We have a couple of issues today and we go over them in this post.
Earlier today, Mike Wise of the Washington Post thought it would be a good idea to put some fake news on Twitter just to see the reaction. The idea according to Wise would be that other reporters would fail to vet his Tweet and he would be able to say, “I told you so.” The only problem that while other reporters did quote his Tweet, Wise eventually revealed on Twitter and his DC radio show that he made the whole thing up. While he thought he was being funny, people were quickly piling on. And Wise’s bosses at the WaPo quickly fired off a memo to its staff about its social networking policy.
At Fanhouse, Michael David Smith recaps the events that led to a huge downward spiral at the Post.
Dan Steinberg at the Post’s DC Sports Bog has various reaction from the media including the Post.
Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk really went off on Wise.
To cap it off, Mike Wise talked with On The DL’s Dan Levy at Press Coverage and subsequently apologized.
So what are the lessons learned here? It’s really not a good idea to use your position as a reporter to post false news on Twitter. While the other reporters did attribute the tweets to Wise, he ended up with egg on his face. The whole thing turned out to be one giant hoax and the whole thing boomeranged on him.
Our other issue is the discussion of the Jay Mariotti issue on ESPN’s Around the Horn. This is the program where Mariotti was a regular contributor. The story of Mariotti arrested two weekends ago in an alleged domestic dispute involving his girlfriend has been well documented. So too has the reaction to Mariotti in the media and blogs.
Sports Newser has the transcripts of the reaction of the writers on today’s Around the Horn.
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch felt it was a good idea for the show to tackle the subject head on.
I do give Around the Horn credit for discussing the Mariotti incident and while it didn’t break ground, it’s more coverage than other ESPN entities have done.
So there you have the two big sports media stories that have been circulating the sports blogosphere today.
