ONA Issues

Poynter interviews Timothy Birke, one of the two reporters at Deadspin who investigated and broke the news about the hoax involving Manti Te’o. It’s worth checking out to reflect on the need for good fact-checking.

On Salon, Irin Carmon discusses the massive amount of media coverage around the Te’o incident in comparison with the lack of media attention to the death of Lizzy Seeberg, who committed suicide after being intimidated by members of the Notre Dame football team after she reported a sexual assault by one of the players.

Carmon writes,

Dave Zirin, who has long called for the Notre Dame football program to be shut down as irredeemably corrupt, pointed out that the university had hired a private investigator for the Te’o case but not the numerous other allegations of wrongdoing by players. Zirin said of the school’s athletic director, “It says so much that Te’o’s bizarre soap opera has moved [Jack] Swarbrick to openly weeping but he hasn’t spared one tear, let alone held one press conference, for Lizzy Seeberg … The problem at Notre Dame is not just football players without a compass; it’s the adults without a conscience.” We live in a country that officially condemns rape and sexual assault but when confronted with the real possibility of it, rarely strays from denial and excuses. That’s the biggest scam of all.