OT- Today's Manti Te'O thread; Katie Couric
I'm bothered by what I've seen so far in the form of teasers for tonight's Katie Couric interview with Manti Te'O, and the early media responses thereto.
Check your local listings for airtimes in your area:
http://www.katiecouric.com/promo/
It seems like we are into the phase of the story where everyone is judging and psychoanalyzing Te'O. In the interview, he looks totally adorable. Like a man-killing Samoan/Hawaiian teddy bear. Beautiful hair and makeup. Metrosexual sweater and cream-colored slacks on cream-colored upholstery. Comfy chairs; set decoration borrowed from Oprah. Check, check, triple check. Straight outta Compton? Not this time.
So what this seems to be turning into is a national debate about social media, and the pressures of college football, and a story with enough weird sex/non-sex to fascinate a nation of 300 million tv viewers. All things that I couldn't care less about. At least not as told by Katie Couric and Manti Te'O.
What seems to be getting lost in all of this -- and I suspect it is by design -- is Notre Dame's role in pushing the PR angle of the original story. Manti Te'O will get drafted, and he'll sign an NFL contract, and he'll go on to have a good, bad or indifferent NFl career. And I won't care.
What I want to know, is when do we find out how Notre Dame's publicity machine played this to try to win a Heisman for Te'O? Deadspin broke this story; I hope that Deadspin (or a similar blog) breaks the Notre Dame side of this story.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:40 PM ^
How don't you realize that your girlfriend was really a man? I feel like you would be able to recognize a man trying to impersonate a woman if you heard that voice enough.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:45 PM ^
Maybe because you did realize your "girlfriend" was a man and that wasnt a problem for you.
NTTAWWT
January 24th, 2013 at 12:53 PM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 1:57 PM ^
The media is trying to deflect attention from their own mistake. They reported the story without any fact checking, and now they are putting the blame on Manti. If the journalists who brought the story would have simply checked into it the details, as journalists should, the hype would have been avoided.
January 24th, 2013 at 3:58 PM ^
This video is freaking hilarious!
January 24th, 2013 at 5:42 PM ^
Is English his first language? Listening to him speak, I wonder if he actually wrote that statement he released last week or if an ND rep whipped it up.
January 25th, 2013 at 12:44 AM ^
January 25th, 2013 at 3:10 PM ^
It's an honest question. Is English his native language or did he grow up speaking Samoan at home, or something else? I'd never heard him speak until recently. He sounds like he has a pronounced accent.
If English is his second language, I could maybe buy the "he was duped" argument a little more.
January 24th, 2013 at 8:51 PM ^
Maybe Manti was into the Mahu's
http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=62&id=46603
Transgendered and transexual individuals greatly disturb most God-fearing Christians, who believe that everything other than 'conventional' marital sex is a mortal sin. The ancient Hawaiians were not as tightly strung, in their graceful understanding that all human beings possess a complete Tao of male and female qualities within themselves. 'Mahu' is a Hawaiian term that describes a man who has chosen to live as a woman and in the ancient (pre-missionary) culture, such individuals were respected and regarded as important members of the community.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:10 PM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:57 PM ^
Between the Mormon family, it's one I was inclined to believe but after hearing Michael Wilbon talk about Teo in general on the radio yesterday, I think that Teo is probably just that... for lack of a better term, simple. Wilbon said that after he talked to Teo (pre heisman ceremony), Wilbon was struck by just how child-like Teo seemed. That's something that can be seen in tons of athletes. I don't know where he grew up in hawaii, but the question of "street smarts" comes to mind. Many people aren't exposed to lots of things before they go off to college, and I'm guessing Teo had never thought that someone could be hoaxing him, and that what he thought was real was real.
The main aspect to the "beard" angle for me is that Teo's dad thought Lennay was going to be his Daughter in law. So Teo talked her up to his dad quite a bit. Whether that's because Teo wanted his dad to think he was straight, or becuse Teo was duped this badly... Eh, I don't really care.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:01 PM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 1:02 PM ^
It takes virtually no street smarts to avoid talking TO A MAN on the phone and using that as the basis for "falling in love" with an imaginary lady.
Te'o is obviously full of shit.
January 24th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^
Remember the Bernard Boursicot/Shi Pei Pu affair? That was diplomat (i.e., not a dumb jock) who thought he was in a relationship with a woman for more than twenty years before he found out it was really a man.
Hmmm...speaking of which, has anybody considered that maybe Chinese intelligence agents set up Teo to embarrass America?
January 24th, 2013 at 2:54 PM ^
I'd have way more sympathy for Te'o if he had actually hooked up with this Tuiasosopo character dressed in drag and just didn't notice the dong. This story is somehow way creepier and sad than that.
January 24th, 2013 at 6:46 PM ^
I'd have way more sympathy for him if he was actually gay with Tuiasasopo and just came out with it. Sure, he would get ripped on in NFL locker rooms for it, but probably not as much as he will now. And at least then he'd be open about who he was, and might end up with a Tebow-like following from the LGBT community. Talk about a corner of the market that is totally untapped.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:12 PM ^
January 25th, 2013 at 12:47 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:46 PM ^
Maybe there was a girl that was involved.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:54 PM ^
Oh, well that's what I get for not paying attention to what used to be an interesting story.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:57 PM ^
If Te'o can be fooled into falling in love by talking to some dude on the phone for hours at a time, I'm about to make some serious cash as a sultry phone sex operator.
Mo money, mo money, mo money!
January 24th, 2013 at 6:35 PM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 1:29 PM ^
http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/24/manti-teo-voicemails-katie-couric-lennay-…
Apparently these are voicemails from the dude to Manti???? Sounds like a chick to me...
January 24th, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^
"Lennay" was nagging Manti about not answering the phone, and they never even met in-person! Hilarious.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:31 PM ^
He talked to her on the phone! His phone records where made public on ESPN the other day showing hours of call to the lady. Anyone could fall for this crap but, we wouldn't refer to them as our GF. I think that angle got played up when she "died" the day after his grandmother.
This story just needs to go away
January 24th, 2013 at 2:36 PM ^
He didn't release his phone records. He emailed an excel file which supposedly contained a summary of his phone calls... big difference.
January 24th, 2013 at 2:59 PM ^
Maybe the real, original, unexpurgated records have a few calls from agents on there too. What about some well-to-do boosters from Chicago and New York?
Just. Askin'.
January 25th, 2013 at 5:03 AM ^
Was your subject line from forrest gump?
January 24th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ^
1. Te'o's agency is the same as Couric's. His people didn't call hers to set up the interview, they're the same people. If you don't think this interview is going to paint him in the best light possible... I've got a cliche to sell you
2. Since the interview was recorded a few days ago, it's come out that Tuiasosopo (sp?) the man behind the hoax, was on the phone with Te'o all that time. What?
I don't really care what comes of this, but it's totally a weird situation. I don't understand why Teo's agents want him to keep talking (unless to help their client Couric). NFL teams are going to grill him in the interviews, and that's what is going to get him drafted (or let him fall), not any interviews he does on daytime TV.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:54 PM ^
Yes, I'd like more information on this cliche you're selling. Can you give me a description of it? Also, how much are you looking for it? For the right price, I might be willing to make you a deal.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:00 PM ^
I've got a foolproof system to lead horses to water., and I have a system to make sure that you NEVER start a land war in russia.
For water it's a lump sum payment, but for the russian-land-war-avoidance, that's a 3 month course and subsequent subscription.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:05 PM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^
All I know is it's over a week later...and I'm even more confused than when this fucking thing started.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:49 PM ^
story for me on the Te'o story is not social media, but media in general, and how the media comes to influence peoples opinions and beliefs with such considerations as source and agenda, and what constitutes "truth" and how we as a country/society can possibly believe that we are receiving "truth" from any media outlet regarding content that they have a vested interest in. The take-away from the Te'o story is what you see on TV/Internet/Media may be true, it may not be true, it may be partially true, and it may be false but presented to you in such a method that you would be dubbed inhumane to question even if the content itself is not objectively believable. It put on full display how deficient the channels of mass information and communication are in this country.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:06 PM ^
But it can't really happen here. The slope is too slippery to avoid devolving into politics at some point. There are a lot of ways that what you're saying is true, and ruthlessly applied to current affairs.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:14 PM ^
not being able to happen here is part of "it."
But I am but a modest observer, and you are right the slope is very slick. I will not speak another word of it.
January 24th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^
One name: Jean Baudrillard. Alright, I better get out of here before being banned for mentioning French critics.
January 24th, 2013 at 4:40 PM ^
Interesting.
January 24th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^
Takes me back to my flirtation with teh po-mo mo-fos.
It's been a long time since I read him, but from what I remember I wasn't all that impressed. His early stuff in the post-Marxist/revisionist Marxist vein was interesting enough, but by Simulacra and Simulation I think he'd gone off the rails a bit. The idea that there isn't any accessible reality beyond representation (signs refer to signs without any ultimately external referents) is silly, IMO.
I blame Kant. The french seem to be perpetually trying to overturn his phenomenal/noumenal distinction, but they go about it the wrong way.
January 25th, 2013 at 9:35 AM ^
and consider that the Gulf War never ended........
January 25th, 2013 at 9:37 AM ^
post.
Double post. (ha)
January 24th, 2013 at 12:50 PM ^
It's funny how many media outlets published a list of holes in the story, yet in two interviews, neither interviewer has followed up with questions on the holes and Te'o has failed to address them. It seems like the PR strategy of "say a bunch of nice, feel-sorry-for-me things over a long period of time and everyone will forget about it" worked.
It's worked on me to be honest because it has become apparent that this story is going to die quickly and the vast majority of people have latched on to the Te'o/ND created narrative. I cared about this story at first because the use of tragedy for media attention really bothered me. I still think Te'o and ND used the death of a girl (fake or otherwise) to hype Te'o for the Heisman and the ND brand going forward. It just seems that mainstream media and the public no longer care about that and have allowed Te'o/ND to dictate the message.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^
media must salvage the perceived integrity of the story they tell. It is of utmost importance that the consumers of said media believe there to be one objective "truth" and then "the nutjobs that don't believe that official truth." The Teo' story threatened the very core of that narrative and the mainstream media has engage in a weeklong concerted effort to return public perception to the status quo.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:12 PM ^
While the MSM may step off of the gas for a bit, with the news about a man being the likely voice on the other line I'm pretty sure that, once Roniah Tuiasosopo gets his interview, we are likely to find out one of two things
1) Te'o got fooled by a man pretending to be a woman over the phone for a long, long time, which is going to be hanging over this poor guy's head. In that case, less MSM but a ton of social and other media will be all over it.
2) He didn't get fooled, which opens up the potential for the biggest LGBT outing of the decade (for sports, of all time).
Either way, I'm really feeling sorry for Te'o at this point, even accounting for all the lies and typical ND nonsense.
January 24th, 2013 at 3:01 PM ^
...if that happens and this story ends up some how outing the first homosexual athlete in the NFL then...wow, that actually is a helluva of a story.
January 24th, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
Or 3) that this Ronaiah character is lying, which wouldn't exactly come as a major stretch.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^
The ESPN/SI contingent has fallen for it, but I don't think the general public has. The majority of people on twitter from what I've seen don't believe Te'o. Even the few that do believe him have to stop calling him niave. The word is stupid. Anyone who believes Te'o also has to believe that there had to be some serious cheating going on at ND for him to survive 4 years there.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:54 PM ^