Outsports Discussion Board > Consider the source!

Outsports Discussion Board > Outsports > Gays in Sports

Joe in Philly

Jan 17 2007, 12:25 AM

This is regarding the now-closed thread about the supposedly gay NJ Nets player planning to come out of the closet. If you recall (or went back to that thread, all atwitter because OMG!!! A BASKETBALL PLAYER IS GAY!!!! REALLY TRULY GAY LIKE ME!!!!!!!!!) the source of that story was a website called Media Take Out.

Well, guess what? That very site recently had to retract a story. Check out the correction from this gossip column:

QUOTE

In Friday's Tattle, we mentioned an item from MediaTakeOut.com regarding the Florida prostitution arrest of Felicia Pearson, a star of HBO's "The Wire." As it occasionally turns out with Internet news, the story was completely wrong, perhaps a prank, and Tattle regrets the error and the harm it caused to the good name of Ms. Pearson.

I hope you've all learned your lesson about these rumors.

sportinlife

Jan 18 2007, 02:05 AM

But that ranks Media Take Out right up there with CBS and Dan Rather. I'm sure that was not your intent.

Joe in Philly

Jan 18 2007, 06:07 PM

The CBS story was not just spreading a rumor about some anonymous person. They reported on George W. Bush's military service, and presented what they thought was documentation (though it turned out not to be). The Media Take Out site just spreads rumors and doesn't even try to prove them.

jay original

Jan 18 2007, 08:06 PM

I thought this thread was closed?!

I think "truth" is produced. I've known
several newspapers that printed retractions
about stories after ruining people's
reputations. That's why retraction is a
word in the dictionary and the anecdote
about retractions being on page 25 while
smears are on page 1 lives. You can't say
that one wrong story ruins everything for
this website. And why slam people for
wanting someone to be gay like them?
Joe, don't go you know who on us.

Joe in Philly

Jan 18 2007, 11:02 PM

QUOTE(jay original @ Jan 18 2007, 08:06 PM)

Joe, don't go you know who on us.

I don't know who you mean...and all I'm saying is that rumors like this are a waste of time. They're sort of amusing in a way but EVERY such story has to be taken with a humongous grain of salt. A website that deals with rumormongering shouldn't be given the benefit of the doubt, especially when it's proven to be so easily fooled.

jay original

Jan 20 2007, 02:53 AM

Joe...I hate gossip. That's why I get rid of it as fast as I can.

Joe in Philly

Feb 2 2007, 10:48 PM

Another example of shoddy website rumormongering (not related to gays in sports, but it reinforces the lesson): ProFootballTalk.com declared Terry Bradshaw dead.

QUOTE

THERE'S A LOT to be said - good and bad - about the Internet and 24-hour news cycles.

Poor Terry Bradshaw nearly didn't survive yesterday's feeble attempts at journalism.

At 3:13 p.m. ProFootballTalk.com. ran this headline: Terry Bradshaw dead?

This is what followed: "We're picking up some unconfirmed reports from diverse sources that... Terry Bradshaw died in a car accident on Thursday."

By 3:20, the site posted this headline: Terry is fine.

Then this: "Whew. One of our industry sources tells us that the rumors of Bradshaw's demise are not true. He is alive and well and on vacation. We're not sure how the rumor got started, but it has been running rampant."

Everybody makes mistakes (you should read our e-mail). This goes beyond a mistake. If you're "picking up unconfirmed reports from diverse sources," confirm them before posting them for the world to see.

The site generally is a good one. It's a fun read and it has broken news stories. If the site wants to be a player, there is a certain level of responsibility that is part of the deal.

Last night at 8:43 and updated at 9:52, ProFootballTalk.com ran this headline: The root of the Bradshaw rumors.

The site said several readers swore to never visit again because they believed the rumor was made up to generate traffic. It blamed TV stations in Shreveport, La., saying there was talk that Bradshaw had died of a heart attack.

Then, this: "One theory as to how the rumor got started," KTBS reported, "was that a local radio station reported a wreck on the Terry Bradshaw Passway... and that was misunderstood to say Bradshaw had passed away."

Terry Bradshaw has died before; ask anyone who remembers his putrid country-music career. He is one of America's all-time sports heroes. He deserved better.

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