UPDATE: Pete's apparently discovered his gaffe and has scrubbed the story of the Matt James reference. That's okay, Pete, we took a picture.
College Football News, or "CFN" has posted their preview of the Irish football team. It was written by Pete Fiutak, and there's no way in hell I'm linking to it, mostly because it contains the sort of misinformation you typically only see in national soccer team reports in North Korea.
Among the "gems."
- Picks the Navy game at Yankees Stadium as the most important game of the year for the Irish.
- Calls Nate Montana "Nick Montana."
- Claims this "Nick Montana" transferred from Washington to Notre Dame.
- AND THEN PETE FIUTAK ACTUALLY WROTE THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH:
New recuit Matt James might not be an elite prospect, but he was on everyone's list of the best tackles of this year's recruiting class with the size and frame to sit at one tackle spot for 4 years. At 6-7 and 291 pounds, the Cincinnati native followed Brian Kelly to South Bend and will get a long look at playing time right away on the outside. Even though he's tall, he's physical for the ground game and does a good job of shoving people around.
WHICH IS A FREAKING STRANGE THING TO WRITE ABOUT A KID WHO PASSED AWAY THIS SPRING, PETE FIUTAK, YOU FREAKING LAZY MORON.
By Brendan July 15, 2010 - 10:25 am
Yeah, that was pathetic on a number of levels, but the Matt James one is an all-timer faux pas.
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By SDI July 15, 2010 - 10:25 am
Unbelievable!!! That is an all time low in journalism. Even sports journalism. If this doesn’t end up plastered all over the internet under blaring headlines of journalism fail i don’t know what will. I’ve always guessed that these guys that write for these sports publications were lazy hacks–but this takes it to an all new level. Sad.
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By Brendan July 15, 2010 - 10:27 am
At least he’s stopped referring to one of our receivers as “Malcolm Floyd” which he did for the past two seasons.
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By Pat July 15, 2010 - 10:38 am
Yikes. Will say though that his reasoning on the Navy game isn’t completely terrible, especially in light of last year. But still, in regards to the whole thing: Yikes!
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By ShamRockNRoll July 15, 2010 - 2:03 pm
The point there was that he mentioned the Navy game in Yankee stadium when THERE IS NO NAVY GAME IN YANKEE STADIUM! (We’re playing Army there) haha. Man, how does the guy who wrote this article still have a job?
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By ShamRockNRoll July 15, 2010 - 2:05 pm
Or is that just his blog? –Either way, I now know never to read that site, ever.
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By Pat July 15, 2010 - 2:55 pm
Right, but in the actual article he describes how the game is important for ND to win to show they are back on track especially in light of last year’s loss; that’s what I was alluding to.
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By Vince Mullins July 18, 2010 - 7:22 am
Perhaps he just got the gold helmets confused…honest mistake. But the Matt James profile is just lazy, almost criminal.
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By John July 15, 2010 - 10:54 am
That was absolutely brutal “journalism.” And Pat, I will see your Yikes and raise you a Yikes.
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By Pat July 15, 2010 - 2:56 pm
Indeed.
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By Adam July 15, 2010 - 10:59 am
I used to “work” for Fiutak as a blogger at CFN. What a joke, half-baked show. He always promised to pay me, but never did. That and he encouraged broad, generalized statements. Guy has never talked to a player or met with a coach in his life. Just another “analyst” who does not understand the game.
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By Carl Winslow July 15, 2010 - 11:16 am
That is just pure laziness on his part, no research or proof reading involved. It makes me sick. When does write truth I’m sure its just plagiarism.
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By GoalieLax July 15, 2010 - 11:21 am
don’t worry – you’re not the most important game for Navy either.
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 12:31 pm
of course we’re not – we’re not Army.
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By Garrett July 15, 2010 - 1:02 pm
And, according to Fiutak, neither is Army.
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 3:11 pm
Ha, correct.
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By Trey July 15, 2010 - 1:14 pm
Navy is great at managing their expectations. They dont play us expecting to win. They play us so they can showcase themselves on a national level and run with the big boys. Their goal every year is to win the Comm in Chief & win a bowl game. ND doesnt allow tuem
To accomplish either.
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By John '07 July 15, 2010 - 11:27 am
Haha, are we sure this guy can comprehend the English language? We play Army at Yankee Stadium
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By Andy July 15, 2010 - 11:33 am
John’07, you raise a good point that non-Irish fans, including GoalieLax, will miss in this post – the mistake about the Navy game is not that ND doesn’t think it’s important, it’s that it’s being played at Giants Stadium, not Yankee Stadium, where the Army game is being played.
