Sunday, November 14, 2010

LA Times: How Complicit?

Canal Street Chronicles poster MtnExile with a post yesterday that is already gathering momentum around the internet (later).

It was in response to this snippet from Chris Dufresne of the LA Times.

If Reggie is such a "good dude," why is he not welcome on the USC campus?

Why did the school send his Heisman Trophy back?



Why is USC going to have to vacate its 2004 Bowl Championship Series title?



Why is USC going to lose 30 football scholarships, pending appeal, over the next three seasons?



Why can't USC go to a bowl game this year and next?



Bush was a fraud because he presented himself as something he was not — a good guy. He and his parents, according to the NCAA report, brazenly broke clear-cut rules and he didn't seem to care what impact this might have on his school or his teammates.

Everyone was on Reggie's bus until he threw everyone under it.

Okay, seems reasonable. However it fails to note that the Bush scandal was only the leading edge of the mountain of violations that Pete Carroll seems to have committed or allowed while head coach at USC, including this and this.

So naturally Saints fans are a little miffed that Bush is being blamed for the destruction of the USC football program, his powers so vast that he corrupted O.J. Mayo and the USC basketball program as well.

Anyhow, MtnExile with a decisive counterpunch to Dufresne's attack on Bush.

I'm not going to defend Reggie. Instead, I’m going to practice what we like to call "deflection." That is, I’m going to make this about you, Chris Dufresne. You and the LA Times.



I notice there’s another story currently on your site: More NCAA trouble for USC football? Seems Pete Carroll did something that violated NCAA rules. I’m shocked, shocked…along with, approximately, the other 300 million Americans who knew for years that Carroll was running a dirty program. They just weren’t in any position to dig for the truth.



But you were.

And yet, from the LA Times we heard…nothing. Not a peep, except how great Carroll and the Trojans were, until finally Yahoo broke the biggest sports story of the year in your own backyard. Now it turns out there is seemingly no end to the trouble that Carroll caused for USC. Now you report. Why didn’t you have the story then?



I can only think of two possibilities: either the sports staff at the LA Times was collectively so inept and clueless that they never noticed the stench of fraud seeping from campus…or you knew all about it, and chose to enable USC in their coverup, and now you’re only angry at Bush because he ruined your cozy relationship and, incidentally, embarrassed you in front of the whole country when you got scooped.



Which is it, Chris? How do explain Bill Plaschke stating that "Carroll has worked hard to build that rare dynasty that follows the rules"—after Yahoo had already broken the story? Are you guys evil, or just stupid?

Game, set ...

Indeed. How stupid does Dufresne and the Times think we are that we would accept some Cock and Bull that all of USC's issues distill to Reggie Bush and that Carroll, et al were oblivious to this. Are we really supposed to believe that not one coach or administrator involved with the USC athletic program noticed that Joe McKnight - whose family lost everything in Katrina - all of a sudden had enough money for a Land Rover?

Worse though, and more to MtnExile's point, where was the Times? How could you possibly not know? The press pays for access. We know this. The currency though is principle. You abandoned your journalistic integrity, you become an apologist and cheerleader for our program, you get more access. Don't look at the man behind the curtain Dufresne. Being Pete Carroll's mouthpiece is too doggone profitable.

and finally, as promised. At the time of this post, MtnExile's rant has been reposted 9 times around the internet in its first 13 hours.

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