Other than Olympic-related fiction two years ago, I haven’t seen fake news about Philippine sports lately and I think that has something to do with sports fans being knowledgeable. Then, I was surprised with numerous shares of how Mary Joy Tabal supposedly won the country’s first Olympic gold medal, after her, it was another athlete.
Since then, you can rarely see any falsehood related to Philippine sports and I think it’s because when it comes to sports, Pinoy fans know whom to rely on for news. They don’t go to La Liga writers for Premier League updates, nor do they check the tennis websites for boxing updates. Certainly, they don’t also go to the Warriors page for LeBron news. And whenever they encounter a story that may seem unbelievable, they have this certain skepticism and think,”Who wrote this? Why did he or she write this?” And being skeptical about stories you read online is a healthy attitude, it is what the non-sports fans who don’t fall for fake news adapt.
It is just disappointing though that the same fans who are skeptical about sports news are the first to fall prey when the stories are no longer related to their expertise. The same fans who’d double check if the writer is a legitimate sports expert won’t hesitate to share stories about pedophile priests written by some pseudo news sites or about political update written by obscure sites. For the past few months, I’ve reported almost four or five posts shared by friends in sports that are either fake or misleading and sometimes I wish that they have the same sense of skepticism in sports news with, well, other news so they won’t be fooled.
So sports fans, here’s a few tips so you won’t get fooled.
Check the source. If it’s some obscure or unknown page or site then it’s most likely fake. Check the writer, if there’s none listed then it’s most likely fake. Legitimate news are written by real people. Check the scope, if it’s a “Duterte” site sharing about a pedophile Mexican priest then it’s fake. It plays on Duterte fans’ hatred of the Catholic church since the fake news validates their view.
Be skeptical and critical. If it’s ok to criticize your favorite team, athlete or club if you see something you do not agree with and still consider yourself a supporter, why can’t you adopt the same attitude when you go out of your expertise and touch politics?
MAYWEATHER UPDATE. Now here’s something that would really get you skeptical, undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. will face undefeated Japanese kickboxer on Tenshin Nakusawa on Dec. 31. Under what rules and under what sport, it is still not clear.
A Nakusawa is listed in boxrec.com, the world’s most reputable site when it comes to boxers’ records but he is listed as inactive boxer who will make his debut in the super bantamweight division on Nov. 17.
Mayweather was supposed to face Manny Pacquiao in a rematch and both were supposed to have tuneup bouts prior to that. Pacquiao will take on Adrien Broner next month and Mayweather’s move puts the rematch in doubt. Either he isn’t taking Pacquiao seriously or he has no plans at all for a rematch since his tuneup bout is against a kickboxer.