Kim Kardashian vs. Manti Te'o: Media Frenzy

I know already, it has been two days and you have probably heard the name Manti Te’o a billion times. The media circus forgot about Kim Kardashian’s baby bump and flocked to Indiana to swarm the most decorated linebacker in college football history. Why though? Catfishing. Now you’re really confused. Catfishing is a scam where one person takes on a fake identity on the internet for personal gain or revenge. Apparently, Notre Dame football player, Manti Te’o , was a victim of such scam, or so he says. On Tuesday, Notre Dame released a statement basically saying that Manti was a victim of an internet plot to trick him, but this is most likely not the case. In an interview with ESPN in October, Manti Teo started out by saying, “I’ve seen the most beautiful girl I have ever met,” leading watchers of the interview to believe he had actually met his girlfriend. In fact, it was reported that the two met at a Stanford game last year, but Teo’s story keeps changing. The fact is, there is nobody alive going by the name of Lennay Kakua, she never attended Stanford, or died in California of Leukemia. Some have insinuated that Manti Teo was “complicit in the fraud” for self-promotion (ESPN). Not a bad consequence for someone who is the most decorated Linebacker in college football history. If Teo is found to be complicit, expect his draft status to go further down after his stunning lack of performance against Alabama in the national title game. I think an even bigger question than the whole story itself is the fact that people are finding this out so late. I keep asking myself, Why are we finding this out three months after the fact? The biggest issue of this story is not really the hoax that Teo may or may not have been a part of, but is the fact that the media used his dying girlfriend story and never once confirmed any details of the story. Not one reporter looked her up to find a facebook or media page. Not one reporter found out that she never existed. Not one reporter thought it was weird that nobody had ever seen Lennay Kakua, in person. The greatest fraud here isn’t the fraud to Manti Teo, it’s to the fans who expect our media to confirm sources. An even worse fraud is having national stories about a football player’s girlfriend, when we have the next Vietnam occurring in Mali, Africa. And the biggest fraud going on here, is not a single reporter will face backlash because they throw up their arms saying, “Sorry, I was duped.” There are apparently many facts that we have been yet told by Notre Dame, Manti Teo, investigators, and the soon to be found out perpetrators. Be ready for the media snakes to cover this until the end. Sorry Kim Kardashian, you should have waited for your divorce to go through before you decided to have a baby.