Link: Further Explanation on the Airplane “Incident”
Jane McManus is getting to the bottom of the Santonio Holmes airplane story, and notes that:
Holmes told Ryan he was sleeping in the back of the plane as the flight attendant woke him and asked him to turn off his iPod. He told Ryan that he did, but didn’t take out his earbuds.
Holmes even took the earbuds out and asked a woman sitting next to him to confirm there was no sound coming out. When the plane landed, Holmes was asked to wait to speak with police officers, who didn’t file charges and considered the matter closed.
“When Santonio told me, I totally believe him,” Ryan said. “It’s one of those things I guess, but I believe Santonio and I look forward to him being a Jet and playing here.”
An initial report yesterday said that Holmes was escorted off a plane after being disruptive. That report was inaccurate, according to the incident report released by the Allegheny County Police Department and a follow-up e-mail.
“He was asked to remove his iPod [at one point], in which he complied,” the e-mail read. “There’s no further information to report.”
30 Responses to Link: Further Explanation on the Airplane “Incident”
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Ben Nevis says:
This was a totally bs story for the beginning, and I said so on this blog on Friday afternoon.
At about 4pm on Friday, the AP took the lead in debunking the earlier overhyped story, quoting the same quote as Jane later quoted herself:
“He was asked to remove his iPod [at one point], in which he complied,” the e-mail read. “There’s no further information to report.”
Yesterday, Jane didn’t have much to add to that AP story. But today, Jane does a good job of taking the investigation a step further, with the follow-up with Rex and what Bluntonio told him.
Thanks for this, Jane. Hope other news sources take note, and correct the earlier smear and bs.
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nyckage says:
The Flight Attendant was probably a Stealers fan
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NamVetJet says:
“Back of the plane”—can’t he afford 1st class?
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Green Lantern says:
Its crazy Santonio Does bad 100 negative comments, when the story is cleared up 4 comments?
This just aint right.. -
RevisNButthead says:
Wow, blown so far out of proportion. Mike Florio had a field day with this story. I can’t stand him.
I agree Green Lantern. No one jumps on the thread when the real story comes out in support of their team.
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Green Lantern & RevisNButthead—
There were a number of us who were saying on this blog as early as yesterday afternoon that this was a bogus story.
But, yes, there were a lot of others who were jumping all over Holmes yesterday—here and elsewhere—and I don’t see them retracting their statements today.
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Marvel(I wanted Mays) says:
It’s funny because if this was a confirmation of the original “cops kicking Holmes off the plane” story this thread would be flooded with a bunch of “Holmes is the devil” comments .. But fear not ‘bridge jumpers’ I’m sure the first time Holmrs goes to throw out a piece of garbage misses the can & gets fined for littering you’ll have another chance to voice your negativity .. Go Jets .. Go Mosley ..
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It’s funny because if this was a confirmation of the original “cops kicking Holmes off the plane” story this thread would be flooded with a bunch of “Holmes is the devil” comments .. But fear not ‘bridge jumpers’ I’m sure the first time Holmes goes to throw out a piece of garbage misses the can & gets fined for littering you’ll have another chance to voice your negativity .. Go Jets .. Go Mosley ..
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Chris says:
Agree with nyckage.
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broward says:
he didn’t really “comply” completely….they don’t just ask you to turn it off…they always ask you to remove the headphones from your ears as well….i think it’s FAA regulation in case of emergency they don’t want anything interfering with your hearing if there is an emergency…so………uhhh…who cares anyway though….stupid overblown story
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War Machine says:
{He told Ryan what he did, that he didn’t take out his earbuds} This man does not need to be around any {BUDS}
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miketaliaferro says:
Jane: “He is suspended for the first four games of this season after violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.”
And suspected of pure evil for all sixteen games.
Plus, the playoffs.
That’s just a g-damned shame.
This shoddy, ps-poor media work has now calcified SH’s “bad boy” reputation in the mind of every two-bit media wonk in the continental United States. Now, they’ll ALL want to “Get him.” You can just see these hyenas going on full “Santonio Watch” now. We can assume that all the football beat guys, ESPN wonks galore and high-flying Big-butt Blogger types will be spending all season sifting through SH’s trash bags, as they compete to get that Pulitzer they so crave.
Actually, in a journalistic context, this is an outrage! This is the kind of embarrassingly rotten reporting that should be getting people fired today. If this “story” came from the National or City desk of a major newspaper or Cable News outlet about a non-sports person, it never would have seen the light of day without at least two other firm sources. Yes, even on FOX, someone would be suspended, fired or reprimanded at the very least. But, do journalistic standards not apply to ESPN or any of the Sporting Press?? They gleefully ran with the early, uncorroborated, unsubstantiated story. A little rumor, a little innuendo that fits the agreed-upon storyline, and grab your hat!! “Honey, get me Rewrite! I’ve got a BIG ONE! Put this right online, NOW! With MY byline!” This debacle should give whole organizations a black eye.
This, simply put, was a press lynching.
Holmes deserves no spotlight here; the entire sporting press DOES.
They had decided on a final “truth” in advance; they then sat back until something/anything popped up that lent support to that “truth.” Then they all ran around the room with scissors. Santonio gets seriously cut as a result. And now the press types are all shifting to the “Who got the story so wrong???” headlines to shift any blame away from themselves, when they, in fact, were the guilty parties.
Has anyone compiled a list of the main sources and amplifiers of this story in the press yet?
