Exhibit A: I Fucking Give Up

So, The New York Daily News royally Got Wrong the Sean Avery story yesterday. When I first read the update, like many people, I really thought he might be on his way to Dead. I even considered posting a sort of "please keep our previous juvenile ridiculing of Mr. Avery in context considering the events of this morning" message. Turns out he hurt his spleen and will be A-Ok, at least by next season.

Whoops. Time to apologize. Or, if you're a newspaper and don't understand how the previous standards governing your business might apply to the newish, but not no much so, Internet, you could just pretend you didn't do a fucking thing wrong. Like the TV stations you (me) made fun of for decades.

In the wake of the paper's wrong web reporting and subsequent lack of recognition of that wrongness, they were rightfully criticized by other media outlets, and even a few bloggers (full of shit as they all, unequivocally, undeniably, without variation, are).

The response? This piece of shit, which includes this piece of shit:

"Finally, for all those from other media outlets and newspapers who have sarcastically dismissed our initial web story about Sean Avery’s hospitalization since the Rangers refuted it Wednesday afternoon, I wonder:

Was your initial reaction that the story couldn’t have been correct or did you simply race up to the MSG Training Center to get player reaction? And, did you call the hospital and/or Avery’s representatives to get the real story or did your “reporting” simply consist of taking the team’s word for what happened?

Fortunately, the intrepid men an women of the press who have exposed baseball’s steroid problems didn’t similarly regurgitate what they were told by people who understandably want their businesses viewed as beyond reproach."

What? I think he's saying, "we got it wrong because we do actual, real reporting instead of taking the team's word for it, because they lie, the motherfuckers. And you got it right because you're lazy and waited until some kind of source that would be named gave you a comment."

Point missed, then distorted, then shat on.

Here: If you get an unnamed source telling you a hockey player might be close to death, get that verified by a real person who can give their name before you post it on the web. If he is dead, they will tell you at some point. Stake out the hospital, be the first there, whatever.

That's it. Simple Simon. Simon simple. Simple simple. Don't rush.

Of course, do you think having this "exclusive" might have helped web hits (revenue) for a day or so?

Messy.

Update, 2:04 p.m.

Upon reading this again, I noticed this line: "Fortunately, the intrepid men an (sic) women of the press who have exposed baseball’s steroid problems didn’t similarly regurgitate what they were told by people who understandably want their businesses viewed as beyond reproach."

If anyone deserves a big Thumbs Up for their role in the exposing of baseball's steroid problem, it certainly must not ever be the guys who spent 14 years in the dressing rooms of the MLB, watching, at one point, as Mark McGwire fondled a fucking bottle of something steroidish, and din't do a goddamned thing. I can't even get sarcastic about this. Good lord.