One little tip might've helped Sports Webio
Those aware of Hernandez's past could've sent a secret signal
June 22, 2009
BY RICHARD ROEPER Sun-Times Columnist

Like most opinion-dishers in the media, I have little respect for the average anonymous e-mailer or phone caller.

It's really this simple: we sign our names to our commentaries, so why can't you sign your name to your feedback? If you don't have the courage and maturity to identify yourself, doesn't that tell you something embarrassing about yourself?

Usually my assistant doesn't forward anonymous e-mails to me; she knows I'm not going to respond anyway.

Of course, there are times when I understand and respect why someone is reluctant to identify himself. For example, you might be worried about getting into trouble at work. On occasion we'll contact an e-mailer and ask for identifying information, and they'll follow through. (You can always ask me not to use your name in a column and I'll honor that.)

Or maybe you want to pass along information but you don't want to get involved beyond that. Some of the most interesting scoops and biggest news stories start with the time-honored anonymous tip.

Lord knows there's a group of radio professionals that wish someone had dropped an anonymous dime on their behalf a few months ago.

Oh what a tangled Webio we weave

The Chicagosportswebio.com scandal reads like a sports-talk version of the Bernie Madoff mess.

As you probably know, the Internet sports station shut down last week as investigators accused David Hernandez of running a Ponzi scheme that soaked more than 100 investors in at least 12 states out of nearly $12 million. Hernandez is on the run, with the FBI calling him a "Suicide Risk" on a Wanted poster.

And a lot of familiar broadcast voices and veteran behind-the-scenes personnel are wondering what the bleep just hit them.

Some of them are also wondering why Tom Shaer, a longtime TV sports reporter and radio talk show host in the city, didn't tell them about Hernandez's past.

As Ed Sherman reported on his Crain's Chicago blog, "Shaer ... had dealings with David Hernandez during the 1980s and knew all about him being convicted for wire fraud in 1998, resulting in a 34-month sentence."

So, why didn't Shaer call Mike North or someone else who was getting involved in the Chicago Sports Webio start-up?

"I didn't want to mess up Mike's deal," Shaer told Sherman. "If there's one lesson I've learned in the media business. . . it's that I should keep my nose out of other people's business."

Shaer told NBC-5, "If I had known anything bad was going on, or might possibly occur, of course I would have told everyone I know, but I had no such knowledge."

Hindsight makes it easy

What would you do in a situation like that? The topic came up in conversation at a gathering I attended Friday night, and the verdict was unanimous: you have to step forward and say something.

Shaer did call an FBI agent, but he says the agent told him people sometimes turn their lives around.

North and Chet Coppock are ticked off that Shaer didn't say anything about Hernandez. Many observers are saying anyone who got involved with Hernandez should have checked him out themselves -- but hindsight gives you a sense of intellectual superiority.

Reading the multipart series on the Madoff fiasco in Vanity Fair, you think: how could all these people be so blind to this guy? But it's so easy to make that pronouncement AFTER the fact. Madoff's clients, the investors who were allegedly duped by Texas financier Allen Stanford, all those Enron employees that lost everything -- these were not naive people. They're folks who believed they'd be treated the way they treat others.

Any time a story like this surfaces, sideline commentators can't believe anyone would fall for an alleged con man. But as the Sun-Times' Mark Konkol wrote in a profile of Hernandez: "Who ever met a 'con man' they didn't like?"

As I said at the start -- not a big fan of the anonymous e-mail. But maybe that would have been the answer here. If Shaer didn't want to contact North or anybody else, he could have sent an anonymous e-mail to everyone on the staff of that new venture, urging them to check out Hernandez's background and cautioning them about getting involved with him.

You know at least one of the on-air folks or producers would have been sufficiently motivated to look up Hernandez and warn his/her colleagues about the guy.

Would it be a weasel move to send out such an e-mail? Or simply a way of helping out without getting personally involved?

My guess is everyone who's feeling the sting of their association would have appreciated the heads-up.

