One Aspect of the Teo Coverage that is bugging me

[Orangemen]

The unnamed friend of Tuisasopo (sp?) who says he's "80% sure" Teo was in on it, and ESPN's use of his quote.

That is a major part of the story, and ESPN has said it about 1000 times since 7 PM last night. It is the one part of the story that verifies what most people believe upon hearing the story for the first time- that Teo was in on it. It legitimizes the belief that Teo is a liar, but there is absolutely no legitimacy behind the statement. They are using a second hand unnamed source to make the viewer believe Teo is a liar.

That seems like some pretty sketchy journalism to me.

Now, personally, I believe Teo is lying because the story just seems way too far fetched to be true. But I do question ESPN's ethical judgment on using the 80% statement. Maybe they believe he is a liar, so they want to make sure there coverage looks accurate in hindsight. But if it turns out he's telling the truth, ESPN will have done a lot of damage to this guy based on an extremely sketchy source (I know, wouldn't be the first time).

 

[SU2NASA]

The unnamed friend of Tuisasopo (sp?) who says he's "80% sure" Teo was in on it, and ESPN's use of his quote.

That is a major part of the story, and ESPN has said it about 1000 times since 7 PM last night. It is the one part of the story that verifies what most people believe upon hearing the story for the first time- that Teo was in on it. It legitimizes the belief that Teo is a liar, but there is absolutely no legitimacy behind the statement. They are using a second hand unnamed source to make the viewer believe Teo is a liar.

That seems like some pretty sketchy journalism to me.

Now, personally, I believe Teo is lying because the story just seems way too far fetched to be true. But I do question ESPN's ethical judgment on using the 80% statement. Maybe they believe he is a liar, so they want to make sure there coverage looks accurate in hindsight. But if it turns out he's telling the truth, ESPN will have done a lot of damage to this guy based on an extremely sketchy source (I know, wouldn't be the first time).

It's been coming across to me like ESPN has been trying to protect Te'o by advancing the 'victim' card. I haven't heard that 80% quote yet, but my complaint with their shoddy journalism is not putting feet to the fire about why all the claims about meeting her in multiple places (first met at the Stanford-ND game, Hawaii, etc.), how they couldn't have possibly never met when ND plays at her alma mater or hometown every year when they supposedly dated for 3 1/2 years, why does he know Tuiasosopo who's supposedly the one that 'victimized' him.

It's much harder to believe he's a victim than that he's in on it given the information presented. ESPN seems to be just going with the 'Catfish' theory without any real probing questions.