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Deadspin: (Notre Dame football player) Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend is a hoax

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Crazy story; and implausible excuse.

He has said he met her, face to face, in real life before. And she has visited him/family in Hawaii before. Yet her twitter and media were using some other random woman's picture. Seems like his whole family was in on it because it sounds like they met her before as well.

On the other hand, the whole thing is so elaborate with all the twitter messages. Did he just tweet to this fake account for a year in the preparation that he would kill her off in the future.

I dunno, seems he may have been the victim of a hoax; yet he lied and elaborated about things to the media. He had probably uncovered the hoax for himself a long time back but then just decided to play along for the attention.

Wherever the truth lies, he does not appear clean no matter how you look at things.
 
At least ESPN is opening up both barrels on itself, with the longer footage from that interview, and now talking to Gene W., the reporter.

Oh wow, he mentions looking into finding an obit and not finding it, but stopped looking into once Manti mentioned "the family wants their privacy"
 
FatboyRoberts said:
How in the fuck did NOBODY aside from this one guy at Deadspin even THINK to fact check this story? How many reporters/editors not only dropped the ball, but weren't even in the same ROOM as the fucking ball so as to fumble it?
Click to expand...

It wasn't even deadspin. The writer said that some readers told them it didn't add up and to check up on it.
 
Maybe I fail at reading but this story is so fucked Im having trouble understanding wtf actually happened...

Soooo he made up a story about an imaginary girlfriend dying in a car wreck??.....wat.
 
FatboyRoberts said:
How in the fuck did NOBODY aside from this one guy at Deadspin even THINK to fact check this story? How many reporters/editors not only dropped the ball, but weren't even in the same ROOM as the fucking ball so as to fumble it?
Click to expand...

Our news media is not what it once was. Today it's about getting out any story as fast as possible.

Just look how CNN got the SCOTUS Obamacare ruling wrong at first. Or how Adam Lanza had the wrong photo put up.

Journalism was once about finding the truth and reporting it. Today, it is about how many RTs you can get.

No one fact checked because they are lazy and just want to get their scoop out there ASAP. It's sad, but true.
 
FatboyRoberts said:
How in the fuck did NOBODY aside from this one guy at Deadspin even THINK to fact check this story? How many reporters/editors not only dropped the ball, but weren't even in the same ROOM as the fucking ball so as to fumble it?
Click to expand...

According to the guy who interviewed him they did but they ignored the fact that she didn't exist because they "wanted to believe it"

AKA ESPN has no problem lying.
 
This is a real headline...

FXK9r.jpg


ALSO LEBRON TO THE CAVS??
 
CrankyJay said:
Can someone cliff's note this?

Him and the family made up this girl for what? To build up his story for fame/glory/money/attention?
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His friend Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was behind it. Tuiasosopo used pictures of an old classmate of his to fabricate the fake woman, and there are stories of Te'o meeting and talking with her, which could not have happened. Tuiasosopo had also been in a car accident a month before Lennay's accident and used his own story as inspiration and Te'o went along with it.

Here's the Deadspin cliff notes.

There was no Lennay Kekua. Lennay Kekua did not meet Manti Te'o after the Stanford game in 2009. Lennay Kekua did not attend Stanford. Lennay Kekua never visited Manti Te'o in Hawaii. Lennay Kekua was not in a car accident. Lennay Kekua did not talk to Manti Te'o every night on the telephone. She was not diagnosed with cancer, did not spend time in the hospital, did not engage in a lengthy battle with leukemia. She never had a bone marrow transplant. She was not released from the hospital on Sept. 10, nor did Brian Te'o congratulate her for this over the telephone. She did not insist that Manti Te'o play in the Michigan State or Michigan games, and did not request he send white flowers to her funeral. Her favorite color was not white. Her brother, Koa, did not inform Manti Te'o that she was dead. Koa did not exist. Her funeral did not take place in Carson, Calif., and her casket was not closed at 9 a.m. exactly. She was not laid to rest.
Click to expand...
 
tapedeck said:
Maybe I fail at reading but this story is so fucked Im having trouble understanding wtf actually happened...

