New York Times story on Bears' Manning

Anyone else find that this NYT story was awfully soft on Manning?

It implies that he was merely led astray by friends when in fact police had arrested him for beating the hell out of someone. (And he already was on probation for a similar case.)

And the NYT story makes no mention of anti-Semitic remarks the victim said were made by Manning and friends.

The NYT story also soft-pedals details of the incident.

Here is an excerpt from the AP story on the original incident:

Early this year, Manning, Maurice Drew and Tyler Ebell -- all former UCLA football players -- were accused of attacking a man at a Westwood restaurant. The man was kicked and punched in the face until he lost consciousness, police said.



Check out how the NYT story lets Manning explain this as a case of bad judgment stemming from being out too late.

From NYT:


What happened at the Denny’s in Los Angeles, not far from the U.C.L.A. campus where Manning attended college, was avoidable. He can see that clearly now. For starters, he did not need to be out with a friend at 3 a.m.

“Me being out at 3 o’clock at night and partying and being around people that can take advantage of me is just not a good situation,” he said.

“Initially I reacted to getting disrespected when I thought I shouldn’t have been,” he added. “O.K., I shouldn’t have done that. But I thought I had done the right thing by walking away, by leaving.”

But he was arrested nonetheless and his public image took a brutal hit. “It was tough, knowing that what happened gives people a misconception of me,” Manning said. He added, “It took for that to happen for me to learn.”

 

sorry. meant to put this on journalism topics threat

 

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