News
Mass media warms to Landis, worries about WADA
Carlton Reid Dec 12 2006, 1:00am
The Daily Mail of London has carried a long piece on the tribulations of Floyd Landis since July. It runs with his side of the story, with virtually no spin. And the Los Angeles Times has run a three part series of articles by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter examining the dark side of the anti-doping movement.
In the Daily Mail piece Landis said: "How can cycling win? Either the winner of its greatest race is a cheat or the credibility of the system is in tatters if I'm found innocent. Neither is a great result."
Whether you believe Landis or not, if you have 100 per cent faith in the accuracy and fairness of the anti-doping regime some of your certainties may be diminished after you've read the first and second investigative articles by Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times.Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist for the LA Times. He won the investigative journalism award in 1999 for a series of co-written articles exposing corruption in the entertainment industry.
He now looks to have his sights trained on WADA and the US Anti-doping Agency.
In his first article, Athletes' unbeatable foe, he said anti-doping authorities "serve as prosecutor, judge and jury. The innocent often pay a high price."
The second article, Athletes see doping case appeals as futile exercise, said the arbitration system "is flawed, with a tilt toward accusers. Accidental and trivial cases result in harsh penalties."
A rushed and "cheap" test used against Tyler Hamilton is the focus of the third article.
This could be the start of many articles in the mainstream press on the inner workings of the closed system that is anti-doping. Many journalists will have been surprised by the lack of sanction when the LNDD lab in Paris admitted it made sample numbering errors in the Floyd Landis case.
Interest has also been piqued because Landis has requested an open hearing, the first time such a request has been made. Anti-doping science is "foolprooof", say anti-doping scientists, but open scrutiny of the arbitration process could lead to many eyes being opened, say critics of the current system.
For WADA and national anti-doping agencies the stakes are high: if Floyd walks they risk ridicule at best, but at worst they risk the thing they perhaps fear the most, no more cash hand-outs from tax-payers.
