David Dellanave sent the internet into a tizzy on Sunday evening. Dellanave tweeted that the Minnesota Vikings would open US Bank Stadium to the homeless on a record cold night. As is customary on the internet, many media outlets and people jumped on this “news” story. The problem is, it wasn’t true. Ryan Phillips of The Big Lead was not one of the people that initially jumped on the story.
Dellanave, according to his Twitter profile is a “Man, entrepreneur, angel investor, fitness scientist, deadlift whisperer, and owner of the most innovative gym in the world.” His account his verified but he is not a journalist or a credible news source. The number of retweets and likes of Dellanave’s tweet were in the thousands. Thankfully as it made its way around the internet, journalists did some digging and quickly shot it down.
Fake news has been a huge topic of conversation lately and sports is not immune. Media outlets need to be the first to break news. In a rush to be first, you can’t skip the steps of fact checking and sourcing your information. The internet is a wonderful place in many respects because it democratizes access. But, because of its inherent open nature we need to make sure what we are picking up is fact and not the musings of some random person.