On September 20, 2012, sports reporter Dan Tordjman used his Twitter account to say “Can’t confirm this” but he’d heard that Yankees player Robinson Canó had failed a drug test for performance-enhancing drugs (PED), and there would be an announcement shortly from major league baseball (MLB).
People had questions, and Tjordman, who reports for WSOC-TV in North Carolina, told them to take a deep breath, because he hadn’t confirmed it yet. “Just a rumor.” Just a rumor he was floating for anyone to see.
There was talk and retweeting, and other reporters asked Canó about it. Canó disagreed with the rumor. “There’s no test or anything.” An MLB official also said it hadn’t happened, although he did so anonymously.
Time passed. The supposed MLB announcement didn’t happen. Um, were we still supposed to be holding that deep breath?
On October 4 Tordjman tweeted that his previous tweet implication had been “FALSE” and that he, Cox Media Group, and WSOC-TV all apologized to Mr. Canó, to the Yankees, and to the fans. “I shouldn’t have posted false info about #Cano, and afterward, I should’ve admitted it was false and apologized right away. I am very sorry,” he wrote.
WSOC pointed out that Tordjman had been using his personal account – nothing to do with them! – but broadcast an apology anyway.
I hope Tjordman found a way to apologize to Canó directly. In print journalism, it’s often done to run a correction in the same place where the original misinformation appeared. But when you spread a rumor behind someone’s back, the best practice is not only to spread the correction through the same channels, but also to apologize directly to the person in question.
Tordjman must have realized that Twitter is a public record. Journalists are supposed to check facts before making allegations. Other sports reporters who heard the rumor managed not to go public with it. Was Tordjman so sure the rumor was true, that he thought confirmation would soon follow?
Robinson Canó easily doing another thing I would need performance-enhancing drugs to accomplish.
Maybe. Something related happened in July when reporter Andrew Baggarly of CSNBay Area.com apologized to Melky Cabrera of the SF Giants for saying – on his CSN Twitter account – that it was rumored that Cabrera had failed a PED test and would soon be suspended. He concluded with: “I asked Melky and he said it’s totally untrue.”
So Baggarly apologized the next day. In CBS Sports blogger Dayn Perry’s analysis: “Baggarly had inadvertently given life to rumors that should’ve died out in the unfollowed haunts of Twitter. That’s why he’s apologized.”
However, in August it was announced that Cabrera had come up positive on a test for PED. He knew this when Baggarly asked him about it, but it hadn’t been made public yet. Cabrera was sidelined for 50 games (tragically also sidelining a group of fans who dressed as milkmen, or Melkmen).
Melky then admitted his use of a PED (testosterone or something very like it), and apologized to his teammates, the team organization, and the fans. Though not, apparently, to Baggarly.
So Tordjman may have hoped that if he stalled long enough before apologizing, the rumor would turn out to be true. But even if it had, he still reported an unconfirmed rumor, and that’s bad journalism.
These days, suspicion of PED use often falls on talented athletes. I recently saw Canó hit a couple of home runs in one game, a thing I certainly could not do without the help of PED. Naturally I was suspicious. But at least I kept my mouth shut.
