Thread: Manti Te'o's Girlfriend Story a Hoax

I disagree. It is much to do about nothing. And for the most part, No network reports anything anymore. They just throw **** against a wall and see who gets splattered.

Originally Posted by USCKingsFan31

Not sure how you mean.

If you mean that this is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, most definitely. But then, by that logic, so is virtually everything revolving around sports.

But in the world of sports, when a player from a storied university like Notre Dame elevates his game to become one of the best players in the country to lead his team to an undefeated regular season and his defense to be the best scoring defense in the nation (allowing just 10.3 points per game) facing what many believed this preseason to be one of the toughest schedules in the country, that's news. When he does all of that in a season where his grandmother and girlfriend both died within six hours of each other of cancer, it's a pretty remarkable story, even to some degree outside of the world of sports.

When it turns out that that story was a hoax, one that either fooled this incredible character or one that he took part in crafting to build this character image, that's definitely news. When this hoax was perpetuated and spread by virtually every major news network and publication in the country, it brings to the forefront so much of what is wrong with news today and can open up a very legitimate national conversation (that many of us have already been having for years) about what direction the "twitter age" is leading media towards.

So yeah, some guy having a fake girlfriend online in a vacuum may not be much of a news story. But this most certainly is.

There are far more important things going on in the world than some imaginary girlfriend that didn't really die. Regardless of how important you and everyone else may or may not think this is, it shouldn't the opeing story of my local news.

Originally Posted by Ecktore

There are far more important things going on in the world than some imaginary girlfriend that didn't really die. Regardless of how important you and everyone else may or may not think this is, it shouldn't the opeing story of my local news.

"There are far more important things going on in the world..." yes, obviously there are. In that big block of text you quoted, did you read the first part, that said "this is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, most definitely"? In defending that this was in fact a news story, did I infer that it should be the lead news story on your local news?

Originally Posted by x-wingcamewest

I disagree. It is much to do about nothing. And for the most part, No network reports anything anymore. They just throw **** against a wall and see who gets splattered.

Fair enough; you won't get any strong disagreeing from me on your jaded view on the news. As I already just re-quoted, I agree that the girlfriend hoax in and of itself is insignificant. I actually disagree strongly that the journalism side of this is "much to do about nothing", but that isn't really what any of these places are reporting on, so I digress on that.

Still, I'd argue that both of you are being way too all-or-nothing here. By the logic that "other things going on in the world are more important, therefore anything less important than those things isn't important at all"... than nothing but the most important thing in the world is important. This is news, even if it is insignificant compared to other news.

i gotta agree with usckingsfan.
in the grand scheme of things, it is insignificant BUT what is newsworthy is deadspin's good work in the face of journalism today and the fact that this guy rode the supposed tragedy of his fake gf dying to even more national attention. he already had a lot of media attention surrounding it so what are they gonna do when a good piece of journalistic investigation points out this gf never existed? just go "oh oh well, that was a lot of wasted discussion, oh well, let's move on and pretend it never happened!". then when all the major sports news outlets are covering this, it becomes news everywhere.
if te'o never had the spotlight on him to bring this fake gf to the attention of college ball fans everywhere, no one would care. instead, he brought her up every chance he could and he got a lot of chances.

this and the lance thing are just a big deal because it's kind of bad to lie (amiright?) and they're easy singular targets to focus wrath upon (not some mysterious entity like a government).
fwiw, i care about the other problems happening in the world as well. lgk isn't a political forum though so i'm not allowed to talk about those things here.

Hold the phone everyone

Lennay Kekua told Manti Te

Now we got drug dealers and more WTF'ness

This chick is going off the charts

Originally Posted by USCKingsFan31

Originally Posted by Ecktore

There are far more important things going on in the world than some imaginary girlfriend that didn't really die. Regardless of how important you and everyone else may or may not think this is, it shouldn't the opeing story of my local news.

"There are far more important things going on in the world..." yes, obviously there are. In that big block of text you quoted, did you read the first part, that said "this is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, most definitely"? In defending that this was in fact a news story, did I infer that it should be the lead news story on your local news?

Originally Posted by x-wingcamewest

I disagree. It is much to do about nothing. And for the most part, No network reports anything anymore. They just throw **** against a wall and see who gets splattered.

Fair enough; you won't get any strong disagreeing from me on your jaded view on the news. As I already just re-quoted, I agree that the girlfriend hoax in and of itself is insignificant. I actually disagree strongly that the journalism side of this is "much to do about nothing", but that isn't really what any of these places are reporting on, so I digress on that.

Still, I'd argue that both of you are being way too all-or-nothing here. By the logic that "other things going on in the world are more important, therefore anything less important than those things isn't important at all"... than nothing but the most important thing in the world is important. This is news, even if it is insignificant compared to other news.

I owe you an apology. I'm just really frustrated with how the news is handling it.

Originally Posted by Ecktore

I owe you an apology. I'm just really frustrated with how the news is handling it.

No worries... after ESPN led its SportsCenter tonight with Jeremy Schaap's studdering mess of a report on an unrecorded 2.5-hour conversation he had with Te'o on the topic, I'm really frustrated too.

It is a great microcosm of society and the media today, though. Why have a legitimate conversation about journalistic integrity and responsibility when we can blather on baselessly about whether or not a fake girlfriend was this or that? Why have a legitimate conversation about gun control when we can just spread our party's agenda with over-simplified bull**** and blame movies and video games?

I'm right there with you, friend. News media in this country is a joke, no need for apologizing, we're very much on the same page in that regard.

just to address what i mentioned in my earlier post:

Te'o tells ESPN: Not involved in creating hoax - Yahoo! News

Te'o said he never met Kekua face-to-face and when he tried to speak with her via Skype and video phone calls, the picture was blocked. Still, he didn't figure out the ruse.

He also told ESPN that he lied to his father about having met Kekua. To cover that up, he apparently lied to everyone else.

After he was told Kekua had died of leukemia in early September, Te'o admitted he misled the public about the nature of the "relationship" because he was uncomfortable saying it was purely an electronic romance.

"That goes back to what I did with my dad. I knew that. I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn't meet," he said. "So I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away."

not that whatever he's saying now could be the full truth. it's just an idea i had that seems to be what he's going with for now.

I'll agree it is a "news" item Dave. And it's about as important as the stuff you read on the front pages of the scandal rags while waiting to pay for your groceries.