Fabiani: Getting sports radio to make things up

From Tony Manolatos, who learned a couple of things while the spokesman for the Citizens Stadium Advisory Group…

The Mighty 1090’s Dan Sileo read a critical letter on air about a week ago. Dan said the letter was written by the NFL and was going to be delivered to the Mayor that morning. I remember hearing him on air saying something like, “The NFL has brought the hammer down on San Diego.”

A radio show host in Los Angeles Tweeted out a reference to the letter, so I DMed him and asked if he had seen the letter. No, he said, he was going off of what he heard from Dan. I told him I thought the letter was bogus. His producer called and said they were going to back away from the letter until they could reach the Mayor’s office and the NFL. Why, he said, would the NFL serve up a letter like this to the Mayor moments before meeting with him?

Turns out, the NFL did not write the letter. Who did? If you have been paying attention to San Diego’s stadium saga you have probably guessed by now. Yes, Chargers spokesman Mark Fabiani wrote the letter, Sielo told his listeners after a week’s worth of blowback.

Fabiani has been deceitful for a while. Radio talk show hosts are not journalists, but Dan should have done some reporting before legitimizing this letter. It never should have been read on air and attributed to the NFL. It was not signed and it was not on letterhead.

If you put half the stadium BS we’ve seen in a book, no one would believe it wasn’t fiction. San Diego deserves better.

*****

Here’s the Mighty 1090’s admission that the letter was from Fabiani, not from the NFL, along with a copy of the letter and message header clearly showing the sender.