Does Deadspin's Manti Te'o story 'diminish' investigative journalism?

One of the journalists who revealed the tale was a big hoax seems to think so. Oh and there has been another twist this morning…

Here are five things you might not have known about the hoax.

1 Deadspin scooped the entire US mass media by outing the story as a hoax, but does it diminish investigative journalism?

ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CBS, Fox… they ALL bought into the story. But it was a pair of unknown journalists from Deadspin that revealed it was all a hoax last night after receiving an email tip-off the week before.

One of the journalists, Timothy Burke said he was ‘shocked’ and ‘saddened’ that nobody had looked into Lennay Kekua’s history and feels the story (or more mainstream media's failure to find out the truth) has ‘diminished’ investigative journalism.

2 How Notre Dame reacted to the news

The college, left red faced by the episode, held a press conference last night, along with releasing the following statement which revealed that they already knew about the situation since Christmas.

“On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.”

3 The worst thing you can do is fool yourself, eh Te’o?

We don't think this tweet needs any framing.

4 Another footballer has come out and said he met Lennay Kekua

Ok this is where it gets even weirder – an Arizona Cardinals full-back, Reagan Maui’a, claims he met Kekua in the summer of 2011.

He told ESPN: "This was before her and Manti. I don't think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was -- I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa."

5 One of the journalist’s behind the story is an undergrad student on winter break

What makes Deadspin's scoop all the more fascinating is the second write, Jack Dickey, is actually a full-time student..

You can imagine the conversation when he gets back to college: ‘How was winter break, Jack?’ ‘Well you know, I broke the internet.’