MORT SHOULD CONSIDER PHOENIX ONLINE
















Or at least, ESPN quote-reporter-unquote Chris Mortensen should go back to using his Google Reader for the majority of his sources. It's been a rough offseason for Mort, who has now embarrassed himself on two of the biggest stories of the past decade. Not only that, but he's embarrassed himself while trying to embarrass other reporters who are, uh, better at reporting. First, there was that whole thing where Mort and ESPN kind of had their asses handed to them on the Mike Tomlin-to-the-Steelers story. The Big Lead gives the rundown much better than I could after eating two boxes of Hot Pockets. Apparently Mike Tomlin isn't quite "NOW" enough to be on the ESPN radar. Maybe if he showed up to a Marroon 5 concert or something. And now, there's the whole thing where Mort, in the face of all accurate information and, well, logic, reported that the Falcons were told no, Mike Vick won't be indicted on federal charges. At least the grand jury had the decency to wait like 13 hours before making Mort look like a total boob. But the real awesomeness was when SI's Peter King politely alluded to Mort's general shittiness, leading to this (from PFT):

Though no one at ESPN will publicly acknowledge the erroneous July 6 declaration that Vick is not likely to be indicted, Peter King of SI, HBO, NBC (and, formerly, KFC) said Wednesday on The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio that the first thing King thought of when he heard of the indictment was that Chris Mortensen probably isn't very happy.

After the spot with King ended, guest host Scott Van Pelt said that Mort had e-mailed the studio to point out that he didn't report that Vick wasn't likely to be indicted, but merely that the Falcons thought that Vick wasn't likely to be indicted.

So, by that token, I could say that sources tell me Tom Brady eats his own poo, and then if it's proven wrong (and I'm not saying it will be) I could say that I was just reporting that my source said that. That's why members of the media act as a "filter" in their reporting. I guess my point is that Chris Mortensen isn't very good at his job, and probably should find another career, perhaps a DeVry University degree in Entrepreneurship could help.