Tag: Kirk and Callahan

Pro Football Talk is NOT Happy With WEEI or Kirk and Callahan

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Pro Football Talk – We posted an item earlier today regarding a report from WEEI that the Patriots will be trading tight end Rob Gronkowski in the coming weeks. The report, which was being picked up by other websites, appeared in a single tweet that had no equivocation of any kind. It was clear, it was plain, and it was getting noticed. And it was all some sort of time-delayed April Fool’s Day gag, apparently. Chris Curtis of WEEI called me a little while ago to explain that it was a joke. I’m still scanning the tweet for the setup, the reinforcement, and/or the payoff. That is a humorous anecdote. I can’t wait to tell that one at parties and other social gatherings. I told Curtis I’m not happy about any of this. Needless to say, nothing WEEI ever reports again will be taken seriously in this space. It’s hard enough to keep people up to date on everything that’s happening in the NFL without people throwing gratuitous and unfunny hurdles in our path.

Nothing like a little sports media beef to get you through a Tuesday afternoon. Pro Football Talk is absolutely bullshit that they got hoodwinked by an April Fools joke from WEEI. WEEI’s Kirk and Callahan show tweeted out that one of their guys was reporting Rob Gronkowski would be traded in the next couple of weeks.

Now if you ever listen to Kirk and Callahan you know they like to screw with people, especially those in the media. So while its not a particularly hilarious joke, April Fools jokes aren’t really meant to be funny. They’re meant to pull one over on people and make them look stupid.

So for PFT to get so pissed off seems like a little much. I understand the frustration of posting something on your website that ultimately turns out to have zero truth to it, but you should probably also be checking sources to confirm before posting a story OR just run it with the disclaimer that WEEI is saying this but you can’t confirm or dispute it. Problem solved.

You gotta be extra vigilant on April Fools Day or sometimes you get hoodwinked on Twitter and risk taking the L like me.

Ron Borges, the Woodward to My Bernstein, Just Shot His Career to Hell With Fake Tom Brady Story

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So the internet is ablaze today with a hot take from Ron Borges that was shot out of the sky before I even got to my desk this morning. Literally. I was driving in listening to Kirk Minihane just DESTROY Ron Borges and I was wondering if it was just for past indiscretions (ya know like plagiarism) or if he did something else. Fired up a quick Twitter search while I was driving, I was in bumper to bumper traffic relax Mom, and whats the first thing I see? Ron Borges’ colleagues in the media openly mocking him for a fabricated rumor about Tom Brady planning to hold out for a new contract.

And on and on it goes.

All this before 9 AM. A couple of quick phone calls from guys like Tom E. Curran and they had already shot so many holes in the story that it wouldn’t get past the editor at a student newspaper. Yet somehow the Boston Fucking Herald ran with it.

Sure it was already taken off the website, but the newspapers (the paper versions all you old bastards absolutely have to have) were already on the stacks.

Pretty damning evidence for ya boy Ron. And thats before we even get into the details of *how* he reported this story. Again, according to Kirk and Callahan, basically some random guy got Borges’ phone number and started texting him pretending to be Tom Brady’s agent Don Yee.

Eventually fake-Don Yee tipped off Borges about the disgruntled Tom Brady and how he planned to hold out for Jimmy G type money and skip OTA’s. Huge right? So rather than picking up the phone and asking someone, anyone, for any kind of supporting evidence or even hearsay…rather than do any of that, Borges runs it for a front page column.

How does that get past an editor?

“Who’d you talk to, Ron? Some guy who’s identity you haven’t actually verified just texted you out of the blue with huge news? Print. That. Shit.”

Never rely on one source and never plagiarize. Those are the cardinal rules of journalism. Trust me, I have a degree in big-J Journalism. And Ron Borges has now broken both of them.

I’m not here to call for anyone’s job, but if we’re being honest, I’m calling for Ron Borges job. It’s one thing to write thinly veiled hit pieces and describe the team you cover with so much disdain for 30 years, its another to print something defamatory as fact because fucking Johnny from Weymouth sent you a text at 1 AM like its last call at the Harp.

When you become the real life Ron Burgundy, just reporting whatever you’re told, its time to go.