When the world last week learned the heart-wrenching stories of Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o’s girlfriend were a hoax, most followers of the narrative were shocked, upset, outraged and confused.

After all, since this past autumn, many sports fans watched news reports about Te’o and his football exploits that included touching stories of his girlfriend, Lennay Kukua, the Stanford student who learned last spring that she had leukemia after being involved in a severe car accident. The stories focused on Te’o’s strong Internet relationship with Kukua and discussed how he would speak with her every night on the phone, usually falling asleep to her voice.

In September, the story became stronger and sadder after Te’o announced that his grandmother and his girlfriend had both died. He played against Michigan State that weekend and had a moment of silence for his grandmother and Lennay. The sports world watched as the football game, which Notre Dame won, was televised nationally. How could people not feel bad for this rising football star who was now being considered as a Heisman Trophy candidate, the award that is presented to the nation’s top college football player?

Broadcasters made several references to how Te’o was playing with a heavy heart during the game.

Later in the season, CBS did an in-depth profile of Te’o, which involved a segment on Lennay. Before Notre Dame played Alabama in January’s national title game, more references were made and stories written about Te’o, his rise, his devastation and his future. The stories were great to hear and read. They were romantic, sad, humorous, uplifting and spirited. They had the right ingredients for compelling news.

Then, last week, those heart-warming stories stopped after the world learned that Lennay never existed.

The questions have since arisen as to whether Te’o was part of the hoax or a victim of it. Not enough information has been released yet to discover the truth about that.

Te’o has yet to do a television interview, but he did speak with ESPN’s Jeremy Schapp, off camera, about how he was devastated when he discovered he had been tricked.

The real problem in all of this, however, is the inability of the media to discover that Lennay didn’t exist. The journalists involved didn’t vet the story. CBS never questioned why Te’o apparently never saw Lennay. The media blindly accepted that he wasn’t going to her funeral because she wouldn’t have wanted him to attend, instead desiring that he focus on football. How do we in the media do feature stories on Manti Te’o without ever asking to speak with the person who helped make his story so incredible?

No one asked to see a death certificate, a birth certificate or proof of her attendance at Stanford. No one felt the need to speak with her. If they had, then they would’ve discovered earlier that something wasn’t right with this story.

Maybe Te’o was the victim of a hoax. Maybe he was involved in it. Either way, the media dropped the ball in all of this and should strive to make sure it does a better job in the future of covering all sides of a story. Journalism is rapidly changing with the advent of the Internet, 24-hour news cycles, Twitter, Facebook and blogs, but the tenets of good journalism ”“ such as confirming sources ”“ should never be disregarded.

Manti Te’o’s story proved this.

Ӣ Ӣ Ӣ

Today’s editorial was written by Sports Editor Al Edwards on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.