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Sports

Media damnation has been selective

Silent Assassin 

Ronnie Turner

The average sports fan would assume that San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman committed the greatest crime known to mankind by taking performance-enhancing drugs.

This same person would probably assume that awaiting Merriman would be a full-fledged investigation of the last several years during which members of the national sports media call for his banishment from the National Football League with asterisks being placed next to his statistics.

To that individual, I say this: Don't hold your breath. There will be no major backlash from the media about the events surrounding the alleged steroid abuse by Merriman along with Atlanta Falcons guard Mark Lehr and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Shaun Rogers.

The reason is simple: They're not baseball players. The media, which I happen to be a part of, holds baseball to a much higher standard than it does football and most other sports when it comes to allegations of steroid abuse. This matter will be all but forgotten in less than a year.

The same was true of the allegations of steroid use surrounding former Denver Broncos punter Todd Sauerbrun, who was suspended four games earlier this season after testing positive for the banned dietary supplement Ephedra. Sauerbrun, who also was implicated in an investigation of steroid abuse among members of the Carolina Panthers, his former team, was cut by Denver earlier this month, but you hardly hear his name mentioned anymore.

This is not to say Merriman, Lehr and Rogers will get off scot-free, because they won't. Each player received a four-game suspension, and even though they could easily appeal (Merriman chose this option), they will all have to answer the bell sooner or later.

These incidents will probably end up tarnishing their careers, but at least the media won't forever hound them for it. Not in the same fashion it does with baseball players suspected and convicted of steroid use.

If you're a baseball player suspected of using steroids, start preparing to be chased by the media as if you're a hardened criminal. Just ask San Francisco Giants star outfielder Barry Bonds, who has already been convicted of being a steroid user in the court of public opinion despite not having actually been found guilty of a crime. 

Bonds' case is peculiar because the media has continued to hound him after allegations arose in 2003 that he was involved in the scandal with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, which was accused of providing anabolic steroids and other banned performance-enhancing drugs to American athletes. Oddly, Bonds has never failed a drug test nor been officially charged, but that hasn't stopped the attacks from the media; instead, the attacks have been heightened.

Yet, an athlete like Merriman tests positive for steroids and gets a slap on the wrist from the media, while baseball players like Bonds get treated like murderers. The equation doesn't exactly fit the solution.

I'm in no way trying to proclaim Bonds' innocence because I don't have evidence that clearly acquits him of being a steroid user. If it later turns out he's guilty, he deserves to face the heat. However, that guilt has yet to be determined by Major League Baseball, whereas the NFL has the goods on Merriman, Lehr and Rogers. Those three and any others caught using performance-enhancing drugs should also face some serious heat.

If the media truly wanted to send a message to the public that cheating of any kind is wrong, then it should be willing to treat offenders with the same criticism. The standard shouldn't be higher for baseball than any other sport simply because baseball is supposed to be the "purest" of all sports; it should be equal for all.

Even though it may be involutarily, members of the media are telling the public that it's far worse to be a baseball athlete who uses steroids than an athlete from another sport who uses steroids. That's the wrong type of message, especially if cheating of any kind is to be considered wrong.

The public trusts the media to be fair and tell all sides in such matters. Now would be a good time to stop violating that trust.

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