Armstrong lied and Rick Reilly cried. Cry me a river, Rickey!!

This part of the interview was most telling.

This just illustrates how Lance Armstrong is, was and always will be the consummate politician -- which is to say sociopath. Good word!!

And it is very important to understand the analogy to what continues to go on today in the political arena.

I've been criticized somewhat in the past for making the linkage, the analogy from sports to real-life, especially politics.

To those critics, I will say you are as wrong as those who stood steadfast in their defense of Lance Armstrong. You need to adjust your mind-set, just a wee-bit.

I have always said that anyone who thought that Armstrong could not only beat cancer, but beat a Tour de France field that was rife with cheating, would require a level of cognitive dissonance that was simply off the charts. I do agree with Armstrong on the "culture of the game" issue and that he took the path of least resistance, ie: if you can't beat them, join them. That cognitive dissonance was snapped in two yesterday.

from the Tampa Bay Times:

Oprah Winfrey gets Lance Armstrong to admit blood doping and some lies, but not much else | TV shows, TV news, media issues: The Feed | Tampa Bay Times:

"Fame just magnifies who we really are,” Winfrey noted at one point, saying such power and wealth can either make someone a bigger jerk or humanitarian, depending on their outlook, The implication to Armstrong: Weren’t you just acting like the jerk you always were?

“I don’t know if you pulled those two words out of thin air; jerk and humanitarian – I’d say I was both,” Armstrong added, looking at a clip of himself lying during a court deposition. “I look at that and say ‘look at that arrogant prick.' I say that today. That’s not good.”

But many commenting on the interview used a different word to describe Armstrong after seeing the interview: sociopath.

Unable to really empathize with those whose lives he upended or admit how his lawsuits, bullying and control of the sport impacted so many, Armstrong came off mostly as a guy only willing to admit what the public already knew, in some head-scratching bid to try salvaging his reputation.

Given how badly this interview went, Armstrong may find that task tough as winning another Tour de France.

'via Blog this'


The Rick Reilly's of the world have spent a lot of time defending this and selectively vilifying and bullying those they don't like while simultaneously protecting those they do like. Today they are paying the price.

They should pay a professional price as well. They left their journalistic integrity, professionalism and any shred of objectivity at the door in order to wave pom-poms for this guy shamelessly for years and years.

Illustration below in Reilly's own article.

Cry me a river, Rickey.  You were a willing and able co-conspirator in Lance's crimes and now you want to disown him? Same thing with the corrupt MSM in other genres.

Go down with the ship, Captain.

You and your ilk are as big a bunch of lying, whiny, little scum-bag, bitches as you portray Lance to be today. Take a look in the mirror, Sherlock Holmes.

from espn.com
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8852974/lance-armstrong-history-lying

Keep Your Apology

Lance Armstrong lied for years. Now he apologizes? Forget it

Among my emails Wednesday morning, out of the blue, was one from Lance Armstrong.

Riles, I'm sorry.

All I can say for now but also the most heartfelt thing too. Two very important words.

L

And my first thought was ... "Two words? That's it?"

Two words? For 14 years of defending a man? And in the end, being made to look like a chump?

Wrote it, said it, tweeted it: "He's clean." Put it in columns, said it on radio, said it on TV. Staked my reputation on it.

"Never failed a drug test," I'd always point out. "Most tested athlete in the world. Tested maybe 500 times. Never flunked one."

Why? Because Armstrong always told me he was clean.

On the record. Off the record. Every kind of record. In Colorado. In Texas. In France. On team buses. In cars. On cell phones.

I'd sit there with him, in some Tour de France hotel room while he was getting his daily postrace massage. And we'd talk through the hole in the table about how he stared down this guy or that guy, how he'd fooled Jan Ullrich on the torturous Alpe d'Huez into thinking he was gassed and then suddenly sprinted away to win. How he ordered chase packs from the center of the peloton and reeled in all the pretenders.

And then I'd bring up whatever latest charge was levied against him. "There's this former teammate who says he heard you tell doctors you doped." "There's this former assistant back in Austin who says you cheated." "There's this assistant they say they caught disposing of your drug paraphernalia."

And every time -- every single time -- he'd push himself up on his elbows and his face would be red and he'd stare at me like I'd just shot his dog and give me some very well-delivered explanation involving a few dozen F words, a painting of the accuser as a wronged employee seeking revenge, and how lawsuits were forthcoming.

And when my own reporting would produce no proof, I'd be convinced. I'd go out there and continue polishing a legend that turned out to be plated in fool's gold.

As least Lance didn't make this list (yet):