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fan of Latinspice. fan of DJ Julie. fan of L.E.A.N.

Good suggestion by Richard. I always enjoy his insights. He is like former Trib scribe,Bob Greene (without the young girl perversion).

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I like him cuz he's a Sox fan...anytime a sox fan tries to say something about Cub fans being gay...I just smile and say Richard Roeper.

A slandering e-mail sent to an entire office is never really advisable.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Is it slander if based on facts?

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Let me see, Shaer goes to all the trouble of calling THE FBI agent who dealt with Hernandez the last time he was in trouble and the guy tells Shaer that he has nothing on the radar for Hernandez and he may have cleaned up his act. So Shaer is now supposed to start firing up warning flares to all who will listen? And say what, the guy WAS a crook but the FBI says he’s clean now? Come on.

North, on the other hand, has been familiar with the guy since 1996 (a fact that he only grudgingly has admitted over time) and helps rope in more radio personalities into the webio fiasco but he's clear with Roeper? No fault with Mikey, Rich?

Roeper makes a couple of allusions to "the past" in his article and how it's easy to see things here in the present. Seems like he should heed that lesson and just shut the fuck up. Shaer maybe could have said something but that's a flip of the coin - especially AFTER calling the FBI. While I'm no fan of Shaer by any stretch of the imagination, Roeper needs to look at North for blame far more than Tommy boy.

Emails would be libel, correct?

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I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. -Susan B. Anthony

Yep, and virtually everything written on this so far seems to neatly sidestep the issue of what exactly North knew and when he knew it and what his possible culpability is. Apparently North still enjoys some sort of "sacred cow" status among much of the local media--even among the people he burned on this. North is blameless just like some grandma with cancer who lost her money. (Which, actually, while maybe not true, is still kind of funny--to see Mr. Streetwise Mafia Wannabe reduced to that role.)

Decent article, but it's premise seems to be that someone .. somewhere .. should have sent an anonymous email???!!??! Really?

I like Roeper, but good Lord does he now know who would be receiving that heads up? MIKE NORTH. Tom Shaer, although a dope, was absolutely right about what he thought Mike's greeting would have been to his "heads up". North would have either dismissed it as a simple hater, or lashed out at someone trying to mess up his deal. NO DOUBT. There simply is no other evidence around that would suggest that North would have accepted the heads up kindly, then looked into the "anonymous info".

You simply can't ignore what the reaction would have been from North ... but, as convenient as Roeper thinks it is for everyone to claim "you should have looked into the guy first", it's very convenient to think that North would have taken the "tip" and stopped the runaway train before hundreds of thousands of dollars, and people's livelihoods, were pissed away.

I don't like Tom Shaer, but it's ridiculous to blame him for the troubles they now face. These guys left their jobs at their own free will. Nobody did any research on Hernandez on their own, nor did Mike North. It would have been great for these guys had they known something up front, but they didn't, and it's on them, not Tom Shaer.

Yep. Libel is written, slander is spoken.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

What about personal responsibility? Is it advisable to rely upon others to warn you as you enter into business dealings? A Google search on the guy promising all the money is insufficient.

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Du hockey comme dans le temps

As I wrote somewhere earlier today...personal responsibility is a thing of the past it died with the mcdonalds hot coffee lawsuit

I'm amazed that a fuck up of this magnitude that STARTS & ENDS and with Mike F'n North can be directed towards the likes of a Tom Shaer. I don't care for either one of these guys, but to point the finger and try and pass the blame of this off to Shaer is completely idiotic. I heard Shaer on with Mac and I thought he explained his actions and standpoint very well. It seemed like Mac was pro-Northy in that discussion...but maybe it was more of a dislike for Shaer,. Either way...this is just massive spin control and trying to deflect blame from where it truly belongs. This is 100% North.

North Sucks!

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Proud to be UNVERIFIED.

I found David Hernandez all by myself....using google!

click here!

