{"id":858,"date":"2005-08-26T13:36:49","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T13:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:09:20","slug":"where_denial_be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=858","title":{"rendered":"Where Denial Becomes Evidence of Guilt"},"content":{"rendered":"

I really reacted strongly to this column <\/a> in the New York Times today about Lance Armstrong and the EPO scandal.<\/p>\n

What I’m reacting to, I think, is the insistence that denial of guilt is in fact the worst thing that one can do; I can’t find my copy of “Darkness at Noon,” but that seems the appropriate source for a claim like this:<\/p>\n

Armstrong has vehemently denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs. His problem is distinguishing his refutation amid the sports culture of deception and lies.<\/p>\n

\nA firm denial has lost its credibility when every culprit claims innocence, when the sprinter Kelli White denies and then confesses, when Rafael Palmeiro shakes a finger at Congress to underscore his goody-goody stance on a steroid-free body, but his positive test is revealed a few months later.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Somehow, I keep hearing the voice saying, “only the guilty refuse to confess<\/i>” throughout this piece.<\/p>\n

There are real and significant issues around the ‘engineering’ of our athletes, and the culture that elevates them to the point that simple games become worth re-engineering our bodies.<\/p>\n

But I have a simple view on accusations; they need to be proved. The accused has a right to rebut.<\/p>\n

And the innocent have every right to assert their innocence.I don’t know if Lance used EPO – I tend to doubt it, since he continued to crush the opposition even after more-sensitive tests probably would have revealed such abuse (hat tip to the Demosophist<\/a> for that point). But in a world where accusation somehow automatically becomes guilt, I really don’t need Cultural Revolution-style ‘self-criticism’ from Lance or anyone else.<\/p>\n

And Tyler Hamilton, btw, is challenging<\/a> the results of his test and ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I really reacted strongly to this column in the New York Times today about Lance Armstrong and the EPO scandal. What I’m reacting to, I think, is the insistence that denial of guilt is in fact the worst thing that one can do; I can’t find my copy of “Darkness at Noon,” but that seems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}