Earlier today Al Baldreas from the OC Register blogged this post with a sensationalistic headline (which has been edited since then):

Football: UCLA recruit facing attempted murder charges

August 27th, 2009, 7:00 am · Post a Comment · posted by Al Balderas, staff writer

Lakewood High School running back Jerry Stone was in juvenile court on Tuesday, where he was charged with two counts of attempted murder in last week’s drive-by shooting in Compton.

Stone was allegedly the driver of said shooting in which no one was injured. Stone could also be facing two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of permitting someone to shoot from a vehicle, and a few other charges.
According to rivals.com, Stone had received a medium level of interest from a few colleges, including UCLA, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.

He ran for 1,450 yards for Lakewood last season, with 18 touchdowns.

A UCLA recruit charged with a serious crime! This is obviously a huge story/scandal! I wonder where Al could have been getting his information? Well when I want to know who UCLA is keeping tabs on, I check out scout.com:

Hm, that's odd. There's nothing there. But he has no schools of interest listed at all. Well then surely rivals will back up our good friend Al...

For reference, here's what it looks like when a school offers (and obviously shows interest in) a recruit:

And here is the ironclad evidence that will vindicate Mr. Baldreas once and for all!

OOPS!

He didn't provide a single shred of evidence that Stone was connected with UCLA except for this form site on Rivals.com that listed UCLA with few other schools in a category of having  "Medium" interest. Of course the problem with that line is that doesn't indicate UCLA's interest in Jerry. Instead that indicates that the recruit is interested in getting pursued by the schools listed in the database.

In other words, Al was so amped up to connect UCLA and attempted murder charges that he forgot about those stupid pesky "facts". But why let facts get in the way of an agenda? He had a story to push, and by God, he was going to connect the dots, no matter how tangentially connected those dots were. This amounts to nothing less than a blatant hit job on the UCLA coaching staff. He probably thought he was going to get away with his bullshit too.

It didn't take that long before Al got lit up by his commenters including the following from Christian Dunn:

Your title of this ‘report’ is absolutely ridiculous….
Jerry Stone was ineligible as a junior in high school; and he’s been destined for junior college for a year; yet you write that he’s a ‘UCLA recruit’. I’m completely blown away that you would associate UCLA with a murder suspect. He’s just as much a UCLA recruit as he is a USC recruit, ie. not at all. Though if anybody would have a chance of taking Jerry Stone in as a recruit it would be USC, the team that has commitments from TWO of Jerry’s high school teammates at Lakewood. Take off your cardinal and gold glasses; and quit trying to tarnish UCLA.

Further more, you obviously do not know how to navigate a recruiting site such as rivals. The ‘medium interest’ is not from the school; but rather from the recruit. UCLA isn’t even remotely interested in Jerry Stone and to my knowledge never were considering his academic shortcomings have been well known for years. I could say on a site that I"m interested in Harvard, but it doesn’t mean they’ll be sending me an acceptance letter. If UCLA had interest in Stone, they would’ve invited him to junior days, or to practice, and would’ve offered a scholorship. To my knowledge, Stone never stepped foot on UCLA’s campus for a football camp, junior day, or to attend practice. You may want to check up on whether or not he’s attended such functions at USC; then you will probably have to change the title of your ‘piece’.

Al ended up editing his title to the following:

Football: Lakewood back facing attempted murder charges
August 27th, 2009, 7:00 am · 9 Comments · posted by Al Balderas, staff writer

At this point I don't think that edit is good enough. This post has no business staying up in the UCLA section of the OC Register blog, given they have provided no evidence that the kid was actually being recruited by UCLA. It is nonsense. And if this post stays up, the UCLA media officials should consider holding this so called "reporter" accountable by restricting his access to the program.

What a joke.

GO BRUINS.

Bumped as this thread keep churning out memories. GO BRUINS. - N

LA Times reports that Mann Theaters does not intend to renew its lease on two Westwood landmarks: The Village and Bruin theaters on Broxton Ave.

Preservationists are also bracing for the potential loss of the village's two most architecturally distinctive theaters: the Village and Bruin, which date from the 1930s. Encino-based Mann Theatres has given notice that it intends not to renew its leases on the Broxton Avenue theaters -- one Spanish Mission style with the famed neon-lighted Fox tower, the other Art Moderne with a distinctive wraparound marquee. Both are city historic-cultural monuments.

Traditions come and go. The quick turnover of a tradition like Undie Run (and maybe Midnight Yell) should give us a better appreciation for other institutions that withstand the test of time and unite Bruins of all ages and generations. More after the jump.

Continue reading this post »