Lance Armstrong fiasco

Just found out about the hour something long Oprah Winfrey interview cos I've been out of the news loop for a bit. Read a few months ago that he was banned from competition but the interview was just wow. Sure there are big legal implications for it, financially and image damaging to brands or organizations he's associated with, mainly Livestrong. From what I've been reading online, his coming out on Winfrey's show was calculating. Flawed sporting rules and regulations much? Biggest doping-in-sport debacle so far? Best part - I will destroy careers if you tell the truth, sue you if you tell the truth and win.

EDIT: Linkage to the interview - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of_V4LmlML0&feature=player_embedded
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
I don't really have much interest in sports, but it's hard to get away from the Lance Armstrong stuff. :ganishka: I watched the first part of the Oprah interview out of curiosity, and you can't help but notice that he's just a scummy guy. He's clearly the type of person who's used to being in control of everything around him, and when he's finally obligated to apologize to the people whose lives he ruined, he comes off more like "I'm sorry I got caught" than genuinely apologetic. I feel for his kids, though. They probably idolized their dad as a hero more than anyone else, and now they know that he's just a big fat cheater. :judo:
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
Regardless, the man still did a TON of good for cancer awareness/research.

I doubt any of his sponsors will get any flack, as they're pretty much in the clear since they didn't (possibly) know he was doping. His agent is definitely going under, though.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I don't think much has changed since this: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=10072.msg214075#msg214075

I never thought much of the guy as a sportsman or a philanthropist; as Grail observed, he's always come off as kind of a self-serving jerk (I'm waiting to find out just how exaggerated the greatness of his foundation is too). The only interesting development is the true motive behind his "confession," on which this is the only good article I've read:

http://espn.go.com/sports/endurance/story/_/id/8859684/lance-armstrong-chose-words-carefully-oprah-interview-avoid-legal-pitfalls

It's totally been buried on ESPN by the way, along with cycling, which you can now find under the umbrella "endurance sports" if you look hard enough. The rest of the articles I've seen are just a bunch of emotional puff pieces, the same kind that got us here in the first place. Speaking of which, the other interesting sports story this week that, while just a great freak show, also speaks to the complete lack of integrity in sports journalism and beyond, was the Manti Te'o story. Broken by Deadspin, which remains about the only outfit to speak forthrightly about it:

Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax

Almost everyone else in the media, at least on record, has been tripping over themselves to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and basically embarrass themselves further by letting him and Notre Dame continue to control the story even though they've been spouting or protecting falsehoods for months and are still acting suspicious as fuck. It's like, "Fool me once... Please fool me again!" Incredible, I understand trying to minimize the damage or embarrassment to yourself for being duped (the media, not the player), but you'd think at least some of these reports would be biased the other way out of some sense of pride (that at least there'd be a little more skepticism about the guy's word at this point). Talk about an enthusiast press. If you want to read some real reporting and analysis on the matter:

Notre Dame: Manti Te’o Was The Victim Of Mean Internet People
What Did Manti Te’o Say About His Dead Girlfriend After He’d Learned She Wasn’t Real?
In ESPN Interview, Manti Te’o Admits To “Tailoring His Stories,” Says He Wasn’t Convinced Lennay Kekua Was Fake Until Wednesday [UPDATE]
Notre Dame’s Lennay Kekua “Investigation” Basically Consisted Of A Few Guys Using Google And LexisNexis

Anyway, I'll let Deadspin editor, and an excellent writer himself, Tommy Craggs sum it up:

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/201012/deadspins-editor-in-chief-explains-editing-reporting-behind-manti-teo-story/ said:
What’s your reaction to the reality that no other journalists thought to look into this story?

Well, I understand how this slipped through the cracks initially. If I’m a beat guy and I have 500 words to file after practice come hell or high water and the best player on the team has just told me a story about his dear, departed girlfriend, I’m not going to go spelunking through SSA death records to make sure he’s not full of shit. They won’t say that out loud in journalism classes or anything, but that’s just the nature of covering sports on a hard deadline.

I have less sympathy for the folks who crafted those painstaking “Love Story”-in-cleats feature stories about Manti and his dead girlfriend. Those were dumb, infantilizing stories to begin with, and they were executed poorly and sloppily, and if there’s any lesson to be drawn from this, it’s that this kind of simpering crap should be eliminated from the sports pages entirely.

I'd just like to add that one could say that about all journalism. CNN has basically been simpering crap headquarters for a long time.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
I don't think much has changed since this: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=10072.msg214075#msg214075

Indeed, Armstrong's just doing what he has to now. What's sad is that some people were actually fooled (I'm remembering the outrage some years ago that anybody, and especially those vile Frenchmen, would dare question this magnificent hero's integrity), though I can understand how in the US the scrunity over doping in the Tour de France wasn't very high.

Griffith said:
Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax

Almost everyone else in the media, at least on record, has been tripping over themselves to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and basically embarrass themselves further by letting him and Notre Dame continue to control the story even though they've been spouting or protecting falsehoods for months and are still acting suspicious as fuck. It's like, "Fool me once... Please fool me again!" Incredible, I understand trying to minimize the damage or embarrassment to yourself for being duped (the media, not the player), but you'd think at least some of these reports would be biased the other way out of some sense of pride (that at least there'd be a little more skepticism about the guy's word at this point). Talk about an enthusiast press.

Hahaha, I actually read a few articles on this event during the week and yeah, it's pretty amazing how it all went down. "Enthusiast press" sums it up pretty well I think. Not as bad as video games "journalism", but not much better either.
 

Vampire_Hunter_Bob

Cats are great
Good news everyone! Armstrong is coming back, and better: http://www.theonion.com/video/lance-armstrong-debuts-evil-fantaunting-persona-ki,30963/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post:headline:default
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:
Good news everyone! Armstrong is coming back, and better: http://www.theonion.com/video/lance-armstrong-debuts-evil-fantaunting-persona-ki,30963/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=standard-post:headline:default
:ganishka: This would get me interested in sports again.
 
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