Sunday, December 13, 2009

Disgraced ex-NBA referee Tim Donaghy, Did He Lie on 60 Minutes?

I am only including PART TWO, to see part one please use the link provided below the video.

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Tim Donaghy's bets on NBA games were hugely successfully, but it all came unraveled when he says the mob wanted a piece of the action. And that put him on the FBI's radar. Bob Simon reports.

Did He Lie?

I did see a hot spot, which can be a sign of a deceit. He has come clean, and this is what I saw.

He shows no deception when he states that he didn't call the games so he would win his placed bets...

He is also showing no deception when discussing the NBA and the conduct of the refs...

The only place I became suspious and suspect deception is when he was speaking about the ties to the mafia. He spoke freely throughout the interview, but when being asked questions about the mob, and what was said in the car, things change- he pauses more often and the words do not flow freely.

These verbal “blunders” are called disfluencies. Disfluencies include pause fillers, repeated words, mid-sentence corrections, prolonged vowels and syllables, and silent pauses and often are a sign of deceit. Nervousness and stress can cause them, so can having to think harder to keep stories straight, in everyday conversation they are simply fillers, but any change (more or less) can be a hot spot. Less of them can be a sign of a rehearsed story...

In the video, it would be easy to say this could be a sign of nervousness because they are the mob- I mean they do murder people and do other things that are not pleasant- and I would normally agree with you, except... continue watching the show and you will see more pacifying behaviors when speaking about the NBA than when speaking about the mob; this is a sign he is more uncomfortable with his relationship with the NBA than the Mob.

So what did I see and what does it mean? He is using the stereotype of the mob's violent nature to help explain why he did this, and probably had a more amicable relationship than is implied in the interview.

With all that being said, he is a generally honest guy that has done his time for the crime, has come clean about past wrongs and was one of the most honest people I have seen on 60 minutes in years...◦
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1 comments:

Wayne said...

What i found interesting when questioned about coming clean after he was court. He mentions his family. And show Shame, Maybe sadness.

If he regrets betting in the first place or getting court though im not sure, Id say he regrets getting court more because he actually specifically Says that the better was a bad thing, (he stumbles over his words ever so slightly at that part, Like he knows hes supposed to say that) .

Im not to sure, im not very good at this, its very interesting though. So glad i happened across your blog.