Bonds on the Stand

The Chronicle continues its drive to save Western civilization with today's BALCO story. Same end-of-the-world headline treatment as yesterday. You can find a PDF of the front page here. 

More "secret" testimony is revealed, this time from Bonds. It appears that he used what was given to him by Anderson, and he says he thought they weren't steroids. So now we see why this stuff is getting leaked: They haven't got jack on Bonds, at least anything they could charge him with. I think the seriousness of this enterprise was underscored by a certain line of questioning:

When a juror asked why the wealthy ballplayer hadn't bought "a mansion" for his trainer to live in ...

Comments

[Jason]

The funny thing is, this is only detail of information we already knew existed. When Bonds' lawyer said his client had "never knowingly taken steroids," it's clear what the story was going to be: Bonds didn't know what he was taking when he took the clear and the cream.

The mainstream media has simplified this story down to "Bonds took steroids," but in fact the story is, Bonds says he never took steroids on purpose and if he did take them, it was because his buddy gave them to him under false pretenses. A bit similar to Sheffield's story (except Shef took the "red beans," presumably without rice) and a far cry from Giambi, who admitted to shooting steroids, HGH, and numerous other things long before BALCO.

[Jefferson]

They don't have anything they can charge him with, but they did get him to toss out excuses so lame that his credibility is pretty well shot. They intended to leak all this all along, to ruin his name in the public. That's why it took a year to build up to this leak. They had to lay the groundwork first.

They couldn't nail him on evidence, but they could get him to talk himself right into a black hole.

[BrianF]

Funny Stuff. The Enemy (read Dodgers) are close to signing Ricky Ledee. That is funny! http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/around-the-majors-rumors7/

[Josh from Hollywood]

MARTY & HIS FAITHFUL READERS: I JUST WANTED TO DISCLOSE THAT I LEFT THIS EXACT COMMENT OVER AT OBM, BUT WANTED TO LEAVE IT HERE AS WELL, SO THAT I MIGHT REACH AS MANY READERS AS POSSIBLE WITH WHAT I THINK IS IMPORTANT, UNDER-REPORTED INFORMATION:

One thing that stuck with me when I saw the first ESPN news reports about Bonds' testimony -- besides the immediate disappointment, of course -- was that the headlines all said: "Bonds admits steroid use", but nowhere in the testimony listed in the Chronicle did he actually say that. He simply said he took a clear liquid orally and rubbed a cream on his joints. When asked if he thought it was steroids, he said no. That's it. No confession of steroid use.

Everybody just assumed it was "The Clear" and "The Cream" he was referring to, but no one actually said that. So they took his denial that he knew it was steroids at the time to mean he knew they were now and so he "unknowingly" took steroids. So that's what they said on ESPN and was printed in hundreds of newspapers all over the country. But no one ever proved, or even tried to prove, that it was actually steroids Bonds took at all. I, along with everyone else it seems, took ESPN, the Chronicle, and the government leak at their words. But later I wondered, does Bonds actually think NOW that it was steroids?

Now I read in the Chronicle today that Bonds' lawyer says no, he does NOT believe they were steroids -- then or now. It is his claim they were NOT in fact steroids. So, as it turns out, he never made that famous admission we've all seen, that he "unknowingly took steroids". Now, I like to think of myself as a realistic person, and I still doubt Bonds -- because of all the evidence, his relationship with Anderson, etc., etc. But that is beside my point, and I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

My point is that I think it's still very important to recognize what Bonds' exact words were, and also the unbelievable assumption the media made in order to report something which never actually happened, but looked good in a headline and, maybe more importantly, made Bonds look bad. So, for those of you who care about the actual facts, here's a boring, but true headline for you: DESPITE PUBLISHED REPORTS TO THE CONTRARY, BONDS NEVER ADMITTED STEROID USE -- PURPOSEFUL OR OTHERWISE -- TO THE GRAND JURY.

[Jake]

It's sad, but true, headlines very rarely convey the message in the article. Headlines sell papers, articles are where the information is really at.

[John]

How about this for a truthful headline that gets to the credibility issue:
UBER CONDITIONED BONDS SAYS WITHOUT LAUGHING "I DIDN'T CARE WHAT I PUT IN MY BODY"

[Josh]

Marty, as I told Alex at Lefty Malo, I wanted to let you guys know about my post since yours are the two sites I respect the most, and my opinions on this issue are just way too long for a comment thread...

http://thenewgiantthrill.blogspot.com

Josh

[ElenaSergeevna]

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