These people should be hearing not only an official complaint from the Jets front office over one of their employees becoming the target of a smear campaign, but from waves of Jets fans who don’t cotton to Jets-trashing from football press jackels meant to allow them to strut about like big-time journalistas…
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I do hope Santonio has a REAALLLY good lawyer.
Someone who can squeeze the ES out of ESPN.
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mike—
If I remember correctly, it was a local Pittsburgh tv station that ran with the bogus story—of Holmes being escorted off the plane—and then the rest of the press ran with it.
Then (as I mentioned above) at about 4pm, AP ran a statement from the Allegheny County that the original reports were false. ESPN ran the AP story (on line, at least) within an hour of that. But the rest of media, apparently, kept repeating the bogus story till well into Friday night.
Today Jane followed up, and went one step further in debunking the story. But getting the media and blogosphere to reverse itself (and correct itself) is like trying to stop an oil spill.
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Ironically, this may actually help the locker room chemistry a number of us have been so worried about, heretofore.
I was maybe 50-50 on Santonio before. Figured I’d let him prove himself in camp before jumping on the bandwagon.
Now, I’m angry and I’m ALL IN on Santonio. This comes under the heading of “You hit one of ours, we’ll hit two of yours!”
Santonio took the first cheap-shot hit from the tear-down-the-Jets crowd.
Now, the team should find a couple of writers who had the class to shy away from the feeding frenzy, and make them the official go-to reporters within the locker room.
Let the jackels find out Jets information 2nd-hand from the good guys.
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Ben,
Anyone fired at that Pitts station yet?
Anyone fired at the Online outlets for picking up a bogus story and running with it without any clear sourcing?
No.
My point still holds.
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mike—
Yeah, I agree: when one of your teammates is attacked unfairly, is smeared with a bs story, it can galvanize the lockerroom behind him. Rex has already stood up for Holmes, not only today, but yesterday afternoon as well (he suggested the story was overblown). So his teammates may now have Santonio’s back now as well.
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I may even buy a HOLMES jersey, now…
I NEVER buy jerseys!!!
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mike—
I wasn’t disagreeing with you. Just laying out what happened. And, sure, I agree: someone’s head should roll over this. But it probably won’t.
When you have 58% of the voters in a major party believing that the President was born in another country—despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary—it’s obvious that the value put on truth in this culture is not very high.
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mike—
Have to run out now to play poker for the rest of the night, so this will have to be my last post on this thread for a while.
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patpat says:
Why couldnt he just remove the earbuds when asked to turn his ipod off for the second time? Is it worth trying to prove a flight attendant wrong?
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Give Leon The Damn Ball (new name pending) says:
this is exactly what i figured happened. why the heck would he (anyone for that matter), someone who just was suspended 4 games and is in a contract year, make a scene on a plane? it just didnt make sense. the fact that he was sleeping makes perfect sense. my question is why the heck did the airlines contact the authorities for such a non issue?
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*THIS JUST IN* APARENTLY ANTONIO CROMARTIE HAD TRIPPLETS. IT WAS FIRST REPORTED THAT HE HAD TWINS BUT REX RYAN, HIS COACH, DIDN’T BELIEVE HIM.
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dakar says:
i would very much like to hear that there is a person who writes his/her story without all the exageration…1 who tells the truth…doesn’t lie and make ****e up so they can get people to read their garbage…how can people get away with this kind of ****e…seriously…its not because its holmes but this type of ****e happens each and every year…thats why im irritated…why is it so hard to tell the truth these days…god bless…i remember growing up when a person call you a liar you fought…these days some1 calls you a liar…people laugh because they know its the truth about them…
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WoodyWoodChuck says:
Give Leon The Damn Ball (new name pending), on May 1st, 2010 at 8:05 pm Said: my question is why the heck did the airlines contact the authorities for such a non issue?
~~~~~~~~~~HS, TSA, FAA, state and federal politicians have all been jumping down the throats of the aviation industry. Requiring regulations that are invasive and unnecessary to show the public they tough on terism. In reality many of these regulations are just fluff and don’t do anything to increase safety. In fact, some of them increase the workloads for flight crews to the point where they actually hinder safety.
They send flight attendants and pilots off to courses to teach them how to spot suspicious behavior, and also make them go through intensive security checks as well as personal background checks. All of this makes them irritable and suspicious of passengers.
Add to that, some of these ppl let the power go to their heads. They are told that anyone who disobeys them should be reported. They have created an environment where flight crews are tired and on edge and they suspect everyone until they are proven innocent.
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James in TN says:
WoodyWoodchuck, same reason we have to take our shoes off before boarding. 9/11
I would rather the airlines err on the side of caution.
I hope Santonio does well, but he must realize he brought the bad PR on himself with previous actions.
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Jane McManus says:
This situation was a little unusual. The erroneous story came out of Pittsburgh, and the Jets came out that morning with information from the incident report. I spent the rest of the day getting the actual police reports and rewriting the original story to reflect what the police said — not “disruptive,” not escorted off the plane.
The false report is a journalists worst nightmare. In the internet age, bad information can spread quickly. The good part if it is that by 4 p.m. AP and ESPN (and I’m sure others) had it right.
Santonio Holmes may yet do something that gets him in trouble here, but it wasn’t this.
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Jane—
As I said above, thanks for running with the AP story on Friday, and thanks especially for taking the investigation one substantial step further on Saturday.
It’s important when a bs story like this one spreads that someone stands up and debunks it.
How many retractions do you think we’ll see tomorrow. My bet is zero.