I e-mailed the Terre Haute Tribune-Star...

[silverbear]

You know, the paper that claimed to have read an article on dallascowboys.com that said that the Boys were considering cutting Vanderjagt... got an e-mail back from them, from one Shaun Hussey, which read:

I have forwarded your letter to the Editor and we will further
investigate this matter.
While we stand behind our writers with utmost confidence in their
reporting ability and truthfulness, we take very seriously the
accuracy of any article.
Thank you for bringing this possible error to our attention.
And thank you for reading TribStar.com

I'm gratified at the response, but a little annoyed that he'd call it an "error"... if the article doesn't exist-- and I'm reasonably sure it doesn't-- then Tom James (the author of the article) made it up...

That's not an error, that's dishonesty... and of course, no link to any such article was offered...

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Bro I have many times scouted message boards and read a post commenting on something that later morphed into an 'article' in my mind.

Its not far fetched even remotely to make an error like that.

 

[zrinkill]

For a professional it should be
​

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

For a professional it should be
​

The insinutation was that it was intentional. Its absolutely reprehensible to not verify your source but that still doesnt make it malicious.

 

[speedkilz88]

I'm sure whoever responded to your e-mail was too far down the food chain to give any more response than that and they still have to see if the writer can prove where the quote came from if they do what they say anyway.

 

[zrinkill]

The insinutation was that it was intentional. Its absolutely reprehensible to not verify your source but that still doesnt make it malicious.

I am not saying it was malicious ...... just unaccebtable for a pro ....

Its easy for us to screw up on message boards ... but thats his freakin job.

But all in all ..... who really cares what these morons write.

 

[silverbear]

Bro I have many times scouted message boards and read a post commenting on something that later morphed into an 'article' in my mind.

Its not far fetched even remotely to make an error like that.

This is not an error, Fuzzy, this is a reporter makin' crap up... nowhere on dallascowboys.com does it say that Vandy is in jeopardy of being cut...

 

[silverbear]

The insinutation was that it was intentional. Its absolutely reprehensible to not verify your source but that still doesnt make it malicious.

Look, the guy made a VERY specific claim-- "according to an article on dallascowboys.com", Vanderjagt is in jeopardy of being cut...

There is no such article... there is no "source" to verify here...

Yeah, that IS intentional... I guess you've never heard of lazy journalists makin' stuff up to fill out a column, then gettin' caught at it...

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Look, the guy made a VERY specific claim-- "according to an article on dallascowboys.com", Vanderjagt is in jeopardy of being cut...

There is no such article... there is no "source" to verify here...

Yeah, that IS intentional... I guess you've never heard of lazy journalists makin' stuff up to fill out a column, then gettin' caught at it...

Ive heard of it plenty of times. All im saying is that its not out of the realm of possibility that he legitimately thought that. Do you at the very least have some evidence of him doing this type of thing beofre?

 

[silverbear]

I'm sure whoever responded to your e-mail was too far down the food chain to give any more response than that and they still have to see if the writer can prove where the quote came from if they do what they say anyway.

Hussey is the man who develops that TribStar's website... and he said he was gonna pass my complaints along to the editor...

The writer can't "prove" where the quote comes from, I have personally spent a good deal of time on dallascowboys.com, checking out literally every blog and article from the last 2 weeks, and have found NOTHING that comes CLOSE to anybody on the Cowboys saying Vanderjagt might be cut...

However, if somebody from the paper ever DOES get back to me with a link, or if another forum regular finds such a link, I will make a point of admitting I was wrong about this... until then, my criticisms stand-- this is a case of a very bad reporter makin' up "facts"...

 

[silverbear]

I am not saying it was malicious ......

I will... this is a guy who is simply tryin' to trash Vandy, presumably because he covers the Colts...

M aking assertions of fact that cannot be verified, indeed that are almost certainly false, are the hallmarks of a piss-poor "journalist"... if I was the editor of the TribStar, I'd have Mr. James in my office explaining himself REAL fast... and if I wasn't entirely satisfied with the explanation offered, I'd can him...

