Lip Man 1
03-16-2005, 07:53 PM
Immunity and other issues...
Pretty eventful day regarding the steroid hearings. I’d like to recap some items that I heard today as well as participated in.
Listening to Fox Sports radio this afternoon, the Chris Myers show, he’s the only on - air person that I care for from that network. Apparently during a break in the Robert Blake trial, the Fox News legal reporter called in on his own to answer some questions about immunity and why Congress didn’t offer it to the players Thursday.
He said usually immunity is not granted because the body does not want to hamstring any future legal actions done by anyone from the U.S. Government to local D.A.’s. He said once immunity is granted to someone it is all but impossible to prosecute them in the future because the burden is then on the prosecution to prove that they got their evidence and so forth from other sources and not from any leads, testimony, allegations and so on that took place in the hearing.
That being said he went on to add something I felt was important. I paraphrase. "If Congress really wants to make an impact in this they would have granted immunity. By not doing so, what do they expect these players to say? (In fact Canseco’s lawyer was on later and stated that without immunity all Jose’ is going to do is invoke the 5th amendment.) If Mark McGwire shows up and doesn’t answer the question, ‘did you use steroids,’ all that’s going to come out on Friday are headlines...’McGwire takes 5th.’ If that’s what Congress is trying to do, to embarrass these players then this is nothing but grandstanding."
I later called in to talk with Chris and guest host Bryan Cox, who doesn’t communicate very well but is outspoken and won’t duck any questions. (He’s the NFL’s version of Charles Barkley...) I called because of a great quote that I saw on ESPN.com in a story by one of their columnists. He spoke with people familiar with Congress and how Washington works and this line was used from that source regarding the ‘why’ of these hearings. "This is how future Presidents and Senators (not Washington...LOL) are made."
The implication being this is all a show, that some of these representatives are trying to advance their own careers... period.
While holding to get on, you could hear the conversation and Cox said something that I had to clarify. He said, "the only person before these hearings that hasn’t been implicated in steroids is Curt Schilling."
After I got on and said the line from ESPN.com, I then added, "Bryan a point of clarification. You said Curt Schilling is the only person before the committee that hasn’t been implicated in using steroids. That’s not quite accurate. Frank Thomas is there because since as far back as 1999 he has been publicly saying there’s a problem, it’s going to be an embarrassment and it needs to be solved."
Myers then jumped in and said, "Good for Frank. I didn’t know he had been saying this from that long ago but I know when I interviewed him he was very outspoken against steroid use." Cox then said, "Thank you for educating me about this, I didn’t know that about Frank."
Which brings up my final point. I think if Congress is going to play these games then they need to have the gonads to publicly say why certain players were called. They need to clarify exactly that certain players like Thomas, Schilling and I think Palmeiro have nothing to do with steroids. They shouldn’t be lumped into the same boat as Giambi, Canseco, Bonds, Sosa and unfortunately it looks like McGwire.
By not doing so the ‘average’ or ‘uneducated’ fan (like in this case Cox) assumes that Frank and Curt are guilty by association. That’s blatantly wrong and unfair.
Lip
Pretty eventful day regarding the steroid hearings. I’d like to recap some items that I heard today as well as participated in.
Listening to Fox Sports radio this afternoon, the Chris Myers show, he’s the only on - air person that I care for from that network. Apparently during a break in the Robert Blake trial, the Fox News legal reporter called in on his own to answer some questions about immunity and why Congress didn’t offer it to the players Thursday.
He said usually immunity is not granted because the body does not want to hamstring any future legal actions done by anyone from the U.S. Government to local D.A.’s. He said once immunity is granted to someone it is all but impossible to prosecute them in the future because the burden is then on the prosecution to prove that they got their evidence and so forth from other sources and not from any leads, testimony, allegations and so on that took place in the hearing.
That being said he went on to add something I felt was important. I paraphrase. "If Congress really wants to make an impact in this they would have granted immunity. By not doing so, what do they expect these players to say? (In fact Canseco’s lawyer was on later and stated that without immunity all Jose’ is going to do is invoke the 5th amendment.) If Mark McGwire shows up and doesn’t answer the question, ‘did you use steroids,’ all that’s going to come out on Friday are headlines...’McGwire takes 5th.’ If that’s what Congress is trying to do, to embarrass these players then this is nothing but grandstanding."
I later called in to talk with Chris and guest host Bryan Cox, who doesn’t communicate very well but is outspoken and won’t duck any questions. (He’s the NFL’s version of Charles Barkley...) I called because of a great quote that I saw on ESPN.com in a story by one of their columnists. He spoke with people familiar with Congress and how Washington works and this line was used from that source regarding the ‘why’ of these hearings. "This is how future Presidents and Senators (not Washington...LOL) are made."
The implication being this is all a show, that some of these representatives are trying to advance their own careers... period.
While holding to get on, you could hear the conversation and Cox said something that I had to clarify. He said, "the only person before these hearings that hasn’t been implicated in steroids is Curt Schilling."
After I got on and said the line from ESPN.com, I then added, "Bryan a point of clarification. You said Curt Schilling is the only person before the committee that hasn’t been implicated in using steroids. That’s not quite accurate. Frank Thomas is there because since as far back as 1999 he has been publicly saying there’s a problem, it’s going to be an embarrassment and it needs to be solved."
Myers then jumped in and said, "Good for Frank. I didn’t know he had been saying this from that long ago but I know when I interviewed him he was very outspoken against steroid use." Cox then said, "Thank you for educating me about this, I didn’t know that about Frank."
Which brings up my final point. I think if Congress is going to play these games then they need to have the gonads to publicly say why certain players were called. They need to clarify exactly that certain players like Thomas, Schilling and I think Palmeiro have nothing to do with steroids. They shouldn’t be lumped into the same boat as Giambi, Canseco, Bonds, Sosa and unfortunately it looks like McGwire.
By not doing so the ‘average’ or ‘uneducated’ fan (like in this case Cox) assumes that Frank and Curt are guilty by association. That’s blatantly wrong and unfair.
Lip