For all the progress ProFootballTalk.com had made in becoming a premeire alternative news source for the NFL, they threw it all away with totally ignorant editorial commentary in their rumor mill today.
ProFootballTalk, edited by Mike Florio, has dedicated two posts to speculating about Surry County Commonwealth Attorney Gerald Poindexter's motivations in the Michael Vick case. They have stooped to implying that he is on the take, lazy, a coward or some combination of the three.
I've said before, and I'll say again, that Mr. Poindexter is handling this investigation absolutely appropriately. He has many issues to manage that are far beyond the superficial comprehension of dog catchers and part-time bloggers. For example:
1) Surry County has 6,800 residents, some smaller number of them being eligible jurors. Media coverage perverts juror pools. If Mr. Poindexter empanels a jury expecting to see videos with Michael Vick waving and smiling while taking in a dog fight, and then he instead presents a solid but boring case, the jurors will feel disappointed. He'll be lucky to get jurors who haven't prejudged the case as it is.
2) Michael Vick, if he is involved, is likely not the day-to-day primary defendant. If Michael Vick is indicted, he becomes the whole show. What resources will remain to prosecute guys who actually trained and fought the dogs? Considering Vick could obtain the best defense money can buy, how much time would be left to jail the most despicable people involved?
3) The statute of limitations for dog fighting does not expire at the regular season kickoff in 2007. That's our window as football fans. In real life crimes are investigated and prosecuted on the government's schedule. Bad things happen when prosecutions are rushed due to media pressure. That is precisely what happened with the Duke Lacrosse fiasco. That's what happened with Richard Jewell and the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing. That's what happened with Ray Lewis in Atlanta. That's what happened with Stephen Hatfill and the anthrax mailing case. That's a long trail of ruined lives and postponed justice because the media and impatient citizens want an indictment.
4) Related to 3), Mr. Poindexter serves the people of Surry County, Virginia. He does not serve fans of the Atlanta Falcons. He does not serve fans or haters of Michael Vick. He does not serve the SPCA, PETA or the Humane Society. He does not serve the police. He does not serve the local dog catchers. He will handle the case appropriately.
5) Vick might not have done it. God only knows who these "witnesses" are who claim to have seen Vick at dogfights. If I remember right, the Duke Lacrosse case had a witness who made salacious, titillating accusations that got the whole state of North Carolina in a tizzy. How did that turn out?
ProFootballTalk is just starting to get the credit it deserves for changing the way we get our football news. They need to take a step back and curb the totally uninformed commentary before they cheapen themselves to the point that they're no better than blogs like this one.
May 24, 2007
ProFootballTalk.com Reverts to Being Just Another Blog
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I think that this has gotten so out of hand it is ridiculous. I have stated that they should focus on whether there was a dog fight to occur, then find out who was there to take the next steps. Since this has hit the news, they have went the opposite way. There is no reason to not believe that if there was dog fighting there, that Mike Vick had any knowledge of it. This thing has so many holes in it that any lawyer would kill the prosecution if charges were filed.
I think charges will be filed against someone, but the only solid indication we have that Vick is involved is that he owned the property. People can float stories of eyewitness accounts and videotapes, but it's precisely the prosecutor's job to separate the bullshit from the solid evidence. There's no time limit on that.
Honestly, I suspect Vick will eventually be charged with something over this. I just don't see why it has to be right this second. I really don't see why so many people want to accuse Gerald Poindexter of screwing up the investigation. The only surefire way to screw up an investigation is to indict the wrong man, or indict him prematurely. Otherwise, time is on his side.
Hey, while searching for widgets for my blog, I stumbled upon www.widgetmate.com and wow! I found what I wanted. A cool news widget. My blog is now showing latest news with title, description and images. Took just few minutes to add. Awesome!
Agreed.
Profootballtalk has gotten more and more rediculous and biased the more I have read it. Florio apparently doesn't like Vick and chooses to post only the bad news about what is going on in his case. What I have noticed is that Mr. Florio will constantly bring up cases of black athletes that have run afoul of the law... even though these stories may be YEARS old.
At the same time he PRAISES Senator Robert Byrd for calling Vick and his actions "Barbaric" and then completely sweeps under the rug that Byrd was a member of the FRIGGIN KLU KLUX KLAN!?!?!?!
WTF???
Ignorance is the proper word for it and it makes me SICK.
Hey shortnfine219, if you're going to post comments on a big-boys blog, you should probably be able to spell at a 4th grade level. Or at least demonstrate enough intelligence to know that that squiggly red underline in your browser's comment box means a word is spelled wrong.
There is no such thing as "rediculous", but people that try to use big words while lacking basic skills to communicate properly in a written medium are pretty ridiculous.
Post a Comment