Soooo he made up a story about an imaginary girlfriend dying in a car wreck??.....wat.
Click to expand...

Manti Te'o is either a huge liar or an incredibly naive moron. Either way he looks stupid.
 
Socreges said:
There are a good dozen reasons why his explanation doesn't make any sense. His brother claimed they had met in Hawaii multiple times. That would mean the people actually flew someone out to Hawaii just to keep the hoax going (for whatever reason). He also claimed that they spoke each night while she had leukemia, meaning that someone behind the hoax was that committed to keeping him deceived.

Not sure what this has to do with my post. Her fictional brother 'notified' him, yes?
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That was my mistake. In the video it sounded to me like he was referring to his own brother.
 
After having seen the segment by John Oliver on The Daily Show about how CNN has fired its investigative journalism division, I'm not that surprised that such deception can go without being fact checked. Just a sign of the times :-p
 
Oregon is high fiving themselves much like Ohio State did when Sandusky news dropped.

"Yes we cheated but atleast we didn't lie about our women"
 
FatboyRoberts said:
How in the fuck did NOBODY aside from this one guy at Deadspin even THINK to fact check this story? How many reporters/editors not only dropped the ball, but weren't even in the same ROOM as the fucking ball so as to fumble it?
Click to expand...

I think what happened (if we believe Deadspin) is that the girl whose picture they used saw it and then contacted deadspin
 
Azwethinkweiz said:
It wasn't even deadspin. The writer said that some readers told them it didn't add up and to check up on it.
Click to expand...

Still - he thought to fact check it based on that, at least. That's apparently more than anyone at ESPN did once the athlete was like "Hey, don't check on my story please - out of respect for the family." If you work at ESPN, and you follow up with an athlete like "This seems weird" and the athlete (An idiot college kid, by the way) tries to say "Oh, uh, please don't look into that?" you should probably look into that. That's your JOB.
 
CrankyJay said:
Manti Te'o is either a huge liar or an incredibly naive moron. Either way he looks stupid.
Click to expand...
Not an option.

He and Notre Dame are going to do their best to make this go away, though, and hope enough people get the facts wrong. But as the details become more clear I think Manti will be forced to make a statement admitting guilt.
 
KingKong said:
I think what happened (if we believe Deadspin) is that the girl whose picture they used saw it and then contacted deadspin
Click to expand...
If that's the case, then no way did Te'o come up with this. If this was a true hoax, then they would have gotten a girl who was also in on it, in order to cover their bases.
 
http://www.orangebowl.org/assets/1/7/jan3presserpt2.pdf

Press notes from Jan. 3rd about the upcoming game on the 7th. Question about the Grandma and "GF" thing:

Q. Manti, how have the football-related commotion and excitement of the past year helped you get
through the turmoil you've faced with your grandmother and girlfriend? And how have the quiet periods
been for you, given you more time to reflect? Is that a good thing or double edged?

MANTI TE'O: I think whenever you're in football, it takes your mind off a lot of things. You know, this team
is very special to me, and the guys on it have always been there for me, through the good times and the bad times. I
rarely have a quiet time to myself because I always have somebody calling me, asking, do you want to go to the
movies. Coach is always calling me asking me, "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" I have three roommates,
Zeke, Carlo and Robby Toma, who are always yelling at each other, who's going to play Call of Duty. I'm rarely by
myself, and that's how I like it. I'm always around my guys, always around my family.
Click to expand...
 
Socreges said:
Not an option.

He and Notre Dame are going to do their best to make this go away, though, and hope enough people get the facts wrong. But as the details become more clear I think Manti will be forced to make a statement admitting guilt.
Click to expand...

LOL yeah...at any rate he's untrustworthy and a bad decision maker.
 
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