I knew that they lurk at this website (everyone in the industry does). I figured that they uncovered many of their leads here. I never thought they'd run with a phony post on a message board without confirmation.
Garry TwoRs, Sig and friends. I'm available for editing duties. Will work for beer.
If this report is true, you can consider my subscription cancelled. What is their side of the story? Has anyone heard anything?
Kinda silly reason to cancel your subscription, isn't it? I mean, yes of course they screwed up and didn't fact check. But they're still T&FN. They still give you tons of great results, world best lists, features, etc.
They did something dumb, not malicious.
Truly pathetic that they would pluck something off >this< site and go with it. As a monthly mag in the internet age, their job is actually made more simple in many respects. Instead, they use this sort of crap, regularly use quotes from various web sources in their stories, etc, etc. They could do much better --if they simply tried. "The Bible" still hasn't figured out how to adjust to the age of instant info. If they don't soon, their demise is very near.
Got the right site now? ;-)
OK, I'll bite. What did they do? I just got my October issue and haven't had a chance to read it yet. Enlighten me; how did they screw up?
Apparently they spread a false rumor that began on this message board...something about the Ivy League planning to drop DI status and go to DIII. The whole thing, of course, was just a rumor. Now they feel dumb, and people are angry.
Why should we be surprised, though? This site is probably the best source of current info. Think about it. Twin Cities was last weekend, and there were people on this board giving halfway splits no more than a few minutes after the fact. NO ONE can compete with that kind of information flow, and so, obviously, a good journalist will use this site (not exclusively) to find out what's going on. On the other hand, I don't see why they would PUBLISH information without verifying it.
Irresponsible journalism. How hard would it have been to verify that story?
Don't believe everything you read, folks.
What's the big deal? In my experience, this quality is right on par with the usual. Now, let's go sell some magazines!!
In the October issue of T&FN, in the "On Your Marks" section you'll find a small note which cites a NY Times report that the Ivy League schools are
considering dropping down to Div. III.
This "news" was a bit of Internet tomfoolery which found its way to the T&FN office, at which point the fact-checking system obviously failed completely. There are no such plans, of course.
T&FN (the buck-stops-here guy in particular) is of course very redfaced about the whole incident and wishes to apologize profusely for any problems this note might cause. Formal letters of apology have gone out to the schools concerned and an article of retraction will of course appear in the next issue.
E. Garry Hill
Editor, T&FN
Good job, Garry!
Track and Field News is a great magazine. One mistake doesn't change that. Anybody can provide the news, but TandFN interprets it with acumen that comes from decades of experience. They're great at taking a step back, and putting things into perspective. I know of no better judge of, or provider of, what is important and interesting in track and field. Stop bashing them.
Biatch
I just gotta say that I love TFN, imperfections aside. I remember their April fools page one year. They said that Oprah had tested positive for turtle blood and stuff. You should do that again!!!!!