Hilarious fail video: No, WZZM, Michigan did not win; and you didn't just mess up, you flat-out lied

I really didn't think I would miss much by watching Blue Jays-Royals while the rest of my state was glued to the Michigan State-Michigan game. I don't really get into college sports and, in spite of what people think, not everyone who lives in Michigan necessarily has a dog in the U-M/MSU hunt. A pox on both their houses as far as I'm concerned.

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But boy, did I miss something yesterday. And so did a certain Jamal Spencer, sports director for Grand Rapids-based WZZM-TV. Unlike me, it was his job to watch the game and tell us who won. He succeeded at neither, as many are noting this morning through loud guffaws. But most who are snickering at Spencer's "mistake" are missing something far worse that the incident demonstrates about the flat-out dishonesty of the news media. Spencer didn't just get this story wrong. He flat-out told us a lie, and provided yet the latest demonstration for why people do not and should not trust what the news media tell them. First let's set it up. Michigan was leading 23-21 with 10 seconds left in the game, and they had the ball. But faced with a fourth down, Michigan lined up to punt. It certainly looked bleak for Michigan State, but assuming Michigan actually went ahead and punted the ball away - as opposed to having the punter run around in the backfield for 10 seconds to kill the clock or something like that - a punt return for a touchdown wasn't entirely inconceivable. But this was: As Chris Berman might say, that's why they play the games, and in this case, that's why they play the last 10 seconds. But it's also why local yokel sports reporters don't leave the stadium before the game is over to try to be first with a story that hasn't actually run its course to completion yet. If you're WZZM sports director Jamal Spencer, you apparently missed that day in J-school, because while Michigan State was completing that unbelievable last-second comeback to win the game, Spencer was outside the stadium and going live with this instant classic of journalistic infamy:

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Now let me tell you why this is more than just an unfortunate but very high-profile mistake. It gets to the culture of mainstream journalism and something you don't realize the media often does. Forget about Spencer wrongly reporting who won the game. Focus on this detail: Spencer said, "People are spilling out of Michigan Stadium into the streets of Ann Arbor celebrating." Oh? They were? Well that's really something considering their team had just suffered a shocking and heartbreaking loss. No, of course, they weren't spilling out of Michigan Stadium and celebrating. They were silent in the stands with their hands on their heads and their jaws on the ground. Reporting that Michigan won the game was in no way an understandable mistake, since Spencer failed in the most basic aspect of his job, which was to stay to the end and be sure he knew who won. But at least you could offer the small defense that it was an honest mistake, because he thought Michigan won. The "people spilling out of Michigan Stadium . . . celebrating" line is actually the much more egregious matter here. That wasn't true, and Spencer knew it wasn't true. He just flat-out made it up. (Indeed, a more curious journalist might have wondered aloud why that wasn't happening given what he thought had been the outcome of the game.) Now, I will take this back if Spencer is disciplined for that lie, but my guess is that WZZM will do nothing of the sort. The wrong report on the game outcome will be the focus, and it will be treated as an honest mistake brought about by the pressure to get the live report on the air while the 6 p.m. broadcast was still going on. He will not be disciplined for the lie about the people celebrating in the streets, and the reason he won't is that the media do stuff like this all the time. They regularly throw in little details to spice up a story. The crowd roared. The streets were filled. Excitement is building. You simply assume they're describing what they're actually seeing, but much of the time they're just making it up whole cloth because it adds to the atmosphere they're trying to create with a story. This is a completely accepted practice and within the media industry no one thinks anything of it. And yes, this affects the way you receive more "important" news too. Was the crowd really pumped up at the Hillary Clinton rally? Did the soldiers really get excited by the president's unannounced visit? Did the protesters really take over the sidewalk that day? Is the nation really captivated by this, that or whatever? That's what they say. Is it true? Most of the time they figure it doesn't matter because they're there and you're not, and if they're making it up, you'll have no way of knowing. In this case, one of them was busted, but I'd guess he'll skate. He's only doing what they all do, painting a completely phony picture that he figured you'd never know was a complete crock. Just keep that in mind the next time they tell you something was a certain way, and it occurs to you that their word is all you have to determine whether things really were they way they said they were. Don't think they would ever just make **** up? They do it all the time.

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