Saturday, May 18th, 2013
There will be no ESPN “Outside the Lines” shows with Bob Ley. Mark Schwarz will not be camped outside the Carmelo Anthony Center. Bernie Fine’s face will not grace the front page of ESPN.
No, when Zach Tomaselli, better known as the third Fine accuser, recanted Thursday night to CNY Central, there was little fanfare, and even fewer fuss.
Tomaselli said in an email that he never met Bernie Fine. Not in Connecticut. Not in Pittsburgh. In fact, he said that Bobby Davis, Fine’s first accuser, helped him fabricate the story. “Bobby Davis told me what to tell detectives and it pretty much took off from there.”
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This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone.
Back in January, the Onondaga District Attorney’s Office investigated Tomaselli’s story. They went over his accusations piece by piece. And when they finished, and attempted to corroborate his story, the pieces didn’t fit.
Tomaselli reportedly changed his story and District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said as much.
So with a little bit of fact checking, Tomaselli’s story was rebutted.
The question remains, did Mark Schwarz do the same?
It seems like with the same kind of follow up on ESPN’s part, Tomaselli’s story could’ve been stopped.
When Tomaselli approached Schwarz with his accusations, Schwarz put Tomaselli in touch with Bobby Davis, the first accuser.
Let me say that again. Mark Schwarz put Tomaselli in touch with Davis.
That leads to Tomaselli’s quote to CNY Central being somewhat credible, for a man whose word carries very little of it.
Now, there are more questions to be asked. Not of any of the accusers, but of the man who gave them the microphone to do it.
Did Schwarz make calls to Pittsburgh or Connecticut to corroborate some of Tomaselli’s claims? Did he speak with Tomaselli’s father, who said that his son had outright lied?
In other words, did Schwarz attempt to vet Tomaselli’s story beforehand?
Perhaps Schwarz really did do his homework. Maybe Tomaselli’s story checked out. If that’s true, Schwarz would be on more steady ground to put Davis and Tomaselli together.
It could very well be that ESPN had exercised responsibile journalism, and if they did, I applaud that.
But there is an alternate reality that is a distinct possibility – did Schwarz simply go ahead with the story once Tomaselli called him?
It’s not particularly far-fetched.
But let’s get to the bottom of it. Let’s find out what happened.
I’m asking for transparency now.
I would like to know the thought process behind running with Tomaselli’s story. I would like to know what legwork, what research, what interviews were done to exercise responsible and ethical journalism.
I want to see how Tomaselli could’ve tricked Schwarz into thinking that his story was true, and how ESPN couldn’t do the same kind of investigating that the Onondaga District Attorney’s Office did.
Now, don’t mistake the point of my column. I’m not asking for Schwarz to be disciplined – yet.
I don’t know enough about what happened and I’m not rushing to conclusions, which is exactly the kind of judgment I hope that Schwarz and the rest of his colleagues at ESPN exercised in running Tomaselli’s story.
Tags: Bernie Fine, Mark Schwarz, Syracuse, Zach Tomaselli
More From: Wesley Cheng
As the sister of 1966 Syracuse basketball grad Rex Trobridge, a long time friend of Bernie Fine and Jim Boeheim, I am totally appalled at the events leading to the crucifixion of a person of Bernie’s stature -deemed guilty by the media AND the University before a completed investigation–.
Unbelievable. Apology and/or compensation could never be enough-
Good article, but a couple of points:
1.
ESPN did not break the story, the Post Standard did early in the morning of November 27th. At 8am, Bob Ley reported at the top of SportsCenter and then on OTL at 9am that the Post Standard was reporting that there is a 3rd accuser; in the next moment he made the first airing of the audio tape that ESPN inexplicably held for an extra 10 days. ESPN never credited themselves for the Tomaselli (“ZT”) story, but this doesnt get them off the hook.
2.
As we now know, Davis denies coaching ZT. More revealing though was that Davis said ZT was never credible; that leads us to #3 below…
3.
On CNN on Dec 2 (link below), ESPN VP Vince Doria said that Schwartz linked Davis and ZT together to enhance the credibility of the story that ZT was telling to Schwartz. If Davis thought it wasnt credible, why didnt ESPN or Davis come forward and say so? Instead, they just passed the story along and they let ZT go on a media rampage for months on end without raising their hands in protest. If ESPN or Davis was interested in justice, they’d report their finidings of a lack of credibility in ZT; but since it didnt suit their support of the story of Fine’s guilt that both Davis and ESPN are heavily invested in…they laid low and hoped ZT’s case held up. That is inexcusable. Which leads to #4…
4.
Perhaps Davis lied to ESPN at the time and said ZT was credible. If so, then ESPN needs to tell us that RIGHT NOW so we can rightfully brand Davis as a witness and accuser who is not credible. Which leads to #5 below…
5.
If Davis didnt lie to ESPN and said ZT’s story was bogus then both Davis and ESPN should have said so right then and there for the sake of justice and for the sake of preventing further unimaginable pain and suffering that Fine endured due to ZT’s false allegations.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/12/02/exp-espns-vince-doria-on-reliable-sources.cnn