Terrelle Pryor Responds to Allegations? Maybe Not.

While we wait on a response from Ohio State to the Yahoo! Sports allegations, fans and reporters alike are becoming antsy with the delay. Some are handling it better than others. The Sporting News, filled with angst over being scooped by Yahoo!, has just run a shoddy, ill-researched article in an attempt to cash in on the story (or non-story) of the day. They've taken a tweet from Terrelle Pryor, devoid of context, and connected it to the allegations against Jim Tressel without even contacting Pryor for comment. And they've packaged it all under the heading, "Terrelle Pryor responds to report about Ohio State violations."

Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor used Twitter on Tuesday morning to respond to reports that his coach, Jim Tressel, might have committed NCAA violations by not self-reporting other violations committed by at least five of his players.

"THE Ohio State Buckeyes face and overcome any adversity that comes our way!" a message of Pryor’s account read. "Brings us closer together As a team. And brings us closer 2 GOD."

Considering the circumstances, it probaby isn't that big of a leap to make in a situation like this.  But it might be wrong. If the Sporting News had done any ancillary research, even on Twitter, they would know that a teammate of Pryor's, senior defensive back Nate Oliver, has had a close family member pass away and Ohio State players have used Twitter to express their condolences and support to Oliver and his family.

Whether Pryor is responding to the allegations against Tressel or voicing support for Nate Oliver is irrelevant. What matters is that he could be responding to either one, or even a third, unseen issue, and the only way to know for sure is to actually contact him and ask for clarification. You know, journalism.

The article is not difficult to find if you want to see it, but I've refrained from linking it out of principle. Poor journalism should not benefit from being poor, and linking to the article would only provide the type of cheap, quick exposure the Sporting News wants from a cheap, quick article.

In an era of Twitter and the Huffington Post, where news is recycled and given a spin to make it appear fresh, articles that don't involve any actual research or investigation are becoming more and more common. The drive to become first with a story is overwhelming the desire to get a story right, or, at least, the fear of getting a story wrong, and the end result is what we see above, a poorly researched article making claims that cannot be known without an actual quote from an actual person.

It would be embarrassing for a fan-run blog like ours to package a tweet out of context and make a story out of it, but it's downright shameful for a national news organization to do so. The Sporting News' job is to report the news, not manufacture it, and they've horribly failed to do so in this instance.