Adam Schefter is one of the most well known sports reporters in the world, which is why countless people have been duped by social media accounts from people who are posing as the ESPN insider. Now, even Schefter’s own employer has fallen for a fake Schefter tweet.
On Monday, a fake Schefter Twitter account “reported” that the Miami Dolphins have fired offensive coordinator Chan Gailey. The tweet came from one of those accounts that uses the same avatar as Schefter, which makes it confusing. The account was not verified, however, and had a handle that read @TuaNeedsHelp.
Unfortunately for ESPN, someone at the company missed those important details. That led to ESPN publishing a story about Gailey being fired and attributing it to Schefter. The false report was also shared on the air during “SportsCenter.”
We've seen it all. ESPN got duped by a fake Adam Schefter account.
Chan Gailey has not been fired. pic.twitter.com/h5DTGyjmTK
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) January 4, 2021
Yikes.
Several major outlets picked up on the story before ESPN realized the error. They then published a follow-up correcting it, which was shared by the real Schefter.
“The story has been removed from ESPN.com, and replaced with this correction. The story was also mentioned on the 1 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter,” the correction read. “No ESPN reporters reported on Gailey or the Dolphins, or were involved in the error, which was made internally. ESPN regrets the error.”
This certainly isn’t the first time we have seen NFL news circulate because of a fake tweet. You can see another fairly recent example here.
What makes this particular incident so unusual is that ESPN was duped by an account posing as its own reporter. Welcome to 2021.
