Rumor Debunker: Flyers Affair Rumors Spread to Phillies Clubhouse
Because I’m sick of trade rumor bullshit for one day, I’d much rather deal with affair bullshit!
You may remember back in December when rumors of an affair between Jeff Carter and the wife of Scott Hartnell spread through the Internet like wildfire. A Philadelphia sports website, The Philly Four – technically a blog, although it was more of a traditional online media site, rarely linking to other sites and featured game recaps, predominantly. The garden-variety stuff you would find in your local “newspaper,” if such a thing existed anymore – reported on this rumor, which allegedly came from a “‘credible source’ who ‘works close to the players,’” said the creator of the site, Jerry Brennan, a Temple University senior at the time. The rumor made its way all throughout the Internet, hitting Deadspin in its path, along with several other popular sports sites, both mainstream and not. Keep in mind that this was all taking place around the third week of December. Exactly one week after Deadspin had picked up on it, Sam Carchidi, Flyers beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, had finally traced the rumor back to its original source, Brennan. Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy then analyzed the media’s reporting of the rumor, despite the original post having been deleted. It appears the site as a whole has been taken down since then, as well.
Sure, because the rumors were mean and libelous and no one has ever gotten away with citing one source they believed to be credible. It’s called journalistic integrity, and as much as I’d like to tell myself Brennan wasn’t studying journalism at Temple, I find it hard to believe. (The website, itself, was made as part of a “school project.”) Consequently, he got ran off the Internet, and I’m hoping he learned his lesson, since it appears he didn’t learn much in journalism class. Now, how does this have anything to do with the Phillies? Well… Read more…
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