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By domer_mq July 15, 2010 - 11:39 am
Yes. Thanks, Andy. It leaves me to wonder which in which direction Pete’s confused. Does he actually think the Navy game at the Meadowlands is important, or the Army game is the most important?
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By Andy July 15, 2010 - 11:43 am
God, I hope he means the Navy game – they have beaten us 2 of the last 3 times we’ve played. Getting to the point where that game is not something we need to sweat over as much will be an important barometer of Kelly’s success (although they’re far better now than they were for much of the 44 years during the streak). Although, honestly, that CFN piece is so terrible, I couldn’t say. Maybe the guy just loves Yankee Stadium in all of its 2 year old splendor.
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By GoalieLax July 15, 2010 - 11:45 am
haha – touche – didn’t even notice that mistake
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By JOURNALISTIC PRO TIP: MAKE SURE THE PLAYERS YOU’RE TOUTING ARE NOT DEAD | Sport News July 15, 2010 - 12:16 pm
[...] definitely not actual Notre Dame quarterback Nate Montana, Scout’s 2010 Notre Dame preview contains a glowing paragraph devoted to the promise and prowess of Matt James, which … yes, that’s about the worst [...]
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By ND Rulz July 15, 2010 - 12:22 pm
What this fat pig Fiutak doesn’t realize is that even though he works for that worthless rag CFN, the ND Nation won’t let his laziness and inaccuracies slide. We are people who will endlessly cite on-field glories that happened before most of us were even born…we’re not going to forget that Matt James died! Doesn’t he know that the truth will come out when Big Matt doesn’t ride that pony into training camp?!?!? Does he think he’s dealing with Purdue fans here! We all know how much we’re worth in this world because we are loyal supporters of the best, most christian football school in the history of humanity. And 99% of us NEVER EVEN WENT THERE!!! I mean, I grew up in Pawtucket, RI and even then I knew that if I wanted to rul, I had to rock the clover! So f this fat honky pig, and I’m gonna ride my holy ghost pony into the “blue, gray October sky”!! ROOOLLLZZZZZZZZ ON ND!!!!!!!!
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 12:33 pm
That would’ve been funny, if it were funny.
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By Thursday afternoon buffet « Get The Picture July 15, 2010 - 12:32 pm
[...] you’re going to write your preseason previews in March, it’s a good idea to update them before you post in [...]
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By Brad July 15, 2010 - 12:48 pm
Wow. This is just awesome. I mean….wow.
This is journalism at its finest. He’ll be covering politics for CNN in no time.
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By Trey July 15, 2010 - 1:17 pm
*like*
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By Brad July 15, 2010 - 12:53 pm
Oh man….also, apparently Brian Kelly is entering his 12th year as a head coach, with a career record of 171-57-2.
While Petey got the record correct, that would mean that Kelly has been coaching, on average, 19.1666 college football games a season. Pretty good.
(For the record, Brian Kelly became a head coach in 1991, so he is entering his 19th/20th season as a head coach.)
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By Brad July 15, 2010 - 12:55 pm
Also, we are very unfortunate. It appears that Michael Floyd is a Senior this year according to Petey.
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By domer_mq July 15, 2010 - 12:56 pm
Man. Nice catches. I became blind with rage after the Matt James thing.
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By Erik '04 July 15, 2010 - 12:58 pm
Wow. Just Wow.
On another note, the full ridiculousness of our 7-4-1 scheduling system just hit me. We only have THREE (3) true away games this year. MSU, BC, and Southern Cal. If we don’t win at least 10 regular season games with this schedule…
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 1:06 pm
Yeah, very glad that Jack is moving us more toward 6-5-1. 3 road games is pitiful.
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 1:08 pm
The complete non-apology apology:
http://www.ndnation.com/boards/showpost.php?b=football;pid=94050;d=this
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By Brad Takei July 15, 2010 - 1:13 pm
Pete Fiutak stinks he may as well have pushed that kid off the building himself with this story, what a disgrace.
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By Harbabd July 15, 2010 - 1:14 pm
To give Fiu a fair shake here I am betting he wrote 75% of that column back in March before the tragic incident happened and with all the stuff the guy does for that site it sadly slipped through the cracks.
The amount of content CFN puts out and the limited resources they have makes a couple minor typos fixable and forgettable. He will keep writing and I will keep reading. Have a great rest of the week guys. Brian Harbach
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By Brendan July 15, 2010 - 1:24 pm
When you *publish* something, the quality is your responsibility. And forgetting or leaving out that someone is deceased is inexcusable…and your explanation still doesn’t explain all the other errors that would have been just as wrong months ago. Occum’s razor says he’s just lazy and doesn’t check his facts.
