France has been living in the grip of "Lance envy" for a long time. When Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France too many times they changed the rules of the Tour to reduce his chances of winning it again. When he won it again, they changed the rules again. And again. Lance proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he could win the tour at will—which twisted the collective French nose particularly hard, as Armstrong is an American.
The LA Times showed us today just how badly it aspires to be French. In an empty hit piece on Lance Armstrong the Times has attacked the worlds best cyclist with an article that shoots only blanks. In this pathetic excuse for a "Times Investigation" they attempt—after describing his amazing rise to the top of the cycling world following a fight with cancer—to smear Armstrong with allegations of which he was completely cleared by Dutch investigators in May of this Year (Lance Armstrong cleared of doping charges-EIKIW).
Now, that feat of athletic domination has been called into question by allegations that performance-enhancing drugs may have played a role. Such rumors have long shadowed Armstrong's career, but the latest assertions are more troublesome — for the first time, they have been made under oath.
Called into question indeed. According to their own article "the case was settled before any action by the presiding three-judge panel, with SCA Promotions agreeing in February to pay the contested $5-million fee, plus interest and attorney costs."
In February.
Five months ago.
Despite this they go on for two full pages in the dead tree version, beginning on page one, and nine pages on the Internet.
Shameful.
Update: John Hinderaker quotes an interesting bit of Hugh Hewitt's post on the subject.
Powerline
So where's the story? There isn't one, unless the Times wanted to run an expose on SCA's business practices. I think Hugh's diagnosis is exactly right:Big MSM has really lost its way, concluding that anything "secret" is in fact wrongfully hidden from public view, and that its function is to act as a conveyer belt to the front page for whatever a party or person doesn't want revealed.
