On the other hand, the phrase now has a bit of mileage on it. Facebook labels stories from sites like The Onion with #satire, to protect those of us who lack a first grader’s critical thinking skills.
But one story really is genuinely exaggerated to the detriment of many people. My alma mater, the University of Maryland, went through a tragedy a couple months ago, after a football player died of heatstroke. His parents hired a slick lawyer who specializes in badmouthing the people he’s suing, which is this case is my school.
He masterminded an article on ESPN.com, and to any of us who are well familiar with our football team, it was obviously fabricated. Yes, a bully of a strength coach ran the poor player excessively in the heat (and the coach has been rightfully fired), but ESPN’s shameless writer branded the program as having a “toxic culture”. America pounced.
One of the stories was about a player who was yanked out of a meeting simply for “smiling”, then told to transfer to another school. Here’s what a teammate told The Baltimore Sun really happened:
Or this, regarding head coach DJ Durkin:
But the damage is done. There’s an ass-full of mock outrage on Twitter calling the Maryland head coach a murderer (he’s been put on leave, but is loved by the players, who want him back) because of one, simple, libelous story. I love DJ Durkin, and it seems patently unfair he may lose his job merely to avoid a PR backlash because people LOVE to vent.
You know, there’s too much negativity in the air. People need to be kinder. I’ll start: Taco Bell’s nacho fries are not terrible. They now have 7% more Mexican seasoning. So there’s that.
DJ Durkin looked like he was doomed, but as an investigation is underway, there’s word out of College Park that he may actually keep his job, and if anyone reading this blog could refrain from wigging over it, much appreciated. Or, if you insist on posting an angry tweet, please add “Not you, Matt” at the end. Thank you.
