Mortensen Finally Admits Rush to Publish Deflategate Story

[borg]

Mort was the league's useful idiot
A most willing accomplice
Who chose "access" over accuracy

 

[Roland]

Mort needs to go all the way on this mea culpa.

 

[zoostation]

Significant NY-NFL scumbags.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

 

[TinhWoodhead]

I think 11 of 12 reporters would have waited for more facts. The 12th being the not so good one.

not really. most of them are trying to race to be “I’m the first!”

 

[rochrist]

Mort afraid of getting blacklisted

Doubt it since he hasn't got too long to live.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Chris Mortensen explains his Deflategate reporting for first time

That "explanation" only makes him out to be even more of a whiny, pathetic, shilling, "don't criticize me, I have cancer", azzhole who should be fired, beaten with 2x4s, fired again, and strung up outside of Gillette Stadium. Screw him. No sympathy whatsoever for him.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Cool...hope it was worth ruining his career.

Except it didn;t.

 

[Doctor DDS]

The fact he still goes with the stupid "you could still argue the balls were significantly under" despite what everyone has since learned about the Ideal Gas Law, the numerous scientific comments and reports, the fact that the Pittsburgh balls were basically in the same range last year and that the NFL refused to release their findings is what makes his comments meaningless. He should have stated emphatically that "since my report I have learned a lot about the science and based on my review of all the facts I now realize that I was in fact a pawn in a concerted effort by the NFL to harm the Patriots. To Tom Brady, the Patriots organization and all their fans I want to offer my deepest apologies for the role I played in this injustice....." And after that he should have gone an offensive to set the record straight. Commentators that wonder why Pats fans cannot just get over it...... have no idea how aggravating the "cheater" label is and the fact that it is attached in any way to one of the most beloved athletes in New England history and just do not understand what fandom is all about.

 

[Wordsmyth]

Something tells me that MA's superiors wouldn't permit him to utter a mea culpa on air, their innate detestation of the Pats and all.

 

[Deus Irae]

Dale and Holley's coverage of the Mortensen interview was not kind to Mort.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Dale and Holley's coverage of the Mortensen interview was not kind to Mort.

Why would it be?

 

[Wheelman]

Well that just confirms to the entire world of the witch hunt. League sources telling him what to say! Will anyone care? Nope! **** the Cheatriots!

 

[resdubwhite]

 

[Koma]

I think 11 of 12 reporters would have waited for more facts. The 12th being the not so good one.

These days, I think the breakdown is flipped. 11 out of 12 reporters would run with a "big story," even if it's unverified. The 12th, who would look for a second source, is someone who's name you don't know and never gets on TV.

 

[Dr Pain]

I get that he was used by the NFL and I can completely forgive him for that. What I can never forgive is that after that was clear, he did not recant, take any responsibility or even say he was used. This is doubly sicking because his twitter bio talks up his christian faith. He is a hypocrite and I find that sickening.

 

[NashuaPats]

What bothered me a lot more than this were the dozens and dozens of sports reporters and other reporters having a lot to say after the Wells report came out when they clearly did not read past the summary.

Very few noticed that there were only a few tenths of a psi unaccounted for and that was only if using the gauge the ref said he did not use. That the balls were perfectly in line with the guage the ref did use.

Very few noticed (or cared) that none of the text messages Wells used in the summary came from conversations that had anything to do with a ball deflating scheme.

Virtually no reporters reported that Jastremski explicitly stated the Patriots policy on ball pressure in multiple texts and pointed out that Brady had no idea what the rules were or what his team's practices were until an October game six months after the "deflator" comment.

Mortensen was a useful idiot who rushed to get a story out. The rest of the failures by the media was a much larger problem. They spent a lot of time reporting on it, but couldn't be bothered to read the whole report and take the time to properly analyze it.

 

[NE_Zealot]

This is a big problem with the media as a whole since 2007.

I feel this is more accurate, it’s just much worse now. I’m very thankful that I rarely ever listen to sports media or any media in general. They are paid idiots that spew opinion as fact and verify nothing to beat the other guy to the sewer.

 

[Kontradiction]

I feel this is more accurate, it’s just much worse now. I’m very thankful that I rarely ever listen to sports media or any media in general. They are paid idiots that spew opinion as fact and verify nothing to beat the other guy to the sewer.

I have a degree in communications that I don’t even use because I was disgusted by the total lack of ethics and journalistic integrity that I witnessed when I got into the field. I went back to school and studied business instead.

 

[Koma]

Mort needs to go all the way on this mea culpa.

He should, but he never will. Mortensen didn't make up the "2 PSI under" story, he was just a pawn used to get the story out to a wide audience. As an NFL Insider at ESPN, he was well suited for that role.

When he found out that he had been used to spread a lie as part of smear campaign, he could have blown the whistle on his sources. Instead, we've learned that Mortensen is fine being a pawn as long as he still has his access and his "insider" status. The fallout of his actions isn't his concern. He mentions how, in the old days, he would taken a few more days to work on the story, but there was a rush to get it out there. He never explains why there was a rush in this case, the same way he never asked why the NFL wanted to plant a false story.

The last paragraph in that story shows me Mortensen will never get it:

Every once in a while someone will tweet something about '11 of 12.,’” he said. “And I want to tweet back, 'No matter what, it was still 11 out of 12.’"

No it wasn't, you dummy! There were only 11 footballs to measure. Blount had thrown one into the crowd. "11 out 12" implies 12 footballs were measured, 11 of them were below the minimum PSI and the 12th was fine. That wasn't the case, just like they weren't 2 PSI under the limit, either. The line Mortensen was fed, the thing he is now most known for, was false. That's a story he should write about, but it might cause his NFL sources to dry up, so it's easier to pretend it was true.