From the Plano Courier Star’s Kevin Hageland. (link courtesy Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
Although MySpace is often used as a means of social networking, the popular website is now at the center of a controversy that has resulted in the dismissal of at least two players from the Plano Senior High School baseball team.
Seniors Brandon Shaw (above) and Colin Hatzmann were dismissed from the Wildcats Tuesday afternoon in connection with comments made on MySpace.
Shaw said a fraudulent profile for Plano head baseball coach David Allen was created four-to-six months ago, where various players would leave comments about the team and more specifically, the coach.
œI™m not going to lie, some of the comments were kind of mean, Shaw said. œBut we weren™t trying to be hurtful, it was just a spoof. The things we were doing were all in fun.”
(Windows Media Player video footage from WFAA.com)
A tip of the cap to Shaw and Hatzman (above, right) on a gag well played. Though it should be stressed, there’s a right way and a wrong way to make someone look dopey with a fake MySpace profile. For instance, whoever is responsible for this one did just enough to make someone think it was for real.
On the other hand, this profile strikes me as unusually cruel, even by juvenille standards, and I’m really surprised the target of said prank hasn’t used his considerable Ivy League connections to have the page removed. The thing about effective satire is that it has to maintain the slightest shred of believability, and there’s little chance anyone is going to fall for this one. Even if you went out of your way to invent the most uninteresting, self-obsessed schmuck imaginable, you’d probably come up with a more appealing character than this imposter.
All of that said, I do realize that not everyone can possess a super cool profile, and my New Year’s Resolution for 2007 will be to spend less time editing mine.
It looks like one of your top eight friends, ’90s emo stalwarts Texas Is the Reason, have a very similar approach to their profile. You guys must be BFF!
Whoa, stand corrected. He’s not a 23-year old who cracks himself up with his own jokes, he’s a 36-year old who laughs at his own jokes. That doesn’t explain why anyone, of his or any age, should be reading Jason Whitlock’s columns, though.
S,
what can I say, great minds think alike.
David,
I believe it was Alliyah who said “age ain’t nothing but a number.”
I like how you google kids names and post pictures about them, and then write an article as if you knew what you were talking about. Maybe you should stick to editing your myspace. You seem pretty homosexual to me.
Dear Greg,
I like how you conveniently ignore how this story made any number of newspapers and was reported on by the TV newsfolk as well. Or can I presume they’re homosexuals, too? I mean, I’m sure some of ’em are.
If “kids” have a problem with their names and likenesses ending up online, perhaps they shouldn’t create smartasstic myspace profiles of their coaches and teachers? Not that I minded said stunt one bit. But if their parents are going on TV to cry about the suspensions, don’t be giving me crap for repeating the tale. As far as knowing what I’m talking about, if you want to take issue with anything that I quoted, please, by all means, go for it.
furthermore, the critical sports douche is hardly a kid. Though his age was going backwards on his myspace page, which has to be some kind of scientific breakthrough.
re : editing my own superduper hot profile. You wish your b.f. was hot like me.
Dear GC,
I havent ignored any other articles, they just havent posted pictures of the kids unlike yourself. Im just trying to prevent you from looking like a pedophile. Unfourtanately for you, you already achieved that. But maybe I’m just being a little harsh, like you said, you are only “repeating the tale” which is all you’re good for anyway. Find your own news and then maybe you can be a half decent writer.
Greg,
how is printing running pics of the schmoes in question a prelude to pedophilia? I think you’re projecting just a tad. I mean, it isn’t for me to pass judgement if you were turned on, but at the same time….well, don’t take this wrong way, but I think you could do a little better.
Like it or not, the pranksters in question are now public figures. Particularly if their parents are arguing their suspension might hurt their baseball careers. I think there’s nothing sleazy nor salacious about running G-rated photos that were already online to begin with.
And just to clarify, I’ve not merely repeated the tale. I’ve given both guys credit for a stunt well played, and offered my own helpful hints on the right way and wrong way to pull off such a move. If the other articles you read did the same, sorry, but they were obviously cutting and pasting from ME (for a change)
As always, I appreciate the constructive criticism. I hope you’ll share it with every other news gathering organization that prints stories they’ve not originated.
Again, if you have a problem with the story’s veracity, by all means, let’s hear it. But if this is really about calling me a homosexual in one post and a pedophile in your followup, I think we’ve established precisely where you’re coming from.
Besides, y’know, Plano.