How the Media Fell for A Racism Sham

A BYU paper scooped the New York Times and other corporate media outlets by simply doing basic journalism 101 to prove the accusations of racism by a Duke volleyball player never happened.

Everything that happened here fits into a growing problem in mainstream newsrooms; the injection of political values even into straight reporting, undermining the very purpose of journalism.

There were so many red flags to this story yet people like the NY Times ran with it because it fit their narrative. The only red flag missing was the Duke player saying after they called me the n-word they yelled, "This is MAGA country!"  

What are the repercussions here? Who will take responsibility for the lie? Will the NY Times issue an apology? Will Duke suspend the volleyball player who issued the accusations? Unlikely. We live in an age where increasingly nobody is forced to take responsibility for their actions.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

It made the news recently that there was an app that supposedly helped homosexuals pray away the gay. Some people have now noticed that the app store no longer has that app and I just wanted people to know that the gay conversion thru prayer app wasn't yanked - I prayed it away!... Dude puts on scuba gear, jumps into TSUNAMI, dodges debris, finds his house and his wife and saves her. For his next trick he will kick Chuck Norris' ass with one-hand tied behind his back... My new "10 Inch Penis through Prayer" App is going to make me rich!... Charlie Brooker on the Media's Japan coverage. I haven't seen this Charlie Brooker before but he seems pretty funny... "'When I use a word,' Barack Obama said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." The quote is actually from Humpty Dumpty but you easily could see Barack saying it - couldn't you?... I've been thinking about this shot a lot lately. 30th anniversary of most famous shot in BYU history: Ainge's end-to-end dash... Even Lefties like Sam Simon are abandoning Barack Obama over Libya. This was a Tweet from Simon the other day:

The only thing I can think of that explains what Obama's doing in Libya: Gadhafi has his real birth certificate.

Saddam had Baghdad Bob - does Qaddafi have a Tripoli Timmy?... The damning contradictions of Obama's attack on Libya... Semi-kidding but is it too early to call American involvement in Libya a quagmire? The press didn't wait this long to declare Iraq a quagmire... Very cool - skiing with a jetpack... In 1981 BYU makes it to the Sweet 16 while the best Notre Dame basketball team in ages gets upset in 2nd round. That same week REO Speedwagon hits #1 with its hit Keep on Loving You. Now 30 years later BYU is back in the Sweet 16, Notre Dame has its best team in 30-years beaten in the 2nd round and Rebecca Black comes out with a song that is as bad and as popular as Keep on Loving You... Cool - Ballhawks: The Obsession of Catching a Home Run Ball Outside Wrigley. Narrated by Bill Murray.

College Football Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous college football thoughts and observations.

Week three in college football always seems to bring some big surprises and this year was no exception. The biggest surprise was of course USC getting beat by Washington. This was the 4th year in a row that USC was beaten by an unranked team. Two things about this game - first I hope that blame is not put solely on the shoulders of QB Aaron Corp. If freshman QB Matt Barkley comes back and leads USC to wins the rest of the way then Corp will be a target but it will be unfair. The whole team lost yesterday - not just the QB. Secondly, you have to wonder how this will effect Ohio State. It will be tough for voters to rank Ohio State ahead of USC for the rest of the way enabling maybe some lesser talented one-loss teams to leapfrog the Buckeyes in the rankings... Maybe the biggest winner of the weekend was Miami. First they dismantle 14th ranked Georgia Tech and then a team they beat - Florida State - dismantled number 7 BYU. Number 20 Miami will be sure to jump a number of spots in the rankings after the results of the past few days but the question is how many? The BYU loss causes a rankings conundrum. Oklahoma lost to BYU and is ranked 12th. Logic would seem to dictate that Miami be ranked higher with the thinking of Miami beat FSU, FSU beat BYU and BYU beat Oklahoma. But since when did logic and the NCAA ever really go together?... Notre Dame won yesterday but they did not cover the spread. Even with the win - many fans jumped off the Fighting Irish bandwagon. I know that Charlie Weis doesn't set the spread but his job nonetheless is to cover it (no I'm not bitter - much)... At gametime - Army was an 8.5 favorite over a fellow 1-A competitor Ball State. When was the last time Army was favored by that many points? With Army and Air Force victories yesterday - the service academies are now a combined 5-4 on the season. Good for them...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Happy Labor Day!... With the win over Oklahoma - many people are asking "can an undefeated BYU team realistically reach the national championship game?" I say yes. If BYU can also beat TCU, Florida State and Utah and if they are the only one or two undefeated teams in college football then they deserve to be in the championship game. SI's Stewart Mandel looks at the question in depth... If I'm a Detroit fan - then I'm hoping that Jim Leyland names Rick Pocello as the #3 starter in the playoffs over Jarrod Washburn. Good line-ups like the Red Sox or Yankees will pound Washburn... In most articles about Richard Seymour you'll notice that people bring up D-lineman Ron Brace as a reason the depth was there to trade Seymour. I'd appreciate it if people started referring to him as "Worcester's Ron Brace". Thanks... As pointed out at the Sports Frog - one of the rules to live by for every young man is never dip your wick in crazy. Shawn Merriman obviously never heard that piece of advice... It's been six years to the day since the passing of legend Warren Zevon. Play some Zevon today. Play it all night long...

BYU vs. UCLA

BYU has won 4 of it's last 5 games against PAC 10 foes. But don't read anything into that since their one loss was to UCLA last year (27-10). Of course BYU did later beat UCLA 17-16 in the Las Vegas Bowl. BYU is favored by 8 points on Saturday. Read between the lines to guess who I'll be putting my mythical money on.

Take the points and the Bruins who could win this game outright.