Rumors about Les Miles turned out to be false. (Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports)
What kind of road is social media taking us down over the next few years? The Les Miles rumor of him having an affair with a coed is an unfortunate example of the problems we are having with social media now and in the future.
I had just arrived home last Saturday night when a friend in the media texted me to see if I had heard the rumors of the LSU coach stepping down on Monday due to the alleged affair. The phone started blowing up with texts over the next few hours.
Let’s be clear here that there is no truth to the Miles’ rumor, but the timing reminded me of the former Florida coach Urban Meyer stepping down on the Saturday night after Christmas. I know fans don’t care, but it meant a night of chasing rumors for the media when they should have been eating leftovers with their family.
The problems with some rumors is that eventually the more mainstream media ends up having to chase them to see how much validity is involved. Saturday night was no different.
How did this Miles rumor get started in the first place?
A Western Kentucky University broadcast news student and Bleacher Report contributor Sam McGaw tweeted out a rumor he read about LSU football coach Les Miles.
“@sammcgaw: There are rumors that LSU head football coach Les Miles will step down on Monday after allegedly having an affair with a student. Hmm…”
McGaw stated in additional tweets that he read about the innuendo on an online message board hosted by Bamaonline.com, a part of the 247sports network.
In fairness to McGaw, he said he was only tweeting this out to some of his friends and never wanted it to go viral. The lesson here is almost anything can go viral today.
Message boards are fun reading and occasionally a good tip can even be found on one, but reader beware. Message boards are for posters who primarily don’t sign their name and give out their identity. There is no responsibility and accountability that posters ascribe to beyond sharing rumors often about their biggest rival.
I have written and now write for some websites who do a good job in trying to monitor some of the more vicious rumors. Message boards should not be source material for reports or tweets unless it’s stated that the rumor is coming from a message board.
There are also differences in rumors. When a coach is rumored to be going to another school, recruiting a player or hiring a staff member, that is fair game. In a perfect world, rumors about a coach’s person life that affect and involve his family, should be off limits unless it is similar to a Bobby Petrino Arkansas situation where the relationship is a possible threat of liability to the school.
Fortunately, the majority of editors for mainline print journalism and websites require more than one credible source to run a story. None of the editors that I currently write for or have written for in the past would allow a rumor to be the centerpiece of a legitimate story. The editor would have stopped the story before it got any traction because it was rumor and innuendo.
Before last Saturday night was over, a few of the more credible writers such as CBS Sports’ Bruce Feldman got in touch with their LSU contact, who in turn told them without an official statement (because universities don’t officially comment on rumors) that there was no truth to the accusation. McGaw also could have contacted LSU officials to see if there was any validity to the story.
One of the side notes of the story is that McGaw’s 238 followers on his Twitter account grew to 30,000-plus people. He told SB Nation that he had received two job offers after the incident. Not to pile on McGaw, but hopefully his next journalism job will come due to his work and not the number of twitter followers he has.
Unfortunately, some people believe anything they read on the Internet, especially when it’s from someone who is employed in the media industry.
Sports fan need to realize that rumors have their place in sports, but they don’t have a place in disgracing a man’s reputation. Twitter, Facebook and other social media are tremendous tools, but they also pose a danger to the future of sports media.
