The link reads ‘boston-radio-dopes-claim-boston-newspaper-dope-was-tric’, which seems unlikely but I wouldn’t put it past him.
Ron Borges gets catfished, kisses career goodbye (we hope)
- Thread starter dcmissle
- Start date
Good lord, who do I root for in this mess?
On one hand, there's Ron fucking Borges who is probably the worst writer* still employed in the Boston Media. * Yes, even worse than Cafardo.
On the other, is Kirk Minihane who just is the plain worst. I think it's pretty hilarious that Borges got catfished, because fuck that guy; but at the same time it's pretty shitty that Minihane had knowledge of it (at the very least) and may have been behind it (at the worst). All because one guy said that the other guy didn't know how to get to Foxboro. I mean, that's a pretty big bomb to drop on a dude who said you don't know anything -- which is something Minihane says no less than 13,000 times a day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not crying for Ron Borges, but that seems like a complete over-reaction.
BTW, who the fuck still listens to Mustard and Johnson? That's the real scoop in this story.
Borges is such a hack. From the article he twice refers to the Patriots cutting their losses with Garoppolo. It's certainly not the worst thing he has done as a writer, but it's still really pretty shitty writing. There's about a million other problems with the article even if the source had been Yee.
What losses?
I love a world where Boston sports writers and personalities just cannibalize each other. Hopefully, this sets off a chain reaction and they all take each other down and we can build over.
This, to me, was the real problem with the Wickersham article. Not that it didn't name its sources, but that it just vaguely mentions "sources say" and "sources say" is lazy and unreliable. We don't necessarily need to know exactly who the source is, but shouldn't the writer make some effort to demonstrate the validity of the information at least?
"Sources" is just way too open of a concept, and this article is exactly why it's not enough.
The nihilistic, no-account, hot take culture dominates sports journalism. Ron Borges and Shank were trailblazers. Which is too bad because they are not without talent and have produced some very good work. ( I linked to a terrific Borges piece in BBTL last week — good not because it was laudatory but because it was well conceived, nicely researched and well written.)
Such good work from them is increasingly rare, and seemingly generated to claim “objectivity” in the service of thuggery.
This is worse than being an untalented hack. Bitter people are sad people and pitiful.
Such good work from them is increasingly rare, and seemingly generated to claim “objectivity” in the service of thuggery.
This is worse than being an untalented hack. Bitter people are sad people and pitiful.
He's going to keep his job. Punching a wheel chair bound reporter, stealing stories and just being an overall total dick hasn't destroyed his career yet. Why would this?
I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't glued to EEI this morning just to hear the justified reactions of this fucking blowhard getting hit with some karma.
I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't glued to EEI this morning just to hear the justified reactions of this fucking blowhard getting hit with some karma.
And Minihane had nothing to do with this. It was all Nick from Boston who was responsible. All Minihane did was take credit for it.
Correct. Minihane inspired Nick, so he takes credit.
This is COMPLETELY different than when Reimer called Brady's kid a name which was inspired by Minihane's act, which is not his fault at all.
Quickly turning to national ridicule —
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/02/09/ron-borges-prankster-says-hoax-was-easy-to-pull-off/
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/02/09/ron-borges-prankster-says-hoax-was-easy-to-pull-off/
As did Kyed, but saying a story isn’t true and having the text messages from the guy that planted the fake story are on different levels.
What's even worse is that reporters are quick to mix in items reported by sources, and their own judgment on how they pieced the anonymous quotes to make a story. That was to me the real flaw in the Wickersham article; it was impossible to tell what was actually said by "sources", and where the reporter was speculating based on the sourced reports.
Nothing is going to happen to Borges. This is the new world that newspapers find themselves in where they have to be first to break a story, they don't necessarily have to be correct.
Let's pretend that this story is true, it's a bombshell and not only that, but Borges got it first ... even before Twitter. That rarely ever happens any more. And not only that but this is such a big story that it drives the offseason. Unfortunately, newspaper editors have one job now: get noticed. I doubt that the editor even asked Borges if his source was credible (not because Borges is a great reporter, but because he's a veteran guy and this doesn't happen to them). My guess is that the editor saw this, his eyes widened and was like, "Holy fuck, we're relevant again! (At least for one day)" and didn't think twice.
It completely blew up in their faces but TBH, it could have happened to anyone at any paper. It's the new nature of the beast. But Borges might get a public slap on the wrist, but if the Herald editors are being honest with themselves, they'd do the exact same thing tomorrow.
There's no doubt in my mind.
He should have taken his job and livelihood serious by doing actual reporting and not stealing stories. Theres a specific reason why no one is crying the blues about Borges in the media. He should have lost that career when he was bagged stealing stories. Not even mentioning him slapping a wheel chair bound reporter. This guy has had so many chances and he's used those chances to put other people down and drive his anti Belichick agenda home. This is Karma
It was his life and livelihood when he plagiarized and got fired. Or when he physically attacked another reporter.
It's his own goddamn fault.
You notice that literally no one is sticking up for Borges in the media. Wonder why that is? I've personally had the displeasure of meeting him back in 07 when he was covering for someone at the Herald down in the Winter Meetings in Nashville. Fuck him.
You're hoping for a Boston Sports Media apocalypse? Maybe one that ends with Comcast sports tonight being replaced by children dressed in scrounged sports items they don't understand and talking about "the before time" like in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome? Because I'd watch that.
One of my friends works with Borges (he has a media job) and insists that he’s a nice guy. I simply refuse to believe this.
Which one of you SOSHers is "Nick from Boston?" Mad props if you are, despite being a WEEI listener and caller.
