The Steroid Scam
One of the spins that seems to be irritating the public as much as any (and there are plenty) is the steroid so called revelation the media is shoving down our throats in the past couple of years. The athletes accused of using these substances are being reviled and cast as "cheaters" not worthy of any recognition for their accomplishments. I don't think that a case can be made that using steroids is OK, but why is only the athlete being burned at the stake. Many of the leagues (including MLB which gets the most attention) are casting shadows on athletes that used the substances while they were being "ignored" by the league and all of it's representatives. In other words, the use of performance enhancing drugs was not banned or even mentioned in the rules governing the conduct of the league's players! Does anyone in the media believe that the league or the media itself did not know about these drugs and their use? Of course not. They simply chose to ignore it and collect the record revenues that went along with the popularity generated by the players ability to hit more, farther and more often. Only when the use of performance enhancers was brought into the mainstream media following Jose Cansaco's books and celebrated government investigations did the "outrage" of the owners and their crony the comissioner spill over in creating strict rules and testing procedures. The players bear responsibility, but should certainly not bear it alone! We don't hear cries for teams to return money to the fans for all of the phony home runs, victories and titles the owners cashed in on as a result of the horrible cheaters. This is a witch hunt that is being perpetuated by the media that benefitted as much as anyone from the headlines generated when all of the records were falling. Give the money back to the fans!!!