Musings Of Monkeesfan: August 2013

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Don't Buy Rolling Stone On Belichick.

Rolling Stone magazine took a major hit with its sick, sympathetic piece on "Flashbang," the surviving brother involved in the Boston Marathon bombing. Now it has come out with a piece on former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, standing trial for the shooting of semipro football player Odin Lloyd. Much has come out about Hernandez since he was caught by police destroying evidence in their investigation of Lloyd's murder, at least some of it self-servingly portrayed to implicitly indict the Patriots over drafting Hernandez in 2010 when other teams ostensibly took him off their draft boards over character concerns - stories that conveniently never came out until his arrest as opposed to in 2012 or earlier; when Hernandez was given a $40 million contract extension by the Patriots in 2012 no one in the Mainstream Sports Media objected.

The problem with Rolling Stone is it is not and never was a credible journal - it has long engaged in reporting designed to indict people in the name of its deranged leftist ideology. Among myriad examples are its idiotic 2012 attack on Mitt Romney's business history, the magazine's attack claiming the existence of global warming by citing Australia, and an especially preposterous claim that the Army waged psycological war on members of Congress to support the war in Afghanistan. There were also smears against General Stanley McChrystal and scholar Michael Ledeen in years past.

Now it has its anti-Belichick piece, and was aided in the piece by Ron Borges, whose own malice toward Belichick has long been documented by the Cold Hard Football Facts website.

The piece also claims Urban Meyer, Hernandez's college coach, actively helped cover up Hernandez's involvement in a drive-by shooting - this right away damages the piece's credibility given the inherent implausibility involved - Meyer's reputation has been heavily pummeled over the years but it stretches credulity to believe a coach would risk indictment for aiding and abetting a murderer by hiding a drive-by shooting.

That once again a piece is attacking Belichick based on allegations only coming out after Hernandez was caught destroying evidence shows how the modern media works - and why the modern media needs to change.

Belichick didn't aid and abet a murderer. Period. The Patriots signed - and re-signed - Hernandez because at the time there was no credible reason not to.

UPDATE: Ron Borges as mentioned co-authored the piece, and he may have realized something was askew, for Comcast Sportsnet New England did a telephone interview with him tonight (August 28) and portions were aired on the network's 11:30 PM recap show with Bob Neumeier. Borges in the clips aired makes a point of noting he is not accusing Bill Belichick or team owner Robert Kraft of malicious action in their handling of Hernandez - he in essence confirms the storyline of Kraft's, that the Patriots "were duped" by Hernandez.

It is to Mr. Borges' credit that he makes this clear.

UPDATE II: The Krafts are now responding to the piece, providing detailed refutation of pertinent facts alleged in the piece. Mike Petraglia looks at the Krafts' response so far.