UPDATE : WayneFontes.com has learned from a source inside the Detroit News building that sports columnist Rob Parker must work for the next two weeks as a general reporter inside the building, and cannot write any columns.
This suspension stems from Parker's "Clubhouse Confidential" segment on WDIV, when he falsely implicated Michigan State's Kirk Cousins was involved in the fight between Spartan football and hockey players.
LansingSportsRage did a quick search of the DetNews.com and found no mention of the suspension, though you can't find any articles by Rob on the front page.. his profile however is still in tact
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The on-going saga of Rob Parker, Mark Dantonio and the MSU Spartans continues today with the Detroit News offering up an extremely weak apology and Rob Parker basically blaming his sources.
Bringing you up to speed; and as we first reported here on Sunday Night; On Clubhouse Confidential on WDIV-TV4 in Detroit on Sunday Night, Rob Parker he had heard several "moles" (or CWPF's) that MSU freshman QB Kirk Cousins was involved in the fight which occurred on campus at MSU and from which MSU football and hockey coaches have admitted that some players were involved.
During Mark Dantonio's Tuesday News Conference, he went right after Rob Parker. Basically calling him a liar and stating that his accusations were slanderous and that Parker was totally inaccurate in his report.
The Spartan Nation has been in an uproar ever since.. several of the more popular MSU oriented message boards have seen literally thousands of upset Spartan fans calling for Parker's job, demanding apologies, and at the very least clearly articulating their general hatred disapproval of Parker's report.
"I was wrong. I apologize," Parker said of the report. "I have reached out to the student-athlete's family and apologized. They have accepted. I also apologize to the Michigan State community."
Now, some might consider an apology. I don't. I think it was a very weak handed attempt to play off the incident and a "misunderstanding" and that because Clubhouse Confidential is a "Page Six" type of segment that the standards of journalism and the basic premise of truth in journalism don't apply.
Parker even confirmed this point of view in his interview on Tuesday
afternoon on the Stoney and Wojo show in Detroit.
During the interview (featured in the video to the right) Parker was in full fledged back peddle mode.
He tried hard to say that he never said Cousins was there and that his name has been throw around by people in East Lansing.
Now.. Rob never reveals those sources, never tries to quantify or legitimize the sources, he just reiterates that "his moles" gave him the information and they are three different sources. Rob tries to justify it by calling it a hearsay segment.
Right.. my guess is they are named Mo, Larry and Curly.
The thing about this report which is so scandalous and the reason why TV-4 and the Detroit News should publicly reprimand Rob is the basic inability for Rob to present the truth and to exercise basic journalist integrity.
In fact.. Rob even admits it. During the interview he says it wasn't fact, but I had three rock solid sources who all said they heard the same thing. But I couldn't have used it in the Detroit News.
So you couldn't use it in the News, but you can go on TV and say it ?