Herald issues apology

[Patriot_in_NY]

What losers. I can't believe they put a picture of a SB trophy up there. That makes me even more pissed off. They print a bogus story that they didn't verfiy, and ended up being a lie, the day before the biggest SB in team history, and now have the nerve to throw up some ra-ra trophy picture? Typical MSM.

Aghhhhhh, ****ing ouch.............. that's like the dog rubbing the human's nose in the big steaming pile o' sh!te he laid on the living room floor.

I agree with RW, makes me angrier (if that's possible).

 

[hambone1818]

A few things. First, to the guy who talked about the 'good old days' when the Boston media was kind to the hometown teams: read a book about Ted Williams--one of the 10 best baseball players of all time and a two-time serviceman in the United States military--this all goes back a bit.

Regarding Tomase, the Herald and the apology: as others have said, it makes me even more mad that they'd run this the way they have. It comes off, in my opinion, as a 'well, dangit, that didn't work out now did it? Sorry 'bout all that'. It screams of insincerity and it makes me sick.

Regarding the game and any impact: I've said it before and I'll say it again: I've never, ever seen Belichick get so outcoached, outmaneuvered, and just plain look bad in his decision-making. Players, emotions and psyches aside, I would argue that Belichick's inability to adjust on either side of the ball, the call to go for it on 4th-and-forever, etc is what lost the team the game...I'm not saying the article and the subsequent media frenzy CAUSED all this, but it certainly couldn't have helped.

 

[fourthandmiles]

I am still amazed that with all that has happened to the likes of Borgy, B-Ryan, and others out there who have been caught in journalistic nomans land you'd think Thomasse would know better. Granted those examples I gave are different from him but the point holds true which is in this day of eye blinking speed media you must watch your step and think twice before printing cause everyone is watching, not just here but everywhere.

That is what makes me think it is the editors over at the Herald that are to blame. If it was simply a matter of Tomase, he simply would have been fired. But it is the Herald as a whole that that issued the apology. It goes above him.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Sorry HeralD​

 

[Mark Morse]

Re: Herald issuies a apology

you either out the source or out the reporter.... your choice, herald...

I want both!!! Can the Patriots Fans sue the Herald for Pain and Suffering?

 

[j00fek]

too little too late as most have put it

 

[ScottieC]

that must be our SB XLII trophy right? :bricks:

Seriously - Are they all idiots or what? WHO APPROVES THAT! I mean, that's just smacking us in the face with what could have been and what they did and their god awful timing!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Patriotic Fervor]

It's been said before on this board, but "too little too late." Unfortunately, the damage is done and won't be undone for a long time.

The apology, though seemingly lacking in sincerity, is a small positive development in this sordid, sad saga, but the truth is, this is a bell cannot be unrung, and the Herald, for all it's public journalistic "misgivings", will have to deal with the consequences of these past actions for quite some time to come.

It is likely that, in the not-too-distant future, we will see "sports reportage" such as it is, become filler for that paper, due to the loss of access that is sure to follow this fiasco, and we'll see it's main features, like horoscopes and E-Z crossword puzzles, expand to fill the loss.

Once aimed, demographically, at the female suburban shopper, it will doubtless morph into direct competition for the weekly Penny Saver.

Maybe that should have been it's niche all along.

 

[DaBruinz]

Re: Herald issuies a apology

What the heck are you smoking? How did one lousy newspaper article cause the O-Line to play like crap? How did that same article allow Eli to scramble away from a sure sack to ice the game? How did Tomase's article cause Tyree to catch that pass?

The article could have biased the ref, even slightly, into not calling the game the way he should have.. Hell, he came out and said that he should have blown Manning down on that play.. Then the Tyree miracle catch would never have happened.

Also, there were several other very marginal calls made by the refs that day. They could have been biased against the Patriots because of that article. Since it would tarnish the league they are a part of.

Not to mention that the players, themselves, could have been distracted by the idea that they somehow cheated and not been focusing properly.

Tell me, have you ever played a sport? Cause those are all things that CAN happen and do at many levels.

 

[DaBruinz]

Re: Herald issuies a apology

So basically you're calling the Pats mentally weak. If you said that about the Celts right now, I'd agree but the Pats? Who had just won 18 games in a row? Who had been there before?

I don't buy it.

Jesus.. You are truly ignorant. Its not a matter of being mentally weak. Its a matter of being under the pressure for the entire FRIGGIN SEASON.

As for you "not buying it," so be it. You're entitled to be as ignorant as you want to be. It just shows that your opinion is unrealistic. EVERYONE has a breaking point from mental strain. EVERYONE. The Pats played the equivalent of 12 play-off games this past year. YES. 12. From game 8 through the SB, every single team brought their A+ game. Every single team brought their 110%. If you don't think that is mentally and physically draining, then you are fooling yourself and really don't know jack about the demands of sports.

 

[Phokus]

I bet there wasn't a primary source for the Herald about the Rams practice.

What i think happened: Maybe Walsh or another employee was at the Rams practice setting up their equipment and told someone about seeing the Rams and it propagated throughout the league.

After a few 2nd hand and 3rd hand tellings of the story, somehow it gets morphed into a story about how a single pats employee was secretly taping the Rams practice (maybe after spygate initially broke). The TomASS talks to some league insiders and finds out about it.

