ON DECK: When the media gets fooled

When the Manti Te'o story broke, I was obsessed.

For me, it was as a journalism wonk. What Te'o knew, what Te'o didn't — it's just gossip.

But what got me so interested when it broke was how so many news organizations could have been duped by proxy.

Also Wednesday, there was a controversial wrestling score called into the paper. At the time, we didn't realize that. We just knew that the Gila Ridge coach said his team beat Cibola by a point.

This angered — and as of Friday was still angering — Cibola coaches, wrestlers and fans who thought their team had won. It turns out there was a protest, and the result was reversed late.

The point is, Cibola thought we got Te'oed by the Gila Ridge coach. That's the problem with call-ins — we place full trust in the coaches and don't really have a way to verify. Fortunately, I can't recall being intentionally lied to on a local glance call.

So I can see how mistakes can happen. But for a major magazine like Sports Illustrated with dedicated fact-checkers missing something like that, I'm less understanding.