The proof is in the details.The proof of racism in sports media is not in something like the fact of Michael Vick’s guilt. Once the evidence came forth, we understand Vick’s culpability in the dog fighting that took place on the grounds of the home in Surry County, Virginia. The proof of racism is in the manner in which the Vick case was reported. The proof is in the omission of details, the half-truths, and the lies in reporting the incident.

We watched as no member of mainstream or of Big Box sports media questioned how the Vick dog fighting case was assembled. No one ever questioned how the Davon Boddie marijuana bust turned into investigators walking onto Boddie’s property and talking with someone other than a person who lives in the house; a someone who took investigators to a kennel full of pitbulls because the investigator “heard dogs barking.” Yes, I said Boddie’s property. Vick bought the property and oversaw the building of the home and the kennel (which we now know was not initially built for dog fighting dogs), but Boddie paid the bills and the property taxes. We know that Vick gave this property to Boddie in lieu of handing him a “just because” check every month, or so.

So, how did no reporter dig this information up before the seven to ten days? A journalist or some journalists. Some journalists knew that something was awry when police investigators turned what was a street bust into a home and property search. Some journalists had to know that something smelled funny about this.

Yet instead of doing the work, journalists saw Michael Vick, first black quarterback ever to be drafted number one overall, and ran with the thoughts of five minutes of fame dancing in their heads. Sensationalism and an easy target overtook journalistic responsibility.

To justify this greedy want, reporters everywhere, but especially in Atlanta and at ESPN, sought to establish themselves as the end-all purveyors of Vick news while cozying up to new NFL czar, Roger Goodell.

The initial news was benign, but Terrence Moore of the Atlanta Constitution-Journal went out of his way to paint a black picture of Vick. Moore repeatedly trotted out Vick flipping off fans – erroneously reporting that they were Atlanta fans. He harped on the “Ron Mexico” pseudonym used by Vick to find out if he did or did not have STDs. That is news for Internet sloth – football-specific sloth and otherwise; you know who they are - and the National Enquirer, not for a reputable newspaper of one of the largest cities in the U.S. Moore told bald-faced lies about the water bottle Vick refused to give up at Miami International Airport. The same bottle that when Vick said jewelry was in its secret compartment, was suddenly no longer discussed. Vick’s failure to appear in front of Congress was a sign that he was nothing more than a thug.

As evidence for Vick’s thugishness, Moore painted his cornrows, his posse, his nightlife, photos of Vick with a Black and Tan cigar that Moore swore was a joint. He howled to the moon in his column and implied that Vick should be run from the city or stoned; whichever came first.

ESPN rushed in to one up Moore and sent Kelly Naqi to set up camp outside Vick’s home. Meanwhile the Worldwide Leader used a cadre of reporters to dress the investigation in the clothes of their choosing. When ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that team officials from the Atlanta Falcons and officials from the NFL league office both were told that no indictment of Vick was forthcoming, ESPN and Moore fell into mourning. Their nine-day silence – until the federal government surprised everyone with indictments - was palpable. Only the Internet sloth, whose very lives appeared to be tied to Vick’s guilt, continued the drumbeat for further investigations into the Vick matter.

In those days Moore, ESPN, and the Internet sloth shifted gears and draped a dark gown of impropriety over the head of black prosecuting attorney of Surry County, Gerald Poindexter. They intimated that Poindexter was trying to let Vick off the hook because of shared skin color. They implied that Vick paid off not only Poindexter, but federal agents, as well. However, Poindexter repeated constantly that he had been burned by similar loose warrant language and that as soon as the language was cleared up, he would resume his investigation of the case.

ESPN wasn’t listening. They had their hooks in two black men now and they weren’t about to let them go until they tore them to shreds. They aired Vick specials, they put Jeremy Schaap on Outside the Lines to damn Vick in ways Bob Let would never dare. You see the results; what they did to sway public opinion of Vick before the feds had evidence. And to this day they continue to excoriate Poindexter. The latest charges in the hell-hounding of Poindexter are that he has failed to prosecute the case strongly enough; that the charges are less serious than they should be.

Lapdog Moore, who appeared on various ESPN news shows panting with excitement in his ability to play the black white journalist, currently wags his tail in agreement with ESPN’s Poindexter stance.

