Rove, Palmeiro, Jackson and the Blame Game

I am irked by about 90 per cent of what I'm reading and seeing in the media -- and on blogs -- because so much of it is missing the point.

Why are we so preoccupied with the pursuit of moral misfits? I consider most such witch-hunts to be entirely consistent with the Way of the Whiner: angry, impotent exercises in shrill moral outrage. They detract from larger issues -- indeed, are often designed for just such a purpose -- and do little more than sell ad space.

Let's start with Michael Jackson: bad boy. Bad, bad, boy. Down, Michael.

And let's leave it at that!

Now that the trial is over and he is blissfully absent (at least to me) from the tabloid scene, you have to ask yourself: how relevant was Jackson's trial to larger issues? How much did it help victims of pedophilia, or abuse at the hands of celebrities? Certainly, celebrity exploitation of the innocent is naughty, and pedophilia is heinous, but there are better and more productive ways to confront these issues than through obssessive coverage of a circus trial. In fact, if anything, such a trial detracts from our ability to be rational and progressive in our thinking about how to protect children from pedophiles and sycophants from psychopaths.

Next, let's look at the recent revelation that Rafael Palmeiro apparently took steroids: a phenomenally successful ballplayer -- one of only four in Major League history to collect at least 500 home runs and 3,000 hits -- had a urine test come up positive. This after his emphatic testimony before Congress in March, denying that he had ever used illegal, performance-enhancing drugs.

Guess what? I don't care.

OK, well, I do care. I think ballplayers shouldn't do it, and I think that if Palmeiro did have steroids coursing through his body as he sat before the Congressional subcommittee investigating steroid use, then he's a liar and an idiot.

But he's not a candidate for sainthood or Mensa. He's a ballplayer. Athletes always have looked and always will look for that undetectable edge. They have to scrap for every advantage they can find, especially as they get older. The players' union has perhaps gone too far in protecting the "privacy" of steroid users, realizing that they were filling seats and boosting salaries with their prodigious home run clouts, but when steroids are clamped down on, the next, more highly evolved and cloaked method of cheating will already be making its way into the clubhouses and locker rooms of professional sport. In fact, it's probably already there.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: you cannot turn the clock back on professional sport. If you are a fan, then this is a problem partly of your making, and you must either live with it or find a new diversion. You bought tickets and souvenirs, you boosted TV ratings of televised contests, and so did millions of others. That's why a ballgame will never be the sporting equivalent of an early music ensemble. These guys want to win, and they want to keep the best job they'll ever have, not necessarily in that order. That doesn't make cheating OK, it just removes it from the realm of high moral outrage and puts it in the realm of dime-a-dozen moral mediocrity.

Then there's Rove. He may have broken the law. Knowingly. He may have hung an undercover agent out to dry. He probably did his homework and tried to skirt the law by making clear inferences in different ways to different journalists who then used Rove's info to actually out the agent.

And you know what? If you're outraged by that, you're missing much larger outrages, which the Bush administration would love you to miss. Karl Rove is not the point: he's playing a brutal political game that's been brutal since the first caveman took charge of his clan. He's been diverting attention from larger, more basic outrages, and Democrats have taken the bait. They've been lured into playing Rock-em Sock-em Robots with the Republicans, trading Dean-for-Rove dudgeon, and in doing so they have become -- remained -- tragically sidetracked.

We've ever been a culture that loves a good scandal. Our titillation has become an addiction, our anger an obssession.

Forget Jackson: let's lock up the guys who kidnap, rape and kill kids.

Forget Palmeiro: let's cap salaries, sit back and enjoy the game.

Forget Rove: let's focus on Iraq, the environment, protection of civil liberties, the inequity of our tax structure, the dearth of affordable housing, the ravaging of the African continent by starvation and disease, and confronting terrorism.

We are drowning in information, and in trying to save ourselves, we keep grabbing onto the stuff that will inevitably sink to the bottom. If we don't let go now, it will take us to the bottom along with it.

--T.A.

Comments

[amba]

Superb rant.

[Danny]

I agree with every word of your diatribe except "Forget Rove." While the current scandal may be more of a distraction from other more important matters, Rove is at the center of so many egregious acts that I hope the press and public stay hot on the trail.

[nappy40]

Good rant. My take on the steroid witchhunt--I think the whole thing was manufactured to Get Barry Bonds.

I still love baseball, but most likely I will detach myself and just enjoy the games, just like I can enjoy the Olympics while knowing no one is clean.