Lying: People that get paid to do it in the media

I no tired!!! (And I survived the Wood/Prior era.)

Today, after a Cubs defeat in extra innings, I had the pleasure to read about Carlos Zambrano’s possibly arm injury. Aghast, I read this tidbit from Yahoo! Sports:

No one knew Carlos Zambrano was hurting.

The Chicago Cubs starting pitcher left after five innings on a hot and muggy Tuesday night, more than two hours before Geoff Blum won it for the Houston Astros with a two-run homer in the 11th inning.

Which wasn’t really news to me. (He had been pushed back due to a tired arm.)  I also watched the game. Saw him leave and didn’t forget about him in defeat at all. But this next part was a shock to me:

Zambrano was coming off a poor August and was pushed back two days with arm fatigue. He didn’t overpower the Astros, rarely hitting 90 mph, and gave up three runs, five hits and three walks in five innings. He was pulled after 86 pitches.

Zambrano was unavailable for comment, and his teammates were almost speechless about a possible injury.

Zambrano did hit 90 MPH. In fact, he threw a few 95 MPH+ pitches last night. He looked strong, refreshed, but wild at times, and prone to the big Z blowup. (He worked out of a 5th inning jam after giving up a single to Miguel Tejada, a quality hitter, with the bases loaded. He struck out Berkman and got a weak grounder.)

This is lying on the newswriter’s part, the Associate Press did the piece for Yahoo!.

They obviously did not fact check the actual game. Or even watch the radar speeds during his outing. Sure, they might be on the money about his going to a doctor for an examination, but the devil is in the details.

Last night, BIG Z was hyped to pitch again most likely. He couldn’t wait to take the pill and ram it down Houston’s throat.

Now, did he pitch well? Not really. But he didn’t pitch timid or rag armed. He threw all his pitches, some more effective than others, but certainly did not lack velocity.

Why I point so vigorously to this?

Because I have people in my own life that lie and deceive and gaslight situations to their ends.

Why should the press be any different?  

We place a great deal of stock in Newswriters to do their jobs with a most fastidious attention to detail. But in the 30 second sound bite world, we get crap. This is not a new thing.

William L. Shirer, a famous writer

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich writer, pointed out that he wrote 1,000 word stories for the Chicago Tribune in Paris circa 1920’s that came from 30-50 words pulled off a teletype in his piece:20th Century Journey (1976) . Most likely were inaccurate; or just flat out lies.

But that’s the point: you ought not get paid to write such crap and get a byline and critical acclaim for being a crackerjack reporter or news outfit.

Get the story straight. That’s all I ask.