The "Weight" issue?

[cj]

Big story a few months ago full of holes...

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/hor...ill&id=2174782

As it turns out, it's worse than that. The evidence against Baeza, Sclafani and the five jockeys involved is so flawed that this case should be laughed out of court. Whether that's because of some sloppy detective work, a lack of knowledge of horse racing on the part of the investigators or because someone was just out to get these guys, this case never should have progressed as far as it has. It's 1-10 that Sclafani and Baeza beat the charges.

[BillW]

Originally Posted by cj

Big story a few months ago full of holes...

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/hor...ill&id=2174782

A good politician never lets reality stand in the way of a good ole witch burning.

[PaceAdvantage]

I believe some on here were speculating this a while ago. It's sad really, if it is the case that these guys were innocent.....reputations and careers thrown in the shitter because someone has a hard-on for NYRA....

Are the folks who might be guilty of wrongly accusing these men going to spend any time in police lockups? Are they going to have their reputations dragged through the mud? Is "The Written Word" going to trip over himself trying to click on the SUBMIT THREAD button of this board the moment the story hits the wires that these guys were acquitted of all charges?

Nah....at best, they might score some $$ based on some civil litigation (and rightly so)....

Like I said, sad....

[PaceAdvantage]

Or, to put it another way, from the same article by Bill Finley:

Unless our justice system has been totally turned upside down, Baeza and Sclafani will beat the rap. But that won't solve everything or answer every question. How do they get their good names back? What really happened here and why are there so many holes in the evidence? Was this case against Sclafani and Baeza justified in the first place or where they railroaded? Why is someone ready to haul them off to jail for seven years for something that is about hardly a serious offense.

Maybe someone should investigate the investigation.

[the little guy]

It's good to see Finley emerge as a voice of reason in this insane situation. Perhaps he's trying to redeem himself after this summer's bruhaha in the Saratoga Press Box.

[Tom]

So, when this story first broke, it appears the definition of "newspapper" changed to "gossippapper" - didn't one sinlge so-called "news" paper investigate and print reality? Did theya ll just parrot a cut and paste story?


When you get not too deeply into this whole thing, it makes anyone claiming to be a reporter look stupid.
Freedom of the press means you get what you pay for. Nothing.

[andicap]

Tom,
It's not always the reporters' fault. Publishers these days have discouraged editors from pursuing investigative stories because they can make waves and scare away advertisers.
The print business is in the toilet because of competition from the Internet, cable TV, etc. Fewer young people -- the most prized audience for advertisers -- are reading newspapers. They're getting their news online.
With money tight, publishers are loathe to take chances and take on the powers that be. Usually you'll see the ideological papers make the biggest waves, but they often dont let the facts get in the way of a story damning the other party. This isn't new of course. It goes back to the Revolution.

Reporters who used to try and dig deeper beind the press releases have given up because of the bottom-line mentality.

Another reason is that newspapers have had to cut back so severely they are tremendously understaffed and reporters are stretched too thin to do any investigating. The NYRA story was just not a major enough deal to allow a newspaper to free up valuable staffers for a week or two in order to investigate the issue.

Tell you the truth, 98% of the public could care less if jockeys are riding overweight. They're worried about jobs/the price of gas/the environment/security.

Finally, it takes TIME for a reporter to ferret out whether an indictment is true or not. The crusading reporter of Northside 777 is largely a thing of the past, replaced by the rumor/innunendo of cable talk shows and Internet blogs.

[Tom]

Andy, isn't that the reporter's job?
Heck, I could act like a Xerox machine for a lot less money. Cut and report.

Rhetoric quesiton - my opinon of new in this county is hogwash - entertainment and revenue machine period. There is not real news anymore.

[andicap]

Tom,
I'm not really disagreeing with much of what you say.
Clearly, we are an entertainment-starved country with more people wanting to read about Brad and Angelina and Jen than John Roberts and Harriet Miers.

And yes, many reporters do just act as stenographers, mimicking back in print what they have been told. As a former editor I can tell you how frustrating it's been for reporters to bring me those "he said, she said" stories.

When I told them the story was dull and non really illustrative, they would say, "Hey I got both sides. You don't want me to editorialize do you?"
They would never think of digging beyond the usual sources or putting context or a sense of history into their stories.

To me, almost as bad as the lack of any investigative focus on the part of Big Media today is reporters' inability to give the stories the proper context.
This is true more on the local level in small and medium town papers (and in the trade press which I write for) than in the top big city and national publications. But those are still guilty of accepting official-ese and not investigating further.

Look at Judith Miller of the Times -- she swallowed the Administration's line on Iraq, hook, line and sinker. So she does prove your point.

However, I still maintain much of the problem is institutional.

[garyoz]

Except for the Wall Street Journal (and maybe the Post), the media love Spitzer. So don't even think about any investigative journalists looking at how he operates.

On Monday the Journal had an editorial about another one of Spitzer's "prosecutions" that got thrown out of court for lack of evidence. It is all about using the office for political gain for him and his party. And what is really a joke is that he is probably going to be elected in New York as governor. Remember how bad Cuomo was for racing? He hated racing.

[weegee]

Finley's column is weeks old. Has there been anything new? If these charges are dropped, don't expect to see a single line about it in the papers.

What was the "bruhaha" in the Saratoga press box?

[the little guy]

Matt Hegerty covered the story extremely well, when it broke, for DRF. He uncovered many of the inconsistances, if not more, that Finley did. In Matt's case, he's a reporter, and thus cannot print opinions, but he certainly exposed the weakness of this case.

[GeTydOn]

Originally Posted by andicap

98% of the public could care less if jockeys are riding overweight.

Surprised a guy as detailed as you would get this phrase wrong. Don't you mean "couldn't care less"???

And how is it that newspapers don't have staff to do some investigative work on a story such as this one? I get your drift and agree that most Americans have much more to worry about these days. That doesn't stop papers from writing and sometimes over-covering petty, BS stories.

But I would think most of the newspapers in the New York area where this story was based have racing reporters who could have used their columns to expose the holes as this investigation has developed. This story broke like 10 months ago. And we're only now seeing a guy like Finley stepping up and writing about it?

Have any of the NY racing reporters done anything to shoot holes in the investigation and we missed it? Or have they all just stayed with the same-old, same-old?

[weegee]

The NY tabloids have had a field day with all the NYRA news, and the weight issue fit right into their continuing coverage of all the shocking scandals involving the corrupt organization running NY racing. They wallow in this stuff - it makes them look like heroes for exposing corruption and they don't have to worry about pesky facts getting in the way. They also know no one is going to make a peep in racing's defense. These stories have been covered by regular reporters (can you even call them that?) as opposed to the racing writers, who might see things differently but are relegated to making the day's picks.

The NY Times had a fairly neutral article in the Sports section. It might even have been written by Finley (what happened to Joe Drape?). The Times sniffs at racing in general, but it has a new poker column. I might also add that if a baseball player walked on to the field attached to an IV with steroids, the Times columnists would find a way to defend him.