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| NEWS AND NOTES |
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| June 30, 2007 Mainstream Media and Benoit Story; Upcming Apperances We have seen cable news networks flub throughout the week as they attempted to intelligently discuss the situation surrounding the Chris Benoit family, steroid use in WWE, and the like. Our unofficial award for worst reporting goes to Geraldo Rivera and Nancy Grace. Rivera appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News on Thursday night, and actually spent about five minutes discussing how federal agents need to investigate a link between the deaths of Sherri Martel and Nancy Benoit, claiming it was unlikely a coincidence considering both had been married to the same guy (referring to Kevin Sullivan) and had also died on the same day (they actually died seven days apart). He also suggested Benoit got the nickname of the Canadian Crippler because he once purposely broke Sabu’s neck. Grace didn’t go to the extremes of Geraldo, but on two consecutive nights of her CNN program speculate that Benoit may have committed the crimes because of depression, one night citing his demotion from the Four Horsemen to RAW (one, of course was a tag team and the other a promotion), before revising it the next night as a demotion from wrestler to trainer (yes, he was moving to ECW to help develop the younger guys, but he was also slated to win the ECW title on the Vengeance PPV he missed in Houston, TX, last Sunday night). Some of the hosts seem to do somewhat of a decent job, though none were spectacular for an entire segment. Greta Van Susteren of Fox News and Dan Abrams of MSNBC have probably approached the stories with the most class, as it appears whomever is preparing the research for their programs seems more knowledgeable than others. All have at one point or another clung to the Wikipedia story, which was debunked as any sinister plot two days ago. Still, some continued to refer to it during the Friday night broadcasts. The one thing they have done is take the steroid ball and run with it, despite the fact that toxicology reports have not yet been completed. Various wrestlers and others tied to the business in some way have made appearances throughout the week, including Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Debra Marshall, Joe Laurinaitis, Billy Graham, and Bill DeMott. Jericho has been perhaps the most eloquent spokesman and has presented the business well, but all of them, with the exception of Marshall, denies knowledge of steroid use in the business. Marshall and DeMott actually got into quite a heated debate on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes program Friday night, with Marshall visibly upset by DeMott’s denials, claiming the rampant use is what led to her own abuse at the hands of Steve Austin, and possibly resulted in whatever caused Benoit to snap. DeMott fired back that if she had not waited to speak publicly that she could have possibly saved Nancy and Daniel Benoit’s lives. The best coverage so far has come from local Atlanta TV news teams at WSB and WAGA, as well as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Sports talk station 790 the Zone covered it some today, as well as following the breaking news over the past week, featuring an interview with Eric Bischoff, where he expectedly towed the company line. They are said to be putting together something for tomorrow as well, though details are not clear at this time. Expect this to continue to remain in the spotlight for at least a couple more days. The story seems to have subsided for the most part today, but when the toxicology report is disclosed, as well as more information on the findings from the raids on Dr. Phil Astin is made available. Of course, if more is mentioned of why detectives returned to the scene of Sherri Martel’s death, it may reinvigorate the discussion a bit longer. As for tonight, look for Alex Marvez of the Wrestling Observer to appear on Geraldo At Large on Fox at 8:00 PM ET. Monday’s Hannity and Colmes, also on Fox, will feature the Ultimate Warrior at 9:00 PM ET. |