NFL's mouthpiece (ESPN) at it again with OTL piece on cameragate

cscirpoli said:

False accusations against public characters don't matter. It has to be with proven malicious intent. Those folks could easily say they never saw the retraction. It's a nonstarter.

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No, it has to be done with "reckless disregard for the truth."

A public figure doesn't have to show they intended to cause harm, but he does have to prove that the publisher either knew the report was false or, at least, entertained serious doubts re: its veracity.

With more and more cord cutters, I hope ESPN will be completely obsolete sooner rather than later.

Or, at the very least, completely marginalized like MTV is now. Once a monster in the music business, now just another crappy channel on cable no one watches.

DaBruinz said:

Supposedly, the TD pass from Brady to Branch was because of stolen signals since the Steelers hadn't changed their signals all year... (Umm, guess they don't understand that signal stealing is ok.)

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Have always laughed at this one. how do you in your 22nd game(including pre season) not changed up your hand signals. Seems pretty stupid

Tuck said:

I believe this is an attempt by the league to create a way out that preserves business as usual and makes deflate gate go away. It gives Goodell and the league owners an excuse for pursuing this ridiculous story. The question is will fans around the country buy it or see through it for what it is.

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Unfortunately the vast majority of fans of the 31 other teams have long since bought it. This resurrection by ESPN/NYJFL is akin to pouring kerosene onto a fire.

Sure, there may be a select few intelligent fans out there who are able to separate the chaff from the wheat when it comes to CameraPlacementGate, but their voices will doubtless be drowned out by the teeming millions of lowest common demoninator types who suckle at the teats of dumpster-diving media outlets like ESPN/OTL.

PatsWickedPissah said:

You Kraft rump swabs and Pollyannas need to wake up and realize what some of us have been saying...
There is a blood vendetta going on against the Patriots. Owners, league front office, media minions.
SOMETHING will be ginned up this season in yet another attempt to derail the Patriots playoff success.
BANK ON IT.
Dig your heads out of the sand.

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I'm sort of on the fence about Kraft because I don't know the whole story. As an owner, he is subject to fines if he publicly criticizes the league or it's employees. Maybe Kraft is the spineless dolt that you suggest he is, but the momentum of refining Roger's role in administering punishment would suggest otherwise. I suspect the Krafts may be fighting back in the only ways that they effectively can.

His capitulation sure looked bad and your perspective is reasonable, but you're aggressive and abrasive criticism of those who disagree is unwarranted.

Well -- one small bright side in all this. I'll be able to be much more productive this year since there won't be anything to be reading after NE games.

This is very convenient that this report comes at the same time that Dodger Roger is on ESPN

Wow! What was their plan if the NFL won the appeal. Roll out this crappy smear campaign anyway? Or wait till the Pats are in the Super Bowl and have this derail them? I guess this is the last bullet in their gun. There is nothing else they can make up about cameragate.

From Florio's article http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...rent-changes-to-statement-he-gave-to-the-nfl/

“It shocked me,” Martz told ESPN. “It appears embellished quite a bit — some lines I know I didn’t write. Who changed it? I don’t know.”

And that was the end of it, as far as the ESPN Patriots Alleged Cheating Opus is concerned. There was no statement from the league office denying any changes to the statement. There was no apparent effort to procure the original statement, if there was one.

If Martz is right, that’s a huge deal. If the NFL changed in any way a statement from Martz that was used to placate Senator Arlen Specter and to block a Congressional investigation, this is the kind of thing that could turn the NFL into FIFA.

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Perhaps @Joker friend who is in the FBI would be interested in this...

I know Kraft can't deny ESPN access to the team. But I would have guards follow these douchebags around until they leave. THEY CAN'T BE TRUSTED. KRAFT SHOW SOME BACKBONE!! Stop accepting this BS.

Dear Mr. Kraft,

This is what happens when you don't stand up to a bully.

Yahoo! Sports' take on it: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-s...r-in-scope-than-first-realized-140513497.html

This one quote really, really irks me:
"In the preseason, the Patriots taped the Buccaneers' defensive signals. New England played Tampa Bay in the season opener. Backup quarterback John Friesz was told to memorize the signals in the preseason film, watch the Bucs' signals from the sideline during the regular-season game, relay the defensive play to offensive coordinator Charlie Weis who would relay them to then-starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe, ESPN reported."

