The biggest loser so far in this Manti Te’o scandal — aside from the people involved, but that’s for entirely different reasons — appears to be the Queen of All Media, Oprah Winfrey. First, her high-profile interview with Lance Armstrong was overshadowed by the breaking news of Te’o’s fake dead girlfriend. Then ESPN landed the first interview with Te’o — an off-camera spin-session led by Jeremy Schaap. Katie Couric followed up with Te’o’s first on-screen interview — thanks to having the same publicist — where he finally answered questions about his sexuality (Gay? “Faaaaaaar from it”.).
Well, there’s only one place to go after the Te’o interrogations: put the creator of the hoax, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, under the spotlight. Unfortunately, Oprah didn’t land that one either. However, if it’s any consolation, the interview will be conducted by the guy who has Oprah (and only Oprah) to thank for having a career at all: Dr. “I’m not a real doctor, I just play one on TV” Phil.
There are two ways this can go. One, Tuiasosopo pleads guilty to everything, says we can’t blame Te’o for anything, and we can all go home. Or, he can unleash some truth bombs which shed light on Te’o’s involvement in certain aspects of the hoax — mainly the part where he realized he got duped, yet ran with it anyway. We’re secretly hoping for the first scenario, because typing “Tuiasosopo” over and over has now become the most annoying part of this whole saga.
[TMZ]
