.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I think the point is that the fact that Caldwell mentioned it was the red flag that indicated he didn't play high school football, right?

 

[LongTimeListener]

I suppose none of you actually read the Washington Post story that Craggs linked to:

http://deadspin.com/how-deadspin-****ed-up-the-cory-gardner-story-1647195366

As to the due diligence, Craggs says there was plenty: “Dave is as good a reporter as any I’ve worked with. He checked off all the right boxes. (He called up the school’s library to ask about yearbooks. The 1992 edition didn’t have a football roster, and the library didn’t have a book for 1993, Gardner’s senior year.)” Referring to Deadspin’s legendary story about the hoax of then-Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o’s dead girlfriend, Craggs wrote, “If you’re looking for someone to blame here, blame me for getting way too cocky about my site’s ability to prove a negative.”

The answer not being available is hardly the same as the answer being no.

If McKenna did that and was so convinced of his story, OK ... reporters get too locked onto and emotionally invested in details. It's the editor who brings the reporter back.

Craggs is quite obviously a terrible editor. You can see by the sniveling toad nature of all of his responses when these situations come up -- as well as by the sheer number of times these situations come up.

 

[Pilot]

It's times like this their ****-swinging need to be as snarky as humanly possible bites them in the ass and makes any attempt to walk it back seem stupid.

They didn't say "A candidate for the U.S. Senate claimed he played high school football but a long-time employee at the school casts doubt on that claim."


They said: "Breaking news: Politician makes **** up!" and keep that "**** you! HAHAHA!" tone running for every word of the article. It makes for a cute shtick until you have to pretend you're sorry you ****ed up.

He obviously spent plenty of time doing web research, most of it apparently fixated on Akron, as if that was important. He even called Akron's current coach, for some reason. If he'd spent 10 percent of that much time making sure he was right, he'd have avoided this whole thing.

 

[MileHigh]

They actually thought that was a story worthy of publication in the first place? Whether or not the guy played offense and defense?

No. They thought he lied about playing at all, and the tip-off to them was that he made a big deal out of players playing both offense and defense, because that's not a big deal in high school. They thought it was a sign that he didn't really know what it was like to play high school football.

That was one of the weirdest things about it. I don't get why that would be a red flag, unless you've never seen a football game in a town that has, I don't know, fewer than 50,000 people. Most small school football players are on offense and defense. Obviously you see fewer as you go up in size, but of all the things to send a tingle up your leg, that was a strange one. It'd be like thinking someone's lying if they said they played three sports in high school back in 1993.

It was shoddy reporting from top to bottom. And no clue where Gardner is from. He's from Yuma, on the Eastern Plains. Population doesn't even hit 4,000. The ultimate small-school football, but when you're reclining along the I-95 corridor and you're looking for any kind of gotcha, this is what you get.

 

[Walter Burns]

Deadspin is currently working to confirm that Charles Woodson was once enrolled at the University of Michigan. He once claimed to play offense and defense -- and get this, he even says he played special teams!

Apropos of nothing, I have talked to Charles Woodson's high school coach at length, as well as some opposing coaches. One remembered his team getting scorched on a punt return like it was yesterday.

 

[Ace]

My 3 cents:

To me, it makes a big difference if the source contacted you or you came to him and whether th source is official (like a coach, AD or principal). This guy was neither.

I would not have named him as the bad source. He's not the authority just because you say so.

Also, if you trust people's memories in regards to high school sports, you will get burned 90 percent of the time.

 

[LongTimeListener]

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Craggs increasingly comes off as a scumbag.
Which his predecessor didn't quite have to establish.

 

[old_tony]

Here's his "owning it":

"We're still not sure what happened with Pfalmer between his certainty Tuesday that Gardner hadn't played and his certainty Wednesday that Gardner had—Pfalmer told us last night he'd checked his records after our initial conversation and discovered Gardner's forgotten three years—nor can we explain why he is now giving Gardner a year on the varsity team that the candidate himself isn't claiming. But whatever the case, the most damning implication of our story, that Gardner didn't actually play high school ball, is wrong. That's ****ty of us. As serial collectors of media ****-ups, we add this self-portrait to the gallery. For more thorough coverage, you can read Erik Wemple over at the Post. As I told Wemple—and I sincerely meant it—given that our main source went and unsaid everything he'd said 24 hours earlier, the only thing for us to do now is to eat ****."

What should one expect from an outlet with absolutely no standards?

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Deadspin's a joke.
It's like a fraternity house for unprincipled tools.