New feature: The Slap of the Week

On the old, award-winning SportsWriter's Journal program, which used to be broadcast on CGEM on Friday nights until we all got too sexy for TV, we used to occasionally bring out a little puppet we named "Slappy" and talk about people in the sports world who needed to be slapped.

At the end of the year, we'd hand out our "Slappy of the Year" award to the person who was in the most need of being slapped. We called the winners "Slaps."

Every Friday, I plan on giving out my weekly Slap of the Week honor. I'll highlight a "Slap" who has done some wrong in the sports world.

The first DOBservations Slap of the Week winner is Boston Herald writer John Tomase. He's the guy who "broke" the story that the New England Patriots filmed the St. Louis Rams' walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI (or 36 for the non-Romans). As the world found out earlier this week, the Patriots never taped the Rams walkthrough and the story was 100 percent fiction.

How Tomase still has a job at the Herald after this is surprising. The paper ran a front-page apology on its front-page, which rarely happens. Tomase tried to explain how he screwed up.

One of the first things I learned in journalism school at Eastern Illinois University is that you NEVER go with anonymous sources for a story. The next story I write with an anonymous source will be my first.

Tomase did that and got burned. His credibility is shot. As a journalist, all we have is our credibility to lean on. You lose the public's trust, and you're toast.

Comments

[Motts]

Glad to see Slappy is back and a good way to start with this guy.

[Tyler]

Great new segment here DOB. This guy sure is a slap. What happened to journalism? Not just on the national but even on a local level...some reporters (even in sports) go on a whim from rumors, message boards, and anonymous sources.

I won't forgive this guy and his pathetic attempt at journalism. Is that seriously his picture? Is he related to the Subway Jared?