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@audioidkid

As Mike North would say:"OOOOOOO's" as in Baltimore O's

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

As much as I enjoy reading the complaints about Roeper's column, has anyone tried to contact Roeper about how North should take on a lot more of the blame than Shaer? Not saying that posting here is useless or stupid, but we all complain about how every reporter or journalist who's covered this story seems to be missing the point, and I for one want to know what their reasoning is for not going after North given all the evidence that says he knew about DH before getting the CSW thing started.

I'll probably send him something about the piece, but a lot of you guys could do better than me judging by the quality of the posts on this topic (Except you JohnKirk...)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRRJ6mMsVBc&feature=related

When it comes to eating pizza off your belly while laying down, you do it like no one can!

Yes sir I have. The following is an email I sent to Mr. Roeper on this very subject via his website. I am not holding my breath waiting for a response.

Mr. Roeper, after reading your Sun-Times column about the Chicago Sports Webio fiasco I would like to know how you can point a finger at Tom Shaer yet leave Mike North blameless? Shaer, who was not even involved in the Webio launch, took the time to contact the FBI who told him that Hernandez seemed clean to them. What was he supposed to do then, attach anonymous notes to bricks and lob them through North's window? Come on. Once the FBI said all's clear that's it. And why aren't you more critical of North? Why has this guy been given a pass by you and the rest of the Chicago media? At first North was like 2 of the 3 monkeys, see no evil and hear no evil. But as time goes on more and more starts to come out that North previously "forgot" or lied about, like the fact he had actually known Hernandez for years and that he knew checks were bouncing PRIOR to having guys like Buffone and OB join Webio. Several things Mike North stated from the outset have been proven wrong or been altered to fit current facts. If you want to do a real story about Webio and Hernandez we in the Chicago sports community would love to read it, but if all you're going to do is shill for North like the rest of the area media, save your printer ink for a review of the next Harry Potter movie.

Excellent email Street Doc.

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Oh, yes! Well done!

Excellent letter. The problem is Richard Roeper is just another lazy, smug twit. He's never broken anything in his life. Shit, he writes a lousy, unreadable column and reviews f'ng movies. Who is he to demand the readers should do the work for the lazy reporters and columnists? He's useless.
He really would be at home replacing Kathy & Judy.

A little background: Years back,before Roeper was big,North took him to task for
pushing out some female producer from his "Media Creatures" show. He had Roeper
on his radio show ( If I remember correctly) taking him to task for this.
Anyone else remember this?

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I didn't Roeper was big.

Yeah, but other than that, what don't you like about him?

How could "street smart" North not even be curious as to where Hernandez was generating the money for this project?

North seems to be a jackass who wouldn't listen to reason anyway....His ego and his great webio were gonna stick it to WSCR......

Shaer sounds like a pompous holier than thou full of himself ass and never should have opened his big mouth..he just sounds like he has a score to settle with North...you mean to tell me that Shaer didn't know by going public with his information he makes North out to be a damned liar or an absolute fool?

This was Shaer's "gotcha" moment with North...period.

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

That was already well-established before Shaer's revelations.

The next thing we will find out is that North had somebody else take the G.E.D. test that he passed for him.

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There goes one over the fence..Tru Link Fence..Beauty, Privacy Security....Call Tru Link.
Murph's Union 76 Truck Stop....A great Thanksgiving Tradition!!!!

WOO LIFE!!!!

That was a completely inept column by Roeper placing the blame on Shaer.

That being said, Shaer should have stepped forward and alerted the people at the station but didnt have the balls to do it. He probably would have been scoffed at first but after all the moke had cleared they would have thanked him. He took the easy way out.

I think those saying North was aware of things are completely missing the boar IMO. He meant well and had no ill intentions. He is truly this stupid and was played for a complete and utter fool. Hernandez say him as an easy mark and took full advantage of it. Why do you think he made bebe COO? He wanted someone incompetent in the postion.

Excellent email Street Doc.

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Jackie "Smoke" Davis. Da Butcha Da Betta.