Whether or not you believe Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs or not, it is impossible to deny he has been victimized by the closet thing to a witch hunt professional sports has ever seen. No one has ever been accused as many different times or by as many different people as the seven time Tour de France winner and yet nothing has ever stuck. In fact, most of the accusers have been forced to pay libel-related damages, but alas, even after his retirement, the finger-pointing continues.
Tonight on 60 Minutes, the weekly news program is set to air a sitdown interview with Armstrong’s former teammate Tyler Hamilton in which the cyclist admits the two of them used performance enhancing drugs together. Further buoying the doping claims are unidentified sources who admit Armstrong’s other former teammate George Hincapie told a grand jury his buddy Lance used performance enhancing drugs.
First of all, testimony before a grand jury is supposed to be sealed. That’s a basic tenant of our legal system. Secondly, Hincapie himself has refused to verify the claims to 60 Minutes. In light of these facts, how is 60 Minutes still running with this?
That’s a question Lance Armstrong’s lawyer wants to know. According to The Hollywood Reporter, litigator Mark Fabiani has fired off a series of letters and statements directed towards tonight’s broadcast calling bullshit on the whole thing. Here’s the latest one:
The only others with access to Hincapie's testimony -- government investigators and prosecutors -- have likewise assured us that they are not the source of the information attributed by CBS to Hincapie. CBS' reporting on this subject has been replete with broken promises, false assurances and selective reliance on witnesses upon whom no reputable journalist would rely. This latest alleged revelation is no more reliable than CBS' earlier claims.
I don’t know what happened behind closed doors during Armstrong’s unprecedented seven straight victories, but I do know the vast majority of these claims have proved baseless. Ordinarily, I think pretty much everyone used steroids, but with seemingly the whole world out to get him, Lance has still remained clean. I’m dangerously close to actually believing him. Thanks, 60 Minutes.
