Last night we noted the New York Times report saying former Patriots employee Matt Walsh had turned over eight tapes to the NFL, but not a tape of the Rams' final walk-through practice before the 2002 Super Bowl.Many NFL observers have interpreted the absence of a tape showing the Rams' walkthrough as a refutation of the Boston Herald's February 2 report headlined, "Source: Pats employee filmed Rams."
That February 2 story was written by John Tomase, and today Tomase has a story following up on last night's New York Times report that includes this quote from Walsh's lawyer, Michael Levy:
"Mr. Walsh has never been the source of any of the media speculation about such a tape," Levy added. "Mr. Walsh was not the source for the Feb. 2 Boston Herald article."But Tomase just leaves that quote standing there without answering, for his readers, whether Levy is telling the truth. And that's wrong.
Tomase is in a difficult position here because he relied on an anonymous source for his February 2 article, and now people are calling that source into question. After granting that source anonymity, Tomase can't now identify him just because he's feeling heat -- no journalist would give up a source that easily.
But now that Tomase has chosen to include the quote "Mr. Walsh was not the source for the Feb. 2 Boston Herald article" in his story today, he and the Herald need to offer their readers some sort of explanation. Is Levy telling the truth? Tomase knows the answer to that question, and his readers deserve to know, too.
I've defended Tomase and the Herald, including saying I thought Peter King of Sports Illustrated was wrong to suggest that Patriots owner Bob Kraft will sue the paper. I still think King is wrong about that, but I think that if the Herald won't offer a fuller explanation of its reporting, the Herald is wrong, too.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. what about the kraft and belichek apologizing to the season ticket holders for cheating in the first place, losing the superbowl, losing draft picks, if they weren't videoing in the first place none of this would have happened.
Posted at 3:11PM on May 8th 2008 by football
2. For all those speculating:
Tomase did not write the story because he's one of the many in the media who hate the Patriots. This was not a vindictive thing here. In fact, if you live in this area then you know it's really better to kiss up to the Patriots organization because the fans pretty much feel they can do no wrong. Some of us criticize them but then we look at their record and well, our arguments fall apart.
No, the reason he went with the story was purely overzealousness, ambition, and arrogance. It's a character flaw he's had since he was young.
As far as an explanation is concerned, you might get something simply because this story turned into a fictious monster. But, I doubt (could be wrong) that you'll get a real explanation. Remember shortly after they released it in the paper they backed off their claims. They didnt retract it, just backed off. Mortensen said others were following the story but didn't feel it was strong enough evidence for the truth. So they're is a story here, so they can't really retract it, but the source sucked, so they're stuck just backing off. My guess is, some twerp who was fired or told he sucked or was run out of town for one reason or another decided to be petty and vengeful and made the baseless accusations.
Posted at 7:15PM on May 8th 2008 by jsharpe0047
3. And OJ did not murder Ron and Nicole. You get the correlation. This whole thing is getting mired in technicalties and diversions. Goodell will protect the people who put food on his table and we'll never know the shocking true story behind the Patriots underhanded ways. The longer this drags out, the more people aren't going to care, and that's just the dream Belichick and the Patriot organization are banking on.
Posted at 8:01AM on May 12th 2008 by Spleeve