RuntheDamnBall Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 Its rather disappointing to see the zeal and glee with which the media is going after this story. Perhaps someone could ask President Obama about the made up girl-friends in his two autobiographies. If the media can find time to vet a linebacker,vetting a president should be mandatory. (and yes, I know that this isn't the PPP, but since we have a whole thread devoted to imaginary girlfriend, other examples, and the media reaction is appropriate) . Please don't take this in that direction, because a composite character is something that often happens in autobiography, especially to protect private relationships. That was acknowledged (too late, admittedly), and it happens all the time. This is not at all the same thing. There is no writer and no storytelling going on here. Either this person exists, and they along with a cast of others cruelly misled a very dumb man, or Te'o calculated it to help fabricate a rise to football stardom - or to hide something. It's a story because something is being deliberately hidden by someone, there are cases of mistaken or veiled identity, and there are many, many stories that don't seem to check out or correspond with one another. The institution of Notre Dame has stupidly stepped in and made it more of a story, when for all intents and purposes they are finished with their obligation to him as regards football, and no laws seems to have been broken. Unless he wants to charge for fraud to win back mobile plan minutes, I don't see it.
NoSaint Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 Please don't take this in that direction, because a composite character is something that often happens in autobiography, especially to protect private relationships. That was acknowledged (too late, admittedly), and it happens all the time. This is not at all the same thing. There is no writer and no storytelling going on here. Either this person exists, and they along with a cast of others cruelly misled a very dumb man, or Te'o calculated it to help fabricate a rise to football stardom - or to hide something. It's a story because something is being deliberately hidden by someone, there are cases of mistaken or veiled identity, and there are many, many stories that don't seem to check out or correspond with one another. The institution of Notre Dame has stupidly stepped in and made it more of a story, when for all intents and purposes they are finished with their obligation to him as regards football, and no laws seems to have been broken. Unless he wants to charge for fraud to win back mobile plan minutes, I don't see it. id be curious if any lines got blurry with various fundraisers and awareness events after the fact - if built on a totally fabricated story/event i imagine there could be some issues potentially (depending on the nature of how things went down)
RuntheDamnBall Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 id be curious if any lines got blurry with various fundraisers and awareness events after the fact - if built on a totally fabricated story/event i imagine there could be some issues potentially (depending on the nature of how things went down) If Te'o had attended some awareness events, we might not be having this discussion.
Rob's House Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 (edited) Lol like ray lewis involvement in a pair of stabbing deaths really held him back a long time. Dude was super bowl MVP a year later. Totally different scenario. While what Ray did was probably worse (depending on his role & what led up to it) people can wrap their mind around someone taking a fight too far, and the details were fuzzy. This Te'o thing is just bizarre & hard for anyone to grasp the motivation behind it. Guys probably fear Ray, no one's going to feat Te'o. Edited January 18, 2013 by Rob's House
B-Man Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 Please don't take this in that direction, because a composite character is something that often happens in autobiography, especially to protect private relationships. That was acknowledged (too late, admittedly), and it happens all the time. This is not at all the same thing. There is no writer and no storytelling going on here. Either this person exists, and they along with a cast of others cruelly misled a very dumb man, or Te'o calculated it to help fabricate a rise to football stardom - or to hide something. I disagree with your tortured explanations about " the difference of autobiographies", but indeed I don't reallyy wish to talk about Obama. I just wanted to throw some criticism towards the media's response to this mess. We keep hearing that the story is evolving or changing and its really only due to the fact that there are so many misguided opinion pieces out there, that do not know any of the facts. but that won't stop them. .
Rob's House Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 (edited) Please don't take this in that direction, because a composite character is something that often happens in autobiography, especially to protect private relationships. That was acknowledged (too late, admittedly), and it happens all the time. This is not at all the same thing. There is no writer and no storytelling going on here. Either this person exists, and they along with a cast of others cruelly misled a very dumb man, or Te'o calculated it to help fabricate a rise to football stardom - or to hide something. It's a story because something is being deliberately hidden by someone, there are cases of mistaken or veiled identity, and there are many, many stories that don't seem to check out or correspond with one another. The institution of Notre Dame has stupidly stepped in and made it more of a story, when for all intents and purposes they are finished with their obligation to him as regards football, and no laws seems to have been broken. Unless he wants to charge for fraud to win back mobile plan minutes, I don't see it. It is different, but not for the reasons you stated: there's a difference between changing names & completely fabricating stories. The difference is Obama fabricated a couple of anecdotes that were sidenotes of limited significance in a book. Te'o played out this long elaborate & bizarre hoax in real time, intertwined it with his real life, & faked emotions that people don't often fake nearly to that extent, if at all. So much so that you wonder who he even is. Edited January 18, 2013 by Rob's House
NoSaint Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 It is different, but not for the reasons you stated: there's a difference between changing names & completely fabricating stories. The difference is Obama fabricated a couple of anecdotes that were sidenotes of limited significance in a book. Te'o played out this long elaborate & bizarre hoax in real time, intertwined it with his real life, & faked emotions that people don't often fake nearly to that extent, if at all. So much so that you wonder who he even is. and with that explanation, i vote we let the obama aspect go.
Rob's House Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 and with that explanation, i vote we let the obama aspect go. Good with me. I didn't bring it up, just clarified it.
NoSaint Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 Good with me. I didn't bring it up, just clarified it. totally understood. had to be done, and you did it well. left a good chance to cut it off before things went off the rails.