Look at the coverage of Barry Bonds, which has been well-chronicled here at TSF. Not only did Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams allow the idea of a Pulitzer Prize to stain their thoughts, it tainted their integrity. And this extends especially to Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury-News and any other reporter black or white with an ax to grind over Bonds. Again, though, the racism inherent in their reporting isn’t in the shoddiness of their allegedly extensively detailed writings, it is in the manner in which they wrote, in what they chose to emphasize.

It is important to understand the racial undertone involved in placing an inordinate emphasis on Bonds’ preoccupation with Mark McGwire. It is the story of the black man jealous of the white man’s accomplishments and flying into an over-emotional rage and becoming unnecessarily consumed with the white man.

I have since heard from a very reputable source that Bonds did rant about McGwire at a bar-b-que at the home of Ken Griffey, Jr. However, to use a rant as the nexus of Bonds’ alleged steroid and HGH use is a questionable leap of faith. Yet it was reported and taken as gospel truth because the general white public is so inattentive to its own racist tendencies that no one would dare attempt to punch holes in such a shoddy argument.

Think of how the white mistress, Kimberly Bell, was and is at opportune moments, shoved down our throats. Bonds confided, not in his wife, but in a white woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair. Bonds told Bell about his elbow injury and the need to use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to quickly recover from his surgery.

The problem with this white woman as deified to the black man fairy tale is that Bonds was separated from his wife at the time he was seeing Bell, so there was no affair, no mistress. It was a relationship between a man and a woman - period. And unlike the Isiah Thomas sexual harassment case where the black woman’s -Anucha Browne Sanders - word has been challenged as much as Thomas’ word, the word of the white and fair belle, Bell, goes unquestioned.

Notice the difference between Vick and Bonds coverage with that of St. Louis outfielder, Rick Ankiel. Now, before anyone says Vick and Bonds are more popular therefore blah, blah. blah, let’s get something straight: Rick Ankiel was the panacea for all Bonds talk, all the Vick talk, all the black athlete gets busted for marijuana talk. Make no mistake; Rick Ankiel was the feel-good sports story of 2007.

And before we get into Ankiel, let me expound on the black athlete gets busted trick for just a moment. First, one name, Bill Maas. Whatever the hell happened to the sordid story of Bill Maas? Popular or not, as an ex-athlete who apparently had the broadcasting world by the tail, Maas makes very good copy. I never saw the mug shots of Maas and his female road trippin’, drug-doin’ cohort splashed on the homepage of ESPN.com or any of the blog sloth’s homepages. Where are the ESPN.com Page 2 commentaries about Maas in a larger context, that context that everyone is susceptible, not just athletes - everyone. Where are all those writer who seek to find the out of the way angle, those important writers of great worth to us all who are bastions of the NFL press, like Peter King? They are completely and uniformly silent on the Maas issue - and believe me, I’ve been waiting.

As far as the black athlete gets busted for pot issue, doesn’t it strike anyone odd that so many of these athletes get pulled over for failing to use a signal to change lanes or exit a highway or turn a corner: ‘damn nigras, why do we let ‘em drive?’ Has one sports journalist ever stretched beyond the boundaries of the game to report the irrepressible fact that a marijuana smoker is arrested in America every 38 seconds? Thirty-eight seconds?! No one has reported that in 2006 that 829,635 persons were arrested with marijuana and put that into perspective when it comes to athletes - especially black athletes? Of these people, 738, 915 or 89% were arrested for possession of pot. This represents a 188% increase in arrests over the last 15 years costing taxpayers 10 to 12 billion dollars annually. It is little wonder, then that so many athletes make their way to the police blotter with a marijuana charge hanging around their necks.

Once again, our sports media has failed us when it comes to matters of race and sports.

Now, back to Ankiel. After he was named in the Signature Pharmacy scandal, the Mighty Wurlitzer, that is the national sports media, immediately churned out story after story excusing Ankiel for receiving a 12-month supply of HGH from the Pharmacy. They wrote that we should honor the “sacred” doctor-client privilege involved in the Ankiel case. Yet they failed and continue to fail to mention that Ankiel’s “doctor” was an Internet physician who Ankiel did not visit in person. They failed and fail to note that no legitimate doctor would prescribe a 12-month supply of HGH to a patient and have a pharmacy ship the HGH to the patient so that the person could self-administer the drug.

They wrote that we have no solid proof that Ankiel even injected the HGH he received from Signature. Are you serious? Are you really serious?! Then where is the press conference with Ankiel breaking out his box of ampules showing the world that he, in fact, did not use HGH.

