The mainstream media -- especially sports journalists -- is nothing if not reactionary. Sometimes it seems as if one writer or analyst voices a particular opinion and the rest of the lemmings follow blindly off the cliff.
It's been no different with the juiciest story in baseball today. Here's the typical take: Dick plays ball. Chicks dig long balls. Dick takes 'roids. Dick cashes in. Chicks and fans follow. Everyone -- EVERYONE -- should be ashamed. We've all read that column dozens of times in the past three months.
Enter John J. Perricone of Only Baseball Matters, one of the best baseball destinations on the web. John loves the Giants and Barry Bonds, but he doesn't let this diminish his objectivity on the steroid issue. In a particularly compelling recent piece he points out the hypocrisy of sports journalists who blindly and self-righteously condemn steroid use:
Here's a thought: How come Mike Lupica didn't write a bunch of expose' columns back in 1998, when McGwire and Sosa were in that amazing race fof history? How come Lupica gets a free pass, when, as a reporter with access to the lockerroom and the players, he wrote nothing and said nothing? Remember way back when, Bart Giamatti going after Pete Rose? How surprised everyone in the country was, why would he go after Rose? I remember people didn't want to believe it; I know I didn't. You know why? Because all those years he was doing it, in front of sportswriters, they did nothing.
Click here for rest of the article. It's an excellent read.
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