McGwire admits to steroid use

[rknil]

http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/the-star-columnist-looks-back-at-the-story-everyone-missed/comment-page-1/#comment-2417

I have now made two comments about this piece. Both are "awaiting moderation."

The most recent:

Anyone who has been following Dave Kindred's thoughts on this subject knows he has been all over the map.

From the end of 2007:

"Anyway, I'd prefer less self-flaggelation. It seems to me that the San Francisco Chronicle's reporting on BALCO was the steroid story's equivalent of the Washington Post's reporting on a burglary at the Watergate apartment complex. Both grew from police stories, both led to federal investigations, both reached congress, both changed the cultures in which the crimes grew. That's work to be proud of."

He also brought up David Eckstein's name in relation to the Mitchell report before it was released. Eckstein's name was not in the report.

I'd encourage people to do their homework a little better in the future, especially when statements like this are made: "(H)undreds of players have continued to test positive for PEDs. Great players use them ..."

I'm sure that Mr. Kindred, of course, meant to make a more factual statement, such as "Dozens of career minor-leaguers have received 50-game suspensions in connection with PED use." But that's too boring, I guess. It's far more flashy to paint everyone with the same brush, just as Mr. Kindred and others have been doing for more than a decade.

The first one, which is blunter and less likely to be approved:

Actually, Edward is right. Using Dave Kindred’s “logic,” all information is hidden until it’s not. Basically sportswriters are limited to waiting for someone to spill their guts, and then they cover it. Until then, there’s lots of supposition and speech codes. The coverage has devolved into analyzing apologies and creating poorly written, non-factual rants. The steroid issue was there. Sportswriters missed it, and they’ve spent the last decade throwing facts and ethics out the window to try to make up for their mistakes.

Edward is the hammer hitting the nail on the head. Dave Kindred is the brightly colored top spinning quickly around the issue but never touching it. There’s really very little substance to this column because he and other sportswriters refuse to accept the truth, and they refuse to change.

Edward's comment, for context:

Yes, and Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post said he and other golf writers missed the Tiger Woods story. Boxing writers missed the Mike Tyson story, and nice guy Gilbert Arenas got a pass for his lockerroom antics. So what is going on. Are you all asleep except when there is a ball in action? I think this series of scandals shows the failings of the sport-writing profession. I blame this on an attitude that it is the game that is important, not these other issues. You have lost your relevance.

[rknil]

I also sent an e-mail to the sportsjournalism.org site about the first comment staying in drydock. The text follows:

I see that you or someone else is too cowardly to allow the recent comment I made about Dave Kindred's pointless response to  Mark McGwire's admission of steroid use.

I could keep reposting it, but that seems to be a waste of time. As I'm taking the time to write this e-mail, though, I will say that sportswriters have been quite quick to judge any number of players without the facts. If your site cannot address this problem with
the bluntness that any repeated violation of basic journalism ethics would deserve, then I fail to see what purpose your site serves.
 
Allowing someone to say: "We couldn't judge without the facts!" when that is precisely what has been done for years is a hard spin on reality.

Ultimately it comes down to a choice between being part of the solution or part of the problem. Right now, your site is a big part of the problem.

[rknil]

The comments have now been approved after my e-mail. I'm told the delay in publication resulted from some sort of glitch.

Señor Kindred has since responded. And we're off!