A newspaper is only as good as its reputation for veracity, for integrity...

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Hussey is the man who develops that TribStar's website... and he said he was gonna pass my complaints along to the editor...

The writer can't "prove" where the quote comes from, I have personally spent a good deal of time on dallascowboys.com, checking out literally every blog and article from the last 2 weeks, and have found NOTHING that comes CLOSE to anybody on the Cowboys saying Vanderjagt might be cut...

However, if somebody from the paper ever DOES get back to me with a link, or if another forum regular finds such a link, I will make a point of admitting I was wrong about this... until then, my criticisms stand-- this is a case of a very bad reporter makin' up "facts"...

Brah its obvious its garbage. That is not what im saying. Its just before Im prepared to completely disregard anything a guy says in the future i want some envidence of malicious intent.

 

[silverbear]

Ive heard of it plenty of times. All im saying is that its not out of the realm of possibility that he legitimately thought that.

How could he POSSIBLY have thought that "legitimately", when there is no such article on dallascowboys.com??

This is not a grey area, open for interpretation... the guy claimed that it was written on the dallascowboys.com website that Mike Vanderjagt could be cut... there simply is no such article on that website... there is no article that comes CLOSE to suggesting Vandy might be cut...

Either such an article was written, or it wasn't... either James is telling it straight, or he isn't... and I can't find any article that says any such thing over on dallascowboys.com...

The logical conclusion is that Mr. James took a few liberties with the truth...

Do you at the very least have some evidence of him doing this type of thing beofre?

Never heard of him before today... doesn't matter, he made an assertion of fact that is not factual...

 

[burmafrd]

At the very least it was extremely sloppy reporting. To not verify a source like that is to ignore one of the basic tenents of journalism. Of course that does not mean much anymore.

 

[silverbear]

Brah its obvious its garbage. That is not what im saying. Its just before Im prepared to completely disregard anything a guy says in the future i want some envidence of malicious intent.

I don't know about his intent in this matter, and I don't care... he made a false assertion, and as they say in a court of law, once a man has been established to be dishonest, you can safely dismiss ANYTHING he has to say...

I know that after reading this little lie, I'll never accept anything written by Tom James at face value again...

After all, one lie pretty much ended Dan Rather's long and illustrious career, didn't it??

BTW, I'm just arguin' here, Fuzz-meister, I ain't mad at ya...

 

[silverbear]

At the very least it was extremely sloppy reporting. To not verify a source like that is to ignore one of the basic tenents of journalism. Of course that does not mean much anymore.

Tom James wouldn't pass any journalism course in the country, with reporting like that...

 

[zrinkill]

At the very least it was extremely sloppy reporting. To not verify a source like that is to ignore one of the basic tenents of journalism. Of course that does not mean much anymore.

Aint that the truth ..... just see the "reporting" on the T.O. situation to verify that.

 

[speedkilz88]

Hussey is the man who develops that TribStar's website... and he said he was gonna pass my complaints along to the editor...

The writer can't "prove" where the quote comes from, I have personally spent a good deal of time on dallascowboys.com, checking out literally every blog and article from the last 2 weeks, and have found NOTHING that comes CLOSE to anybody on the Cowboys saying Vanderjagt might be cut...

However, if somebody from the paper ever DOES get back to me with a link, or if another forum regular finds such a link, I will make a point of admitting I was wrong about this... until then, my criticisms stand-- this is a case of a very bad reporter makin' up "facts"...

I'm not disagreeing with you Silverbear, I too knew that was a BS statement. I was just saying that the editor would still give the writer the benefit of the doubt to prove it.

 

[burmafrd]

Considering it would take all of 5 minutes to search the site and not find anything that was quoted in the article, then another 5 minutes to make the so called journalist fess up, there is no excuse.

 

[AdamJT13]

It's interesting that the part of the article than mentioned Vanderjagt has been yanked from the Web site.

http://www.tribstar.com/siteSearch/apstorysection/local_story_235193630.html