Kentucky sends a letter to the Chicago Sun-Times, and some reaction to the article

UPDATE: Here is the article that the Sun-Times has up today in place of yesterdays.

By now, I'm sure you have heard about the article that the Chicago Sun-Times published Wednesday afternoon, which included a rumor that Anthony Davis received $200,000 for his commitment to Kentucky.

Well, Kentucky has responded, threatening legal action against both Michael O'Brien and the Chicago Sun-Times if the article isn't taken down and a retraction isn't published.

We also got some response from the post we put up earlier. Jeff Goodman of FOXSports.com emailed us and said "[Its] not as easy as it seems to track rumors down. I do the best I can, but people are smart in how they do things."

Dan Wolken of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal answered our emails as well, saying "I think that all of us have, at one time or another, tried to track down rumors like that, but it's pretty damn difficult to do. Typically, you'd have to find someone that got screwed out of something in the deal with nothing to lose. Breaking those types of stories happen very rarely. If it was more common, the NCAA would have a lot more infractions cases on its desk."

Perhaps the most interesting response we saw came from John Clay, who posted the following on his blog:

I also know that the Ballin' is a Habit blog wonders why the reporters aren't tracking down the rumors to see if they are true.

Well, Ballin', if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.

And everyone would be winning Pulitzers.

First of all, I never claimed that breaking these stories would be easy. I never said I would be able to do it. And I certainly never said I would be better than any of these gentlemen at their jobs. There is a reason they write for Fox, or CBS, or the Lexington Herald, or wherever, and I write for an irrelevant blog. That I created myself.

My issue isn't with the fact that these guys aren't publishing story after story breaking recruiting scandals. My issue is with the number of tweets I saw regarding how many rumors make the rounds on the recruiting circuit. Everyone knows that these guys see and hear a lot when they rub elbows with the coaches, the runners, and the hangers-on at AAU tournaments in places like Vegas. That's a given. I don't need to hear about it, especially when it is being used to chastise someone who may have made a career ending mistake.

Look, I've worked a grand total of about five months in newspapers. Three of them were as an intern, two were as a freelance writer for a weekly that still owes me a number of checks. The most "investigative reporting" I've done is determining why the Guinness wasn't pouring at the bar I work at, which, currently, is how I pay my bills.

In other words, I'm the farthest thing from an expert on journalism ethics and industry standards.

But it irks me when I see the best in the business talking about the unsubstantiated rumors they hear, because substantiating the rumors that are more than just rumors is part of the job description, is it not?

I'll step down from my soap box now.