Absolutely. And don't forget the levels of evidence. Guys like Brian Roberts (Larry Bigbie told me that Brian Roberts told him that he might have used steriods once or twice) are getting lumped in with guys like Clemens (I personally injected what I was told were steroids and were labelled as such into his ass).
I heard Bob Costas elloquently wax on poetically about this very thing. The indictment of all players based on the reaction to the report is broad-brush and never the intention of the report at all. At one point, Costas came really close to saying that the media, more than *anybody* else has been the ones who have created the importance behind steroids in baseball. I agree to a degree with Costas, but the reality is that the law makers we sent to congress made this a front burner issue (whether it should be to this degree or not is debateable). The media has only taken up where the Congressmen have left off.
It's a great story, full of felony offense, drug trafficing, shady characters, senate hearings, families testifying about the evil that ruined their home, some doctors talking about steriods as if it's equal to the black plague, et. al. Can we blame the media that in today's reality show entertainment audience, that this plays well and even better than the game itself. Fans are losing interest in the game more and more and the focus is now the peripheral. The media just follows the story that sells. I'm not unsympathetic towards those who feel hurt because their baseball idols are indicted and certainly not near the attitude of Barkley ("We're not role models. You parents are the role models, don't let some athletes raise your kids!"), but not far away from it either.
Somewhere, sanity reigns in all this and rational conversations can be had about the subject and the proper perspective can come about. Until then, guys like Brian Roberts... guilty as charged. It's like that old Twilight Zone episode where aliens just made some lights blink on and off and then sat back and watched the hysteria of the neighborhood take over and the humans all destroyed each other.
