Monday, September 1, 2014

Media fail: Rajon Rondo's ESPN player profile says ESPN reported he wants to be traded (they didn't)

It blows my mind how internet news media works sometimes.  Case in point:

Last week Jackie MacMullan was on the ESPN show "Around the Horn."  During the course of filming she engaged in an off-air conversation (but still on camera) about the Celtics possibly trading Rajon Rondo.  Among other things, she said "it will happen because he's told them he wants out. And no one believes me, but that's the truth."

Afterwards the show posted a video of the conversation on YouTube.  A few days later a Celtics beat writer noticed the clip and wrote about it.  Then other media outlets started to cover the story.  As more and more sources began to publish Jackie Mac's thoughts, the "report" gained credibility.

Today when I clicked on ESPN's Rajon Rondo NBA player page, I saw this (read the bottom):



ESPN never reported Rondo asked for a trade.  MacMullan didn't "report" it either.  She stated her opinion off the air.  The YouTube video doesn't even exist anymore because of the stir it created, but the widely popular fantasy sports news service Rotowire used it as a source to write the above update.

The hilarious icing on the cake is that ESPN publishes Rotowire's player news, allowing the "worldwide leader" to credit themselves for reporting a story they never did in the first place.


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