I'm sure for a lot of people, reading this blog entry by Dallas morning news writer Tim Cowlishaw won't be easy. In it he explains a few differences he would make to his tweet, and the merits of new media and information sharing, as well as where the responsibility lies when reporting on inside source information:
It's my mistake. I was wrong, and while I once saw a significant difference between a column or story that I spend hours writing for The Dallas Morning News and a 15-word "tweet,'' I no longer do.It is one of the things I like least about this business when I hear a reporter blame his or her sources after either getting beat on a story or having things go differently than they had said they would.
"My source lied to me. My source was misled by someone else.''
Doesn't matter. The person who writes the story (or Tweet) is the one responsible.
He's not saying it won't happen but he is saying that he wishes he had used the words "I think" in his now famous 140 character message that raised Jets spirits the world over. He comments on if we knew the source and the information he was given, we would understand his confidence.
The important thing to note is that he does not rule out it happening this weekend. Remember in his initial explanation he said Wednesday or Saturday. He used Wednesday in his tweet as it made more sense and with the character limit, you don't have space to divulge further.
I don't blame Tim, not in the slightest. I've seen tweets being sent to him calling him all the names under the sun, I've seen people angry it didn't happen last night. He seems as confused as all of us, saying he only partially understands why it didn't go down like he had been told or as he originally thought. Sometimes things don't go as planned, even from the most trusted of source. That doesn't give anyone the right to bombard him with profanity.
Maybe it gets done this weekend, and Tim was right, maybe it doesn't and he was wrong. It's not the first and it won't be the last, but at the end of the day, he makes the perfect point in his headline:
"One way or another, Darrelle Revis will be a Jet"