Allayah: “Why Did Armstrong Lie”

“Why Did Armstrong Lie”

By Allayah Beamon

1/16/2016 3:00 P.M. PST

 Many sports journalist and media played a huge role in perpetuating the Armstrong lie by being the gatekeepers, or the bearers of bad news. With the ability to influence and report information via articles or media they are able to convey message, spread, or preserve certain information about a source. In this case, a sports journalists Austin Murphy had been following and writing pieces about Armstrong in which were all positive and didn’t discuss his false wins, until after Betsy Andreu testified under oath, Murphy wrote a few controversial pieces, in which Lance had spoken to him about and told him told him “to be careful and that he had spoken to the wrong people” (Murphy). Although he was confronted by Armstrong Murphy kept on writing. His role as a writer is to give truth and honesty to his reader and viewers which is one of the codes of ethics in professional journalism, if he continued to cover up the truth his work wouldn’t be credible and he would be masking the reality that the world needed to know. Even in the film, media reps have the role of capturing the story that will be either loved or hated by the subject of source but it’s their choice to publish if they believe the article is worth releasing. They have the power to conceal or spread news and the decision to do, one or the other can make or break the future of their career. 

            

         

The truth is that Lance also threatened and bribed many journalists and reporters to keep the stories out and grow controversy free, meanwhile this helped many writers to support his lie, and keep quiet until eventually his tactics to silence the truth, ran out. And his old friend Frank and wife Betsy Andreu came clean and testified against Lance, and told the story of his doping use, the best way they could. Another reason many media members went along with the lie was because, they believed his Lances story in overcoming cancer and his reputation, they also knew bashing his name and fame could possibly damage their writing careers, and so many kept quiet and acted ignorant to the reality of Lances drug usage.

After, Lance made an appearance on Oprah it came out that, all her questions were followed by a “YES”. He openly admitted to doping to the world , after years of covering it up and lying to media to protect his reputation and continue competing.  But before his interview with Oprah, rather then listening to the comments and statements of Betsy Andreu said, the media gave more for credit to what Lance Armstrong said because, his story about overcoming cancer and being able to compete again trumped the body evidence because he constantly admitted he was not using. “The cancer survivor overcomes and comes back and wins his first ever tour to France, after battling such a brutal disease.” Lance refuted Andreu’s claim, and mentioned that if her allegations were correct, he would have been fired and taken out of all his current contracts, and lost all his sponsors because such a thing is illegal. She accused him, and said right in his face that she hated him. Stephanie who worked for Lance, refused the statements of Betsy, and shamed her for making allegations against him in her deposition.  Narrator stated, “Lance used his fame to undermine the credibility of his critics”. Many people on his team, also helped Lance hide his doping.