THE PATRIOTS DID NOT VIOLATE ANY RULES WHEN THEY DID THIS. IT WAS AND IS STILL LEGAL TO FILM SIDELINE DEFENSIVE SIGNALS.

In reality, this was great coaching by the Patriots. That's how you use the rules to LEGALLY gain a competitive advantage.

Too bad they lost the game. Yeah, you read that right - they lost a game where they knew most of the defensive alignments prior to the snap. That how big of a competitive advantage that really was.

Gumby said:

I think they should run that 10 sec clip from BB's deflategate presser when he said 'we didn't film anything that 80,000 people in the stadium weren't watching' on the Gillette jumbotron over-over-over until the play-by-play guys finally address it.

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Genius.

FourierSeries said:

Wow, this is possibly the dumbest part of this whole thing:



http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-s...r-in-scope-than-first-realized-140513497.html

These lies just keep getting more and more asinine.

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Yeah they are asinine, but there are millions of ignorant knuckle heads that will believe it. The best thing to do is for the patriots to keep winning and for them and us ignore the noise.

Another interesting tidbit is that the reason that Kraft supposedly backed down is that he had a discussion with Mara and Mara said that Kraft should essentially suck it up because there was no support among the owners for Kraft to fight it..

However, Mara, when questioned for the article, denies that to be the case.

cscirpoli said:

False accusations against public characters don't matter. It has to be with proven malicious intent. Those folks could easily say they never saw the retraction. It's a nonstarter.

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Here's the legal definition of defamation:

defamation
n. the act of making untrue statements about another which damages his/her reputation. If the defamatory statement is printed or broadcast over the media it is libel and, if only oral, it is slander. Public figures, including officeholders and candidates, have to show that the defamation was made with malicious intent and was not just fair comment. Damages for slander may be limited to actual (special) damages unless there is malice. Some statements such as an accusation of having committed a crime, having a feared disease or being unable to perform one's occupation are called libel per se or slander per se and can more easily lead to large money awards in court and even punitive damage recovery by the person harmed. Most states provide for a demand for a printed retraction of defamation and only allow a lawsuit if there is no such admission of error.



Read more: http://dictionary.law.com/default.aspx?selected=458#ixzz3l9yPFO7x

sevengables_2207 said:

Unfortunately the vast majority of fans of the 31 other teams have long since bought it. This resurrection by ESPN/NYJFL is akin to pouring kerosene onto a fire.

Sure, there may be a select few intelligent fans out there who are able to separate the chaff from the wheat when it comes to CameraPlacementGate, but their voices will doubtless be drowned out by the teeming millions of lowest common demoninator types who suckle at the teats of dumpster-diving media outlets like ESPN/OTL.

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You're exactly right. The fans around the league will eat this up, while a minority of media types will say things like spygate still doesn't justify what is happening now if there are no facts to support it. So the commish will take the high road and drop the appeal and keep his job. Bob Kraft will keep making his money. Every one is happy except Brady, belichick and the New England fans.

Tuck said:

You're exactly right. The fans around the league will eat this up, while a minority of media types will say things like spygate still doesn't justify what is happening now if there are no facts to support it. So the commish will take the high road and drop the appeal and keep his job. Bob Kraft will keep making his money. Every one is happy except Brady, belichick and the New England fans.

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The silver lining here being that traditionally, the team has responded very well on the field of play in the wake of these type of situations.

How dumb can goodell possibly be?

Why would he do this? seriously, why would he completely **** up the last what 6 cases hes been a part of, and then after getting thoroughly worked over in the last one, convince ESPN to do a retread on Spygate that makes him look like a complete ****ing degenerate?

holy ****.

Goodell is so incompetent.

Public figures, including officeholders and candidates, have to show that the defamation was made with malicious intent and was not just fair comment.

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That's not a correct statement of American law. In the US public figures have to prove "actual malice" which, despite the words, is a legal term of art and doesn't involve malice at all. As has been noted in many places on this forum many times, a public figure has to prove the publisher knew the item was false or had a "reckless disregard" as to whether it was true or false.