Once the NYTimes and other papers start talking about Walsh, TomASS gets panicked and published the story as if it were fact.

I mean does this sound like a primary source?

"Prior to the publication of its Feb. 2, 2008, article, the Boston Herald neither possessed nor viewed a tape of the Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI, nor did we speak to anyone who had."

 

[Patriotic Fervor]

A few things. First, to the guy who talked about the 'good old days' when the Boston media was kind to the hometown teams: read a book about Ted Williams--one of the 10 best baseball players of all time and a two-time serviceman in the United States military--this all goes back a bit.

Regarding Tomase, the Herald and the apology: as others have said, it makes me even more mad that they'd run this the way they have. It comes off, in my opinion, as a 'well, dangit, that didn't work out now did it? Sorry 'bout all that'. It screams of insincerity and it makes me sick.

Regarding the game and any impact: I've said it before and I'll say it again: I've never, ever seen Belichick get so outcoached, outmaneuvered, and just plain look bad in his decision-making. Players, emotions and psyches aside, I would argue that Belichick's inability to adjust on either side of the ball, the call to go for it on 4th-and-forever, etc is what lost the team the game...I'm not saying the article and the subsequent media frenzy CAUSED all this, but it certainly couldn't have helped.

Well, Hambone, I'm quite familiar with Ted's relationship (if we can call it that!) with the Boston media, but I was thinking back to the early 70s, when the Pats fielded what may have been the worst team to ever suit up professionally.

Back then, following (yet another) Patriot loss, the press would spend the first 3 days knocking them down, and then spend the next 3 days building them back up. It was entertaining, if nothing else.

But just like the team, that was the state of things (for the press) in the 70s. That was the "good ol' days"!

In passing, I must add that I think Teddy Baseball was arguably the greatest hitter to ever play the game. Given that he spent 5 prime years in the service of his country, we'll never know just what his total accomplishments would have been.

I loved the guy....

 

[reflexblue]

Re: Herald issuies a apology

The Herald is on major "Suck Mode" now trying to make up for ruining SB weekend and possibly costing us a SB. Its patronizing and pandering are nausiating. Especially the use of a SB trophy as a Prop.
__________________

 

[patchick]

This is tantamont to prining a story the day before an election that one of the candidates is a child molestor, and then saying "we're sorry, we had no proof of that and shouldn't have printed it, when we did", it really does the candidates no good since he has already lost.

There's another reason this is a good analogy: because the made-up story continues to be part of how the public perceives the individual. For the rest of his career it's "while allegations of child molestation were never substantiated..."

IOW, millions of people will forever associate Belichick and the Patriots with something that simply never happened, thanks to the Herald.

 

[patchick]

OK, forget Tomase for a second. Forget the sports section.

The Boston Herald ran a FRONT PAGE STORY, #1 highlighted news of the day, based on what they now admit was absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

A front-page news story, stated as fact, based on hearing rumors of rumors that something wacky might have happened once, but nobody knows anybody who actually saw it happen, but wouldn't it be cool if it did?

That's not some random football beat reporter's failing, that's a massive failure of the editorial command. Editors MUST be held accountable.

 

[Patriotic Fervor]

A printed "apology" without concomitant follow-up action cannot in any way, shape or form be called "manning up"!

This is not accepting responsibility - this is whistling past the graveyard hoping you get past it alive.

This paper (and I use that term loosely - very loosely!) hasn't learned a thing from all of this. I cannot even call it the functional equivalent of Weekly World News, because I know for a fact that that entertainment tabloid has a staff of fact checkers!

Unless and until something substantive is done to show a degree of remorse and a recognition that, in the name of "professionalism", this paper is a true journalistic endeavor worthy of the name and will no longer accept what has passed there as "business as usual", this rag will not even be able to carry the moniker "fish wrap" or "toilet paper" with any degree of honor.

How sad is that?

 

[neuronet]

Makes me sick.

I agree about the picture--what they hell were they thinking with that? We're sorry, and while we're at it we'll rub it in that the Pats lost the SB.

 

[GrogansArmy]

Re: Herald issuies a apology

What the heck are you smoking? How did one lousy newspaper article cause the O-Line to play like crap? How did that same article allow Eli to scramble away from a sure sack to ice the game? How did Tomase's article cause Tyree to catch that pass?

I'm surprised it hasn't been brought up yet, but didn't the pats cancel their final practice before the superbowl because of that article? I recall reading that somewhere back then and thinking to myself crap this isn't good, they shouldn't have cancelled practice due to some stupid article. So, yeah, I would say the article had some effect.

 

[NEPatriot]

Re: Herald issuies a apology

When you wrongly accuse a person or make a stupid 911 call, you go to jail.
When you damage another team reputation for months, an apology is going to make everybody feel better.? What happens to responsibility and integrity.????

Is an apology the best thing that Herald can come up with.? They even used an old SB picture on their page. It is really apathetic.

 

[in 12 we trust]

I agree....name the source (since it was a lie) or Tomase looks for other employment.......like concessions at Gillette....up top...none of the club seat stuff.......let him hear what he put the fans through......that Super Bowl weekend was ruined since that Friday......