Sal Pal: Eagles To Pursue Samuel?

[PhillyPhreak54]

Asante Samuel, Trent Cole Twitter Accounts Are Fake
Posted by Aaron Wilson on May 18, 2009, 6:18 p.m.

In the latest case of Internet impostors pretending to be players via phony Twitter accounts, someone has been passing themselves off as Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel and defensive end Trent Cole.

The fake Samuel predicted a Super Bowl championship next season and wrote about playing street football in San Francisco. The fake Cole confidently wrote about how he's conducting the "the Sack Express."

However, the fake Tweets were picked up by philly.com Sunday and became the second-most popular article on the site over the past few days.

Eagles director of football media services Derek Boyko pointed out to us via an e-mail today that the posts purported to be from the two players are in fact, "bogus," adding that the team has contacted Samuel and Cole. As it turns out, neither player even has a Twitter account.

"I'm sure this will continue to be a growing problem in our league and the entire entertainment business," wrote Boyko, adding that reporters should feel free to contact the team if there's a question about whether an Eagles player is actually posting on Twitter or other social networking sites like Facebook.

Last night, I posted an item about Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware where he indicated that a long-term contract extension was close to happening.

I had been following Ware's feed for a few weeks ever since it was added to the list of pro athletes that were believed to be legitimate by Sportsin140.com, which has been doing a great job of pinning down which Twitter accounts are real.

The Twitter account seemed legit, mirroring quotations from the real Ware during recent interviews.

In this case, though, Ware's Twitter account was just as fake as the ones from Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.

The Dallas Morning News also ran an item about Ware's contract talks based on the Twitter account. Later, Ware texted Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning News to point out that it wasn't him on Twitter.

Besides the vast potential for reporting errors through following unconfirmed Twitter accounts, there's a potential legal side to the situation.

Twitter has an impersonation policy, and all of the above listed cases are violations of the terms of service.

That policy states that: "You must not abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate or intimidate other Twitter users," adding that accounts that attempt to confuse or mislead will be permanently suspended.

Under the rules, parody impersonations are allowed if it's clear that it's a parody and not a concerted attempt to imitate the real person.

Prior to the NFL Draft, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports wrote about how NFL team were using phony Facebook accounts to befriend players in an effort to learn more information about their character and personality.

However, it's a potential violation of federal law governing social networking sites.

As Mike Florio pointed out last month, a Missouri woman was hit with criminal charges by Los Angeles prosecutors after creating a fake MySpace profile that she used to harrass a local girl who committed suicide after being repeatedly taunted.

The bottom line is that everyone needs to be more responsible and wary about social networking sites, including the media.

The Trent Cole line about being a DT should have made me know it was fake

[Sgt PSN]

the fact that twitter/myspace/facebook is the source is just pathetic.  i've been seeing a lot of "reports" and stories over the last couple of years referencing social network sites as a "source" for their information, which imo, is not even shoddy journalism.....it's just farging lazy. 

[General_Failure]

ESPN's John Clayton reports that Facebook is friggin' sweet.

[MDS]

the fact that twitter/myspace/facebook is the source is just pathetic.  i've been seeing a lot of "reports" and stories over the last couple of years referencing social network sites as a "source" for their information, which imo, is not even shoddy journalism.....it's just farging lazy. 

to defend it somewhat, when the page is known and proven to be legit, it is a legit source of information.

i think i only referenced a facebook page once as an editor and that was someones page i knew to be him, so it wasnt a concern of lazy journalism. it was a small detail in a sidebar that was written on deadline. things are different when you basing large articles off of them, like the samuel thing. at that point, and with the obvious backlash sure to come of it, it's probably best to confirm that this twitter page is legit.

[Rome]

Or journalists can actually go out and conduct their own interviews.

[rjs246]

the fact that twitter/myspace/facebook is the source is just pathetic.  i've been seeing a lot of "reports" and stories over the last couple of years referencing social network sites as a "source" for their information, which imo, is not even shoddy journalism.....it's just farging lazy. 

to defend it somewhat, when the page is known and proven to be legit, it is a legit source of information.

i think i only referenced a facebook page once as an editor and that was someones page i knew to be him, so it wasnt a concern of lazy journalism. it was a small detail in a sidebar that was written on deadline. things are different when you basing large articles off of them, like the samuel thing. at that point, and with the obvious backlash sure to come of it, it's probably best to confirm that this twitter page is legit.

Every word of this is horseshtein and you should be ashamed of yourself.

[reese125]

ha...farging rj

[MDS]

wait should i take my journalism advice from random, unqualified message board posters?

[SD_Eagle5]

PR and journalism is heading towards social networking with the quickness. So my professor's tell me.

[rjs246]

wait should i take my journalism advice from random, unqualified message board posters?

You can take advice from whoever you want. But as a mass-consumer of journalistic material I will tell you until my face turns blue that getting material from twitter, or myspace, or facebook, or blogs, or seances or whatever other lazy ass bullshtein passes as research these days completely belittles the work that is put out for consumption by today's 'journalists'.

[MDS]

yes but if thats the first place the news was broken, then thats where we have to say it comes from

for example, one of the actors in my name is earl was the first person to say publicly that the show was canceled. and he did so on his twitter page. so when everyone else picks up this info, they have to say where they got it from. now they can call nbc to confirm, but they got the info from said source and thats how it needs to be written.

perhaps it is a problem that reporters are getting beaten to stories by twitter and the lot, but when someone can write a cute little sentence on the internet and not have to field calls from reporters, its easier for them. so they do it. plus the ego boost.

[Sgt PSN]

PR and journalism is heading towards social networking with the quickness. So my professor's tell me.

obviously it is.  i don't need a college professor to tell me that.  you can find that out on your own by reading espn articles that reference it or even cnn/faux news/msnbc/etc....they all have referenced a social networking site at one time or another.  local news stations in la do it some i'm sure they are everywhere else as well.  

i just really can't believe that "legitimate" journalists would actually go to these sites for their stories.  it's a pathetic attempt to attract readers/viewers who use those sites.  "omg, anderson cooper reads twitter for his stories.  he's so kewl."

outside of tabloid and entertainment-type reporters, the entire journalist community should be embarrased by this.  pathetic.  

[Father Demon]

Wait.  My Name Is Earl has been canceled?

[MDS]

yea but it could go to fox

[Tomahawk]

It's from Sal Pal, but not about Samuel:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/nfceast/0-10-79/Eagles-have-the-cap-space.html

Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the minimum that NFL
teams must spend on player salaries in 2009 is $107,748,000. Right now, the Eagles are $3.2 UNDER the minimum they must pay players on their roster. That $3.2 million is roughly equivalent to what they will spend on their 2009 draft class.

Impressive