RuntheDamnBall Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 I disagree with your tortured explanations about " the difference of autobiographies", but indeed I don't reallyy wish to talk about Obama. I just wanted to throw some criticism towards the media's response to this mess. We keep hearing that the story is evolving or changing and its really only due to the fact that there are so many misguided opinion pieces out there, that do not know any of the facts. but that won't stop them. Two sentences is pretty far from tortured, but I digress. The media's response to this mess is generated in part by the fact that the media helped build up the myth. They got fooled; Deadspin, spurred by bloggers, did some real reporting legwork on it; that is still inconclusive but in some ways damning; Notre Dame responded either too quickly or far too late; Te'o appears to be changing stories. Give people a thread to chase in a story and they are going to pull the whole damn thing apart. If you own up to the mistakes and come out with clarity quickly, they are going to be pretty quick to call off the dogs with the next news cycle, and the people who continue to pursue it are the ones who end up looking silly.
Sisyphean Bills Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 Two sentences is pretty far from tortured, but I digress. The media's response to this mess is generated in part by the fact that the media helped build up the myth. They got fooled; Deadspin, spurred by bloggers, did some real reporting legwork on it; that is still inconclusive but in some ways damning; Notre Dame responded either too quickly or far too late; Te'o appears to be changing stories. Give people a thread to chase in a story and they are going to pull the whole damn thing apart. If you own up to the mistakes and come out with clarity quickly, they are going to be pretty quick to call off the dogs with the next news cycle, and the people who continue to pursue it are the ones who end up looking silly. If the concept of the alleged victims was to perpetuate the fantasy world rather than face embarrassment, then the joke is still on them. And in the wake of the Sandusky scandal and fallout therefrom, one might expect more out of an athletic department, frankly.
ChevyVanMiller Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 It makes no sense that T'eo would keep referencing her AFTER he said he got the call from her saying she was still alive. Unless of course, he was in on it all along. Apply Occam's razor and that answer is by far the most plausible. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8856519/manti-teo-talked-girlfriend-knowing-hoax
NoSaint Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 (edited) It makes no sense that T'eo would keep referencing her AFTER he said he got the call from her saying she was still alive. Unless of course, he was in on it all along. Apply Occam's razor and that answer is by far the most plausible. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8856519/manti-teo-talked-girlfriend-knowing-hoax i threw out the wild guess up thread on this that once asked questions about the story, if he didnt know what the hell he was going to do - he might just go with it for the time being.... the alternative wouldve been "oh yea, by the way i got a phone call saying it was fake a couple days ago and im trying to figure that all out" which in my opinion would have also been unlikely for him to do if duped. its a kid in the middle of a media firestorm and he finds out in the lead up to awards shows where he will be giving interviews and such.... the fact that its only mentioned a few times is kind of surprising. especially if you think he made it up for attention at these very awards shows. its certainly fair for it to cast doubts and raise questions, but i dont know that its proof of anything Edited January 18, 2013 by NoSaint
RuntheDamnBall Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 It makes no sense that T'eo would keep referencing her AFTER he said he got the call from her saying she was still alive. Unless of course, he was in on it all along. Apply Occam's razor and that answer is by far the most plausible. http://espn.go.com/c...nd-knowing-hoax Isn't it Okkam's shaver?
Saint Doug Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 he 'allegedly' mentioned his dead girlfriend twice after he found out on december 6th that it may have all been a hoax.... http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2013/01/17/teo-mentioned-girlfriend-twice-recently/ Good article. This is particularly damning and I have no idea why ND chose to go this route: He said the university’s failure to call a news conference and go public sooner means “Notre Dame is complicit in the lie.” Another question I have is who came up with the grand idea of killing the gf off on the same day as the grandmother? And why?
Captain Hindsight Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 It makes no sense that T'eo would keep referencing her AFTER he said he got the call from her saying she was still alive. Unless of course, he was in on it all along. Apply Occam's razor and that answer is by far the most plausible. http://espn.go.com/c...nd-knowing-hoax Or when you say something often enough it becomes fact and reflex in your mind
HeHateMe Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 He definitely lied multiple times about this. Whether it be the nature of how they met several times or after he knew she wasn't real/not dead and still went on in interviews about her passing is blatant lying. Who knows if it began as a hoax, but you can't trust anything this guy says. And what person carries on an fake online relationship for 4 years and talks to someone for hours upon hours on the phone to act as someone else only to eventually kill themselves off? Who is the female he was talking to??
NoSaint Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 (edited) Good article. This is particularly damning and I have no idea why ND chose to go this route: Another question I have is who came up with the grand idea of killing the gf off on the same day as the grandmother? And why? either way, manti involved or not, there was a scheduled visit coming up very soon where she was supposed to meet the family etc... at notre dame. i think "she" was scheduled to fly in for a game 2-3 weeks away. That could certainly explain the killing her off at that point in time, and the grandma being a bizarre coincidence that no one expected. Or when you say something often enough it becomes fact and reflex in your mind hell if hes not involved, even assuming he believed the call 100% can you imagine trying to figure out how to come clean on a national stage at that point? i think you can point to the fact that he only has a handful of references to her during awards season as a sign he was avoiding the topic. whether thats because he just found out and didnt know what to say, or that he was scared that people were catching on and was in the process of getting caught at that time... we will see. but if he made her up to kill her off for awards - he certainly wasnt using her near what youd expect if everything was going according to plan (which it wasnt for whoever was behind it). Edited January 18, 2013 by NoSaint
Saint Doug Posted January 18, 2013 Posted January 18, 2013 That could certainly explain the killing her off at that point in time, and the grandma being a bizarre coincidence that no one expected. That would certain fit in with the rest of the story. I wouldn't have expected anything less.
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