I drank the Kool-Aid, too, and to this very day, the ambiguity remains ubiquitous. What do I think about it, today? I'm not at all sure. This much is clear: Barry Bonds nailed it by asking his interrogators: Do you really want to define cheating in America? Quite a few banks cheated, prompted an international recession, were caught ... and, well, nothing, at least here in America. We routinely incarcerate for far less. Maybe money really does have something to do with it?
Maybe A-Rod can shed some light on the topic.
The Armstrong Lie – review, by Peter Bradshaw (Guardian)
Alex Gibney was obliged to reshape his portrait of Lance Armstrong in response to the cyclist's drug disgrace. He salvaged a watchable film – but only just
... Gibney was allowed unprecedented access, and appeared to be making a rather sympathetic human-interest film, to the horror of Armstrong's critics. But soon after photography was complete, Armstrong's continued drug abuse was exposed, and Gibney had to re-edit and reshape all his footage to make it fit this new picture. He was allowed just one hurried post-confession interview – a derisory snatch of evasive blather, which makes all of Gibney's intimate pre-confession interviews look creepy and pointless. The awful truth was that Gibney had allowed himself to be taken in, and – had he not been overtaken by events – he might inadvertently have been the liar's most prestigious defender.
Well, it can happen to any journalist. And Gibney does in fact salvage a watchable study of a fanatically arrogant competitor who isn't above all sorts of tricks, gamesmanship, grudgery and macho legal bullying to win at all costs and cover up the truth at all costs. It is quite clear that Armstrong took drugs in the same spirit in which a Hollywood actor has minor cosmetic surgery – sure, it isn't the "truth" about my face, but everyone else is doing it, and my basic talent is what's important.
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