I was thinking the same. Between McDaniels and this I'm completely over the loss and on to next year. Just need to hear Gronk is coming back.
Congratulations "To Catch A Predator". Ruining the reputations of innocent pedophiles and jeopardizing their jobs just for ratings.
- Ed Werder
- Ed Werder
The Big Cat/Ed Werder #thoughtsandprayersoff back and forth is just what I needed on this winter Friday.
Borges is the one who ruined his reputation by running with one extremely sketchy source. None other.
I mean, I can agree that it seems like a shitty prank to play on someone, especially if it's intention was to embarrass. I'm certainly not comfortable aligning myself with Minihane and his gleeful gloating about it all. Karma comes back around on that type of stuff.
But that doesn't change the fact that the blame is 100% on Borges and that no one seems upset to see him publicly embarrassed. I feel 0.0 sympathy for him and am glad to see him exposed. Painting him as a victim here is disgraceful and unsurprising from journalism white knight Ed Werder.
But that doesn't change the fact that the blame is 100% on Borges and that no one seems upset to see him publicly embarrassed. I feel 0.0 sympathy for him and am glad to see him exposed. Painting him as a victim here is disgraceful and unsurprising from journalism white knight Ed Werder.
Borges writes columns a lot of us hate and usually comes off on radio and tv as a real prick. Shank also writes stuff a lot of us hate but doesn't project on-air nearly as poorly. Sounds like a nice fellow on a lot of occasions. Just my opinion why a lot of folks aren't sympathizing with Ronnie.
Yeah, I'm sure no one at WEEI put this guy up to it. It's not like they create drama for their talk shows or anything.
Youk responding to Werder was great:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sorry Mr. Werder but this has to work both ways in sports. Many innocent athletes have had their reputations tarnished by false stories written by reporters. <a href="https://t.co/ZRFnZ3YsQ0">https://t.co/ZRFnZ3YsQ0</a></p>— Kevin Youkilis (@GreekGodOfHops) <a href="https://twitter.com/GreekGodOfHops/status/961990902485929984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Sorry Mr. Werder but this has to work both ways in sports. Many innocent athletes have had their reputations tarnished by false stories written by reporters.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sorry Mr. Werder but this has to work both ways in sports. Many innocent athletes have had their reputations tarnished by false stories written by reporters. <a href="https://t.co/ZRFnZ3YsQ0">https://t.co/ZRFnZ3YsQ0</a></p>— Kevin Youkilis (@GreekGodOfHops) <a href="https://twitter.com/GreekGodOfHops/status/961990902485929984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Sorry Mr. Werder but this has to work both ways in sports. Many innocent athletes have had their reputations tarnished by false stories written by reporters.
Several of us made this point in the Wickersham thread, and I fully agree. This incident hopefully raises the general awareness of why that matters, and why "there's always anonymous sources" is not actually the point that matters in assessing what Wickersham did.
BTW, what are the chances Wickersham's editor is now asking him precisely how he found and validated his sources? Maybe he thought "Nick from Boston" was "Nick Caserio!"
I actually highly doubt they did, they are 100% exploiting it for all it is worth at this point though.
I just don't think anyone would have had any expectation that Borges would have fallen for such an amateur prank. I heard the guys call and I think he was shocked Borges actually ran with the story.
Uh, oh...
@NEPD_Loyko
Old Friend Drew Rosenhaus just facebook messaged me, he says Gronk wants to be highest paid player in the NFL or he's going to retire and sign on to play Dominic Torreto's long lost Brother in Fast and Furious 9. Writing it now.
I heard it this morning and it sounded like K&C had no idea. I hate defending them, but I don't know where the idea that they had anything to do with it comes from outside of they learned about it first.
Borges past actions aside for the moment: it's not like this was some highly elaborate Ocean's 11/Good Morning Mr. Phelps scheme. (by most accounts) There were so many ways Borges could have TRIED to confirm or check this out, or done just a smattering of due dilly, but he didn't.
This is like a sleazy used car saleman finding out from the cops that he has hot cars on his lot, and his (legit) excuse is that he never bothered to run the VINs because the sellers pinky swore the cars weren't stolen.
Yee has been Brady's agent for how long? Borges had no communication with him ever till this point and didn't have his number stored and didn't know anyone who did to cross-reference? Forget professional journalists, this is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of in my life.
Remember at the DFG press conference when he asked Brady something along the lines of "We hear stories about how a batter can tell if his bat is an ounce too heavy, or a great basketball player could tell that the rim was a half an inch low, but you are asking us to believe that you couldn't tell that the football was two pounds lighter????"
He's a malicious idiot and there's no amount of ridicule that could be heaped on him that would be too much.
Ed-interrupted post
He's a malicious idiot and there's no amount of ridicule that could be heaped on him that would be too much.
Ed-interrupted post
I want to know what the area code was on the texts. Even if Yee got a new phone number: that old 617 or 508 wasnt something worth checking out?
I can't believe that Nick from Boston went to the trouble of spoofing an LA number on the texts.
I can't believe that Nick from Boston went to the trouble of spoofing an LA number on the texts.
He wasn't the only one. I don't smoke and I fired up a cig after the show, it was so satisfying. Thornton, Feitleberg, and El Pres all gloated about it on Barstool too. Especially Jerry.
He seemdto really want to get the scoop ahead of Peter King too.
You must be new to town.
Big Cat isn't about to lose a Thoughts & Prayers's Off to Ed Werder!! Haha
I think they said it was a Rhode Island area code.
So a random number shows up on Ronnie B's phone claiming to be Don Yee and he just fucking goes with it. Amazing.