Yesterday I was stuck in my car from about 3:30 in the afternoon to 7:30 at night. Thanks to a surprise snow storm and the fact that many of us Southerners cant drive in the stuff what should have been a 30-minute drive home turned into a four-hour nightmare. Trust me, Ill never watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles the same way again.
While trapped in my car and creeping along slower than your average snail, I went up and down my Sirius/XM dial (free plug). ESPN radio. CNN radio. FOX news radio. On all of those stations, the Manti Teo story popped up. Then it popped up again. And again. Even more than the already overblown Lance Armstrong story. Much more than any actual news.
A quick Google search this morning provides these Teo reports:
Notre Dame: Football Star was Catfished in Girlfriend Hoax
Does Teo Suffer from the Delusional Disease?
Teo's Fake Girlfriend may have Duped Others
9 Baffling Questions in Teo Girlfriend Hoax
Seriously, people, what the Hell?
The story of Teo's made-up girlfriend has become our latest national obsession. Apparently no pretty blonde woman has disappeared this week. No public figure has had an affair. The press has time to fill and a human-interest-story-gone-weird has become the perfect filler.
Too bad its the press and, yes, this writer is a member of the press, too that deserves the scorn over this one. Sure Teo and Notre Dame should have come clean sooner, but was the player running for office? Did he divulge Americas secret nuke codes to the North Koreans? Apparently he lied about having a girlfriend. At best he was duped by a hoaxer and didnt fess up quickly. At worst he played the press for sympathy and publicity. Newsflash: He aint the first.
Would you rather a college athlete make up a story about a girlfriend or beat the devil out of kid at a frat party? When it comes to the long list of crimes and misdemeanors committed by college students, lying to the media about a girlfriend should rank somewhere between skipping class and stealing another schools mascot. Who really cares? Who did Teo hurt?
If not for the press seeking/searching/praying for a human interest story rather than, ya know, actual news the story of Teo's girlfriend would have never made national headlines. Much, much worse, if any of the journalists who sprained their fingers banging out stories on Teo's tragedy had first tried to confirm the validity of Teo's tale we might not be looking up the meaning of the word catfished today.
Twenty-five years ago before the internet and talk radio and social media exploded, reporters would have actually made a phone call or two to see if Teo's story was rooted in actual facts. Now, struggling to fill a 24-hour news cycle with any kind of content at all, the people Teo talked to about his fake girlfriend just swallowed what he spoon-fed them and raced to tweet it out before anyone else.
Could part of the reason everyone in the media is picking up on this story be that we in the media got played? Whether Teo was duped or not is up for debate. There is no such debate regarding the media in this mess. We were definitely duped. The rush to fill the vast news void led some of us to run with a story without ever doing any fact-checking. Instead, there was just typing. Tweeting. Reporter stand-ups from in front of Notre Dames golden dome.
The public and press can chide Teo if they like, but hell have to explain his actions to every team in the NFL and that should be punishment enough. Notre Dame officials deserve a scolding for allowing a story they knew to be false to continue on through the BCS title game. But we in the media deserve even more of the blame.
Apparently a 21-year-old young man lied. We fell for it and ran with it without doing any research. People can be expected to lie. The press should be expected to do some fact-checking on a story that would have been so easy to fact-check.
As for the news consumer, well, I cant grasp why anyone really cares about this story. It should be a blurb. A backpage story. Player Part of Girlfriend Hoax. Instead of reading and watching coverage of important issues the economy, the environment, the gun debate America has been hooked by a college linebackers made-up girlfriend. I dont necessarily think thats a good thing, but then again I didnt lose any sleep over Tiger Woods affair and I didnt watch any of the Casey Anthony trial.
Still, youll find your daily fill of Teo links in todays headlines. You want it, you got it. Heres just hoping that those folks who wrote it got it right. This time.