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 1:25 pm
Brian, a fair shake? Even if he’d not had the James mistake, which is just horrible, he was amazingly wrong on so many facts it’s just bad. Look at all the other things he missed, including what commenters have noted. He’s less than HALF RIGHT! I understand that CFN puts out a lot of content, but whose choice is that? Why not just NOT publish the piece if you can’t take the time to just google a few basic facts? Having a lot to do isn’t an excuse to do a lot, but do it terribly.
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By Harbabd July 15, 2010 - 1:42 pm
Hard to defend it, I have always been a person that feels if it has your name on it…you better do it right and the mistakes are glaring.
But I would rather have lots of content all year long with a few mistakes (and for the most part is a few and they are corrected) than have the content heavy for 4 months and unavailable the other 8.
What I am saying is that this wouldn’t stop me from reading and it would be forgotten the next day.
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 1:55 pm
A few mistakes would be understandable, but huge errors like the James issue, coupled with all of the other mistakes is unacceptable, especially when there is no apology, no formal ‘correction’, nothing. Zemek’s Twitter ‘apology’ is a freaking joke. Didn’t read before, will not read in the future, and will encourage everyone I know to not read that garbage.
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By Harbabd July 15, 2010 - 2:11 pm
I think you are being a tad dramatic…apology, do you want him to donate money to a foundation in the kids name? It was a mistake, as you stated it has been removed since a screen shot was needed. I am sorry your day was ruined by this, I will continue to read and many others will as well. Good luck to your boys this football season.
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By The Biscuit July 15, 2010 - 2:42 pm
I dont want a donation to a foundation, I want him to say ‘we’ve corrected our error, we are sorry for the mistakes’ and then I want him to quit. You and those many others can continue to read, you’ll just keep being misinformed due to laziness.
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By trey July 15, 2010 - 4:43 pm
Harb, the issue is not JUST with the Matt James thing. It was continual and repeated insane statements and factual errors(with a few typos thrown in). The major issue is that this rag, CFN claims to have some level of integrity and knowledge, at least enough to assume some kind of competence in writing a team preview. Clearly, that is not the case. Then, when the errors are pointed out and criticized, as they deserve to be, instead of owning up to the mistakes like a man, the guy’s boss basically flips the bird to everyone who read it. Practically say, “we are awesome, and how dare you challenge our greatness!”
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By Navy Guy July 15, 2010 - 1:15 pm
On this piece alone, I’m noot sure whether to call Pete a total moron or just assume that he wrote this preview before the James tragedy and failed to update it. (I’m only a casual ND follower and was well aware of the accident.)
But going on Pete’s lifetime body of work, let’s go with “moron.”
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By why CFN is a joke - Sports Hoopla - Sports Forums, Sports Message Boards, Football Forums, College Football Forums July 15, 2010 - 1:45 pm
[...] CFN is a joke Epic…… College Football News Isn’t Even Trying To Get Facts Right Her Loyal Sons __________________ This is blood for blood and by the gallon. These are the old days, the bad [...]
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By Nate July 15, 2010 - 3:21 pm
Just…wow. Fiu should pay you guys royalties for cleaning his crapass article up. I didn’t check too closely (I’m no reporter, after all–zing!) but it appears CFN fixed all the errors. Hope you get your editing check.
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By TLNDMA July 15, 2010 - 6:47 pm
Harbabd, when you know the journalism at CFN is so shabby, why would you continue to read it? Same reason people watch Fox News? Do they tell you what you want to hear? Clue us in.
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By Dan Sullivan July 16, 2010 - 9:19 am
No kidding. I read that article and was baffled by the idiocy of that writer. I can’t quite get myself to believe that he gets paid to do that. He also made mistakes in an article on Navy, writing that Mario Washington could compete for a couple of spots. Mario was kicked out of the school, which makes it hard for him to compete for any position.
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By Headlinin’: Erin Andrews sues Marriott for enabling stalker | Sport News July 16, 2010 - 10:16 am
[...] preview writers: Make sure all players mentioned therein are a) Still on the roster, and b) Still alive. … Oregon hires a new athletic director. … You can own the jersey Joe Theismann wore [...]
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By Who Needs Facts? » NDtex.com July 16, 2010 - 10:33 am
[...] journalism hit a new all-time low. As I took a look at my Twitter timeline, HerLoyalSons brought a rather disturbing occurrence to my attention. It seems that Mr. Pete Fiutak at College Football News put out a preview for the 2010 Notre Dame [...]
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By Montana the latest Irish legacy caught in mass underage drinking net | SPORTS NEWS & BUZZ July 18, 2010 - 4:07 pm
[...] head coach Brian Kelly said discipline would be handled internally. Nate Montana (not to be confused with little brother Nick, an incoming freshman at Washington) rejoined the team in January after a [...]
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