Media Assault

I came across an article today from New York Newsday titled "A-Rod or Phelps: Who's Worse?" The author of this article is a woman named Barbara Barker. And, Ms. Barker, I have an answer to your question.

You are worse.

You are worse because you live in a fairy tale world. You are worse because you think you are above it all. You are worse because you look down from your ivory tower and talk about two people you don't know, blaming them for all that is wrong.

You are worse because you represent everything that is wrong with the media.

I'm not trying to make Ms. Barker a scapegoat; she is far from the only member of the media taking this path. But I grow weary of listening to writers and talking heads rip on these athletes and say what terrible people they are. Michael Phelps did something stupid. Alex Rodriguez cheated. Get over it.

Young people do stupid things. They just do. Michael Phelps just happens to be in the limelight. Yes, he is an idiot for smoking pot and allowing pictures to be taken of him doing so, but go to any college party on a Friday or Saturday night and count how many twenty three year olds are doing the same thing. That doesn't make it right, but it also doesn't make it fair to hassle Phelps just because he is a celebrity. He is not a role model. He is a swimmer.

He didn't make himself a role model, everybody else did. He didn't ask to be looked up to. Why should he feel obligated to set a good example for your kids? That's not his job, that's yours. Raise your own damn kids.

And, yes, Alex Rodriguez cheated. He's a professional athlete looking for an edge. Again, this doesn't make him right, but at least he owned up to his mistake and admitted he was wrong. Now you're going to call him a bad person?

What about the 60+ percent of people that said in an ESPN poll they would take performance enhancing drugs if it guaranteed them $200,000 a year? Are you going to find all of them and tell them how terrible they are? Are you going to be one of the 30% that are lying to themselves and saying they wouldn't take PEDs, just so you can look down on people that truthfully answered yes?

Please, spare me the talk about these athletes being terrible people. You are no better. You don't understand their position. You just act like you do.

Who’s worse? Seriously? You are sitting there actually debating who is a worse person? Think about that for a second. You don’t know these people and you want to decide which one is a worse person based on one mistake? You think you have the right to make that decision?

Stop attacking these people like they’ve wronged you and everyone else. Stop acting like their bad choices have somehow impeded you from living a life of morality. And, for that matter, stop pretending that you have always lived a life of morality.

People make mistakes. Alex Rodriguez and Michael Phelps made mistakes. You can talk about how they’ve harmed themselves, and harmed their sport, but please, spare us the talk of how they harmed your children.

The media has become one big joke. How bout, instead of making judgments, you do your job. Your job is to report the news, shut your mouth, and let us decide for ourselves.

-Juice