Generally speaking, unsubstantiated rumors, shouldn’t be construed as factual news. It’s a little puzzling how rumors about a few players of the Syracuse Orangemen basketball team and point shaving made it to mainstream news.
For the record, the rumor was completely false. Scoop Jardine, James Southerland and Dion Waiters, the players implicated in the point shaving rumor, have been tweeting their innocense since the rumor began to spread like a virus over the net. As far betting lines go, there wasn’t any unusual betting activity on the games in question.
The interesting thing about this story is how the rumor was first posted on a online gambling site and a poker forum. A television reporter linked to the rumor and in a few short hours it was news, well sort of. But to me, the interesting part about this story is not that professional journalistic standards were abandoned, but rather how quickly mainstream media siphoned news from a gaming site.
More and more we’re starting to see mainstream media turning to online gaming and the gambling industry for news about sports, to use betting lines for reference, for political debates and now for rumored betting scandals.
Years ago, mainstream media would never have referenced the gaming industry for news. With the proliferation of internet news, gaming sites have clearly gotten the mainstream media’s attention. It should almost go without saying that moving forward, standards of credibility and integrity must now be adhered to. Gaming industry news sites have come too far to be stopped now by a few less than credible news sites.
