It’s surprisingly easy to be duped by fake social media accounts, but when it happens on one of the most-watched shows on one of the world’s biggest sports networks, it certainly is a tough look.
ESPN’s “Around the Horn” on Thursday debated a LeBron James story it thought was broken by The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, one of the best reporters in the basketball world. If Woj says something is going to happen, it almost certainly always happens.
“LeBron will opt out of contract in 2018 to form a super team and ‘defend himself’ in LA, league sources tell @TheVertical,” the tweet read.
The problem, you see, is that story came from a fake account. The tweet even went on the screen, and you can see that Wojnarowski’s actual Twitter handle “WojVerticalNBA” is spelled “WojVertioal.” Despite that, the segment went on as if it was a real tweet.
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Like we said, though, it’s pretty easy for this to happen. It’s just that when it happens on a big stage like this, it’s a much bigger deal. And, in fairness to “Around the Horn,” the report really isn’t that far off from what Wojnarowski actually reported earlier this week on his podcast, as he said there was a fairly decent chance James eventually ends up in Los Angeles.
Still, it wasn’t a good look for the show or the network, and “Around the Horn” host Tony Reali took full blame for the mishap.
I got us @AroundtheHorn burned bad today by a fake tweet (fweet). Uggg this feels the worst.
— Tony Reali (@TonyReali) June 15, 2017
And Reali also said he was working off the original reporting, but he got a little crossed up after the fact.
We had the podcast quotes all sourced in our show google doc, then I went to Twitter, searched Lebron LA & that's where the fweet came up.
— Tony Reali (@TonyReali) June 16, 2017
This was 1000% on me. None of crew referred to tweet, but rather sourced w/real Woj podcast scoop (which was not far off) & their own info.
— Tony Reali (@TonyReali) June 16, 2017
This is just the latest reminder that you’ve gotta stay safe out there on the internet, folks.
H/t to Awful Announcing, Deadspin
