Verducci/Torre and journalism ethics

I don't want to redo this whole thing, but to me Ifill is worse. Her book was coming out on inauguration day, so if Obama lost, it would not sell at all. She moderated a debate in which she had a direct financial stake in the outcome.

 

Which of those things is untrue?

 

Taking down your own post answers the question just as well.

 

You mean like how Verducci has handled Roger Clemens? From SI 2001 :

Clemens has introduced Pettitte, a fellow Texan, to his famously grueling conditioning program. (Lefthander Pettitte, who relied on 89-mph sinkers and cutters, now can fire 94-mph four-seam fastballs past hitters.) Clemens also let rookie lefties Randy Keisler and Ted Lilly join him during a workout in Baltimore in July. Lilly grew dizzy and nearly passed out, and Keisler vomited. "Or maybe it was the other way around," Clemens says, laughing.

Throughout almost 18 major league seasons (the first 13 with the Red Sox and the next two with the Toronto Blue Jays), Clemens has been a fitness fanatic. He so refined his training sessions with Blue Jays strength coach Brian McNamee that Toronto catcher Darrin Fletcher nicknamed them "Navy SEAL workouts." Clemens won his fourth and record fifth Cy Young Awards with the Blue Jays and then was traded to New York following the 1998 season for lefthander David Wells, lefty setup man Graeme Lloyd and second baseman Homer Bush. After Clemens slipped to 14-10 with the Yankees in 1999, New York hired McNamee as its assistant strength coach. From July 2, 2000 (when Clemens returned to action after straining his right groin muscle), through Sunday, he'd gone 27-3 over 46 starts.

Between outings Clemens religiously adheres to McNamee's tightly choreographed program of distance running, agility drills, weight training, 600 daily abdominal crunches and assorted other tortures. "One time he wanted me to ride a stationary bike, and I told him I never thought it gave you much of a workout," Clemens says. "He told me, 'Give me 17 minutes.' After 17 minutes I thought my legs would explode."

Clemens takes great pride in having stopped his baseball biological clock. He will tell you that he still runs three miles in 19 to 20 1/2 minutes, that he still weighs 232 pounds, that he still wears slacks with a 36-inch waist (though they must be tailored to allow for his massive thighs) and that he can still reach for a mid-90s fastball at will -- the same specs he had at least 10 years ago. "He's a freak of nature, the kind of pitcher who comes along once in a generation, maybe every 25 to 30 years," says Devil Rays pitching coach Bill Fischer, Clemens's pitching coach from 1985 to '91 in Boston. "He's like Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan. At 39 the s.o.b. is as good as when I had him. To go 18-1, I don't care if you're pitching for God's All-America team, that's mighty hard to do. He can pitch as long as he wants."

There's another benefit to the maniacal training besides staying fit. Clemens says all that sweat equity gives him a high comfort level when he takes the mound. How prepared is he? Through Sunday he had not permitted a first-inning earned run in 21 of his 28 starts. "I know I've done everything I could to be ready for that fifth day," he says

 

That a boy.

So. Which of the things you've bolded is untrue?

 

None- all true .

Why do you ask?

 

It's also 'true' that McGwire and Bonds broke home run records. Yay.

'Facts' minus context = shaky reporting.

 

"Great job tonight Senator Biden"

 

Excuse me?
What does this mean?
(You know Ifill's book wasn't an obama bio, right?)

 

Even shakier - the cover story that Verducci wrote for SI in June of 2003 on Clemens workout regimon.Almost a year to the day in which Verducci wrote cover story for SI special report on steroid abuse in baseball.



I look forward to seeing how much time that Verducci spends on steroids in The Yankee Years.

 

If an anonymous poster here had come & presented the facts as they were for her & asked if it's appropriate for her to moderate the debate, what would you have said?

 

The worst timing in the history of book releases. The book came out as the Broncos were opening the 1999 season 0-4.