Parker’s pick doesn’t click with website
Elite high school basketball recruit Jabari Parker will be among the Big Ten's best players and help Michigan State get back to the Final Four, even if he stays in East Lansing for only a year or two.
As soon as that news was posted on the Lansing State Journal website on Thursday, Michigan State fans began planning which couches to torch during the national championship celebrations in coming years.
What's that? He committed to Duke?
Oops.
Too often during the Internet age, getting the story first has become more important than getting it right for many media outlets. And that's how headlines like this one show up on the Lansing State Journal website:
"Jabari Parker Picks Michigan State," read the headline after the newspaper posted a story by Detroit Free Press beat writer Joe Rexrode that elaborated on the nation's No. 2 prep prospect heading to the Big Ten power.
The story was posted around 2:40 p.m. Eastern Time. Little more than an hour later, Parker announced he would play at Duke.
Rexrode explained on Twitter that he had to send two versions of the Parker story to the news desk in advance - one with Parker choosing Duke and the other with him picking Michigan State - because wireless issues at Parker's Chicago high school prevented him from filing a story as soon as the decision was made.
But someone back in the office got a bit ahead of themselves and posted the story prematurely.
Hey, it happens. And rest assured it will happen again as speed takes precedent over accuracy in the modern news cycle.
There was some good news to come out of the situation, though. At least the flammable furniture in East Lansing will be safe.
■ SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE - To the surprise of no one with half a brain or any semblance of sanity, the world did not end on Dec. 21.
There was one sure way to know life wasn't going to cease Friday, and Andrew Siciliano of NFL Network hit the nail on the head via Twitter on Thursday.
"If it turns out the Mayans were right after all, Mark Sanchez will have thrown the last TD pass in NFL history," Siciliano tweeted.
Excellent point, and one the Mayans could not have foreseen. Life isn't fair, but for the world to end with Sanchez having thrown the last touchdown pass would have been a travesty. When the sun rose today, the earth was still on its axis and the Jets still stunk.
Life goes on.
■ WELL-WISHERS - ESPN host Samantha Steele probably didn't expect overwhelming positivity on Twitter after news leaked this week of her marriage to Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder.
The outpouring of snide comments and bitterness probably caught her a bit off guard, though.
"Twitter is so tricky. Who knew that 'she's pregnant' & 'they'll be divorced soon' are just the 2012 version of 'congrats'! Thx guys! :)," she posted.
Anonymous commenters can be so mean and cynical.
Whatever happened to, "She's just doing it for her career," or "She's doing it for the money"?
Come on, people.
COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
