The most dramatic moment in The NBC Rock Center report was when Betsy Andreu shamed Harry Smith. Nothing new to hear, but Emma says, “the media told the lies while the truth was in front of them.”
True and to that point, If there’s a Doping Amnesty Program for the Pros, alongside it should run a What Did You Know When confessional for the media, with Betsy chairing it.
Everybody wanted the interviews with Lance. They didn’t care about the other guys, really. They wanted the interviews with Lance. So in order to get the interview with Lance, you couldn’t ask Lance the hard questions.
Expect more I should’ve dug deeper, reported from the shadows from reporters like what John Leicester wrote for the AP. As a bike blogger, I should’ve put more pressure on and checked the media better. Just now, after 7 years of Bike Hugger are blogs and social media recognized by the industry as legit. Then, I was working on gaining access, building cred, and influence. I wasn’t calling out the mainstream media enough or telling you about Pay for Play or that there is no firewall between the ad department and editorial with bike magazines.
In my writing, I’ve tried to explain to readers why the case against Lance persisted or that he profited from Livestrong. My relationship is as complicated as any in the sport working with Mellow Johnnys and Livestrong in the past. Watching Emma O’ Reilly and Betsy on NBC was as difficult as reading A Reasoned Decision.
We all should’ve done better, earlier. David Walsh told the Guardian UK, “All the evidence was out there since 2004.”
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