• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Raise your hand if you’d like to see I-70 widened…
Brian Platt must go. Now. »

None of this news is “fit to print”

December 7, 2022 by jimmycsays

Personally, I don’t have anything to do with Twitter, but some people I know — some of them very smart — do.

I understand…You get to follow the people you trust and like, and many Twitter users are reliable and interesting and entertaining.

But, my God, for those who get their “news” from Twitter, it’s no wonder the country is in the shape it’s in. Let me give you a great example.

Last night, I read on ESPN’s website that a couple of teams, including the San Francisco Giants, were pursuing Yankees’ star Aaron Judge. I was mildly interested in that, and thought it was surprising that he might leave the Yankees, so I Googled Judge to see what I could find.

One of the first things I came across was some tweets by a self-described “MLB, NFL and NBA insider” named Ben Dover.

I saw that the tweet at the top of his feed was dated Nov. 12. It said, “The San Francisco giants are signing free agent Aaron Judge to a 9 year deal.”

Beneath that was another tweet from earlier yesterday that said, “Free agent OF Aaron Judge is signing with the San Francisco Giants pending physical.”

Well, blimey, I thought, this is quite a story! Judge is not only leaving the Yankees, he’s going across the country to play for a team in the National League, and this fellow Dover has scooped the world; he knew it a month ago!

…Well, imagine my surprise when I got up this morning and read, on plodding, old ESPN, that Judge had signed a $360 million deal to stay with the Yankees.

I contacted my friend Lonnie Shalton, a retired Polsinelli founding partner who writes a “Hot Stove” baseball newsletter to hundreds of followers and is also a Twitter follower. (He’s one of the “very smart” people I referred to up top.)

I asked him how to interpret that Nov. 12 tweet and why it was at the top of Dover’s feed. Lonnie said it was a “pinned tweet.”

And what, I replied to Lonnie, is a “pinned tweet”?

His answer: “A person will sometimes want to highlight an older tweet and keep it at the top of his feed — one they are proud of, or maybe in this case, to make fun of themselves for being so wrong. It is not intended nor understood to be a part of the chronological order.”

I don’t know whether Scoop Dover was making fun of himself or what. I’ll just let you judge for yourselves from his full description of himself (as full as you get on Twitter, apparently):

“Has been, currently is, and will continue to be the best. MLB, NFL, and NBA Insider, Husband, Father of 1. *legally obligated to remind you all this is a PARODY.”

Based solely on his Aaron Judge reporting, I think it’s fair to describe him differently: Pending a physical…he’s nothing but a puffed-up bullshit artist.

But Father-of-One Dover wasn’t alone on the Giants scoop.

Lonnie sent me a story about a New York Post columnist named Jon Heyman who “reported” on Twitter Tuesday afternoon that Judge was signing with the Giants. The story said Heyman later deleted his tweet and apologized for “jumping the gun.”

The story said Heyman, “who is known for baseball breaking news to his 807,000-plus followers on Twitter, tweeted ‘Arson Judge appears headed to Giants,’ at 2:20 p.m. Minutes later, the tweet was taken down.”

How about that? Somehow, Scoop Heyman fell face down in a deeper mud puddle than Scoop Dover because, in addition to getting the story wrong, he misspelled Judge’s first name!

Heyman

This episode confirmed my steadfast belief that it pays to stick with mainstream news outlets (mine are basically The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star and KCUR) to get news you can trust.

If Dover and Heyman were legitimate news men, they would be bathed in ignominy. But it’s just Twitter. What the hell?

**

Note: As I reported last month — and as The Star announced today — Mike Fannin is out as the paper’s president and editor. This has been a long and painful saga, with Fannin apparently suffering from alcoholism. He picked up his third DUI this past summer, in Olathe, and after the arrest he went on a leave of absence. I understand that either the day he returned, or soon thereafter, he was discovered sleeping in his office, apparently under the influence. He was sent home and that was unofficially the end of his 14 years as the paper’s top editor. All that was lacking was the official announcement…The one surprise I got from The Star’s story was that Fannin pleaded guilty Oct. 7 “and was sentenced to two days in jail, 120 hours of house arrest and one year of probation.”

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

6 Responses

  1. on December 7, 2022 at 11:01 pm John Altevogt

    “The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star and KCUR” are all on Twitter and promote their stuff there. Indeed, the gripe with twitter is that it has been a left dominated platform that often censors conservatives and legitimate news stories (like the Hunter Biden laptop story). Musk has now began to turn that on its head, exposing the collusion between the DNC and Twitter execs (most now fired by Musk) and restoring the accounts of man who were inappropriately banned from the platform based on arbitrary and capricious decisions.


  2. on December 7, 2022 at 11:04 pm bill roush

    Do you, by chance, have a way to follow Lonnie Shalton’s hot stove writings?


    • on December 7, 2022 at 11:13 pm jimmycsays

      I will have him add you to his list of subscribers.


      • on December 7, 2022 at 11:40 pm bill roush

        Thanks!


  3. on December 8, 2022 at 6:46 am BigDogKC

    Jim, a clue to the veracity of Dover’s parodies of major league sports news become clear by shifting the “space” in his eponymous choice of names from “Ben Dover” to “Bend Over!” Onward!


    • on December 8, 2022 at 8:29 am jimmycsays

      Thanks, BigDog…Still, what is funny (at all) about a post in November saying Aaron Judge has signed with the Giants? And the fact that he came back on Tuesday with what was — I suppose — a non-parody post confirming his “lucky” guess a month earlier shows he’s just wandering in the Twitter desert.

      I did, however, change out the photo, removing that of the supposed Ben Dover and adding that of the very real Jon Heyman.



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 562 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 562 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: