Comments on: An Explanation

By: John P. Normanson

John P. Normanson — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:47:10 +0000

“I included the quote because it looked legitimate…”

And you, pal, look like an idiot.

SI should have tossed your ass out onto the street immediately. That they didn’t only further signals the decline of that once august publication and/or the rumor that you have pictures of SI higher-ups in the most compromising of positions.

By: mf

mf — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:44:19 +0000

Hey. That Ian Thomsen is a fool. In his mea culpa he wrote this about the agent who gave him the bad info.” I’ve known Grant for years and he is an exceptionally honest person.” What self-respecting journalist would ever use the word honest person in connection with an agent?

By: SK

SK — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:38:55 +0000

The Last Boy Scout is on Cinemax/HBO pretty much every damn night and i still watch it.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:11:14 +0000

I’m not doubting that Thomsen should have done a better journalistic job (though, in keeping perspective, it’s not like he floated a quote from a NBA GM talking about a major trade; he pulled what he thought was a lighthearted comment from an entertainer to add some color to his intro—mistake, yes; egregious, not so much). But the post earlier this week makes it seem like Thomsen was trolling blogs looking for quotes and that he intentionally stole one. Based on his explanation, he borrowed a quote that the agent said he read online. It doesn’t appear that he read the post or knew that it came from a blog.

I don’t seriously think TBL should apologize. But I think this guy’s getting jumped on just a little too harshly.

By: ohsnap

ohsnap — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:26:55 +0000

This is pretty much the thing you bloggers live for, right?

By: TheBigLead

TheBigLead — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:22:45 +0000

Joe – There was no accusing on our part. All the facts were laid out against Thomsen, including his small note at the end of his last column.

Had Thomsen not explained himself, nobody would have ever known the story.

By: MtotheP

MtotheP — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:19:56 +0000

The best part is that the guy who pulled the gun was Billie Blanks of Tae-Bo fame.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:58:31 +0000

Not sure that it makes me feel any better that his excuse is “an agent told me he read it on the Internet”… So what, next he’s going to start getting his material from Wikipedia???

Pretty poor journalism, IMO. Same thing just happened with a NASCAR story… WCNC in Charlotte reported a whole story about a boat incident involving Kyle Busch and his boat. Turns out it wasn’t his boat and he wasn’t on it. They said the driver of the boat was one of Busch’s crew, but I’m not even sure that part was true!

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:58:14 +0000

Since TBL said Thomsen stole content, shouldn’t TBL also apologize? Certainly he should have done a better job verifying the quote, but had the quote been real, would he still be a thief?

Maybe TBL should do a better job getting its facts straight before accusing writers of unethical behavior.

By: h8r

h8r — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:17:31 +0000

So he’s not a thief, he’s just incredibly lazy. And he lets a self-promoting clown write his column for him. Now I feel better.