They wrote that the drug was not on the MLB banned drug list at the time he used HGH. Well then the same holds true for Barry Bonds, but no sports journalist ever reported that fact. The sporting press lamented the fact that Ankiel felt pressured to return to the majors and all-but lauded him for trying everything in his power to recover from an injury and finalize the switch from pitcher to outfielder. Hell, sports journalists found physicians who were and are willing to say, in relation to Ankiel, that HGH has no benefits that would help a baseball player.

Huh?!

No one ever mentioned that about Bonds. No one mentioned in glowing terms that Bonds was trying to return to his former self from elbow surgery and that he was trying to cope with arthritic knees. No one lamented that he felt the need to succumb to - in this day and age of over-hyped sports coverage – the use of PEDs to try to break Henry Aaron’s home run record. No no no. As we all know Bonds was and is reviled for anything he might have done, though we have absolutely no proof that he injected or rubbed anything illegal on his body.

And where is the black press throughout this black athlete head hunting expedition, this safari through the plains and the cities of America to hang a black trophy head on the walls of sports desks everywhere?

They are pretty much nowhere to be found. Sure they trot themselves out for the Jena 6 - cookie time! Sure a few of them say enough is enough with Bonds, though they still believe that his head and feet grew because he was a wild HGH-steroid user who shot everything from the clear to cattle ‘roids. If you believe what the black and white sports journalists say, Lyle Alzado had nothing on Bonds. Bonds, all because of Mark McGwire, went legendary jungle #### crazy on the PEDs. If you believe all these scribes and their tall tales of PED abuse, Bonds might have about five years to live before his head explodes.

So, why aren’t black reporters pounding down the doors of editor’s offices - editors white and black - and demanding to have their voices heard?

Black reporters are subject to the same racist treatment as black athletes. They are watched, hand-picked and often removed from their communities by opportunistic editors. They are befriended by veteran white journalists and deprogrammed and remodeled as whiter black people. These reporters are sometimes handed high-paying, influential columnist jobs before they are ready, writing or experience-wise. They soon find that, implicit in maintaining their position is the knowledge that they are not to rock the boat or make waves by writing anything that challenges the established status quo.

After being thoroughly “systemized” these black journalists, like their athlete compatriots, know their place, no matter what they might try to say. At first, they make a conscious effort to not overstep their boundaries and it shows in their writing. In a few years, though, their master’s wishes are ingrained in them, and their words become seamlessly meshed with their editor’s wishes and compliance becomes their message. And they too, do the knee-jerk, reactionary, the black athlete is at fault thing. Sometimes, they’ll jump on the boat before their masters, just ask Jason Whitlock.

Can all this change? Of course it can. Awareness and the ability to be unrelenting in seeking and reporting the heart of all sporting matters are the keys to maintaining a sense of self; that, and a sense of community, no matter how small or large.

However, less than a handful of black mainstream and Big Box writers accomplish this. We see them, read them. Many white readers despise them because they refuse to tow the line, unless it is the truth; and even then their reporting o####iven event will reveal something entirely different than their peers. The majority of black writers though, will go along with the flow, smiling and dancing all the way to Mantan and Sleep ‘n Eat purgatory, as they are never quite dead, but their words show they have certainly left life behind.

With their black peers along for the ride white writers are never forced to step out of their existences and truly see anything other than what is comfortable for them. The sporting world keeps spinning; black athletes keep losing while the media keeps winning.

Don’t believe me. Take some time. Take a tour for a week or so and read for yourself. As receivers of this hegemonous message, you owe it to yourself to look around and truly decide if this is what you want your world to look like.

But whatever you do, do look. The proof is in the details.

addendum: A Memphis football player, Taylor Bradford, was shot and killed last night. Clay Bailey and Alex McPeak in their Memphis Commercial-Appeal article indicate that:

Memphis police have not established a motive and have no suspects in custody.

However, the Associated Press-ESPN News Services article say something entirely different about the shooting:

A University of Memphis football player was fatally shot on campus in a targeted attack and classes were canceled Monday as a precaution, officials said….

In an e-mail alert sent to faculty, staff and students at 3:40 a.m. Monday, officials wrote that “the initial investigation indicates this was an act directed specifically toward the victim and was not a random act of violence.”

The university decided to cancel classes Monday, although police believe the person or persons involved in the shooting left the campus immediately.

“We feel like the campus is safe, but we’d rather err on the safety than not,” [university spokesman Curt] Gunther said.

Is the AP in the business of providing “safety messages” for universities or is their article another indicator of how incidents are twisted to fit the image of people of color?