Canseco Backlash Begins Weakly

The backlash towards whistle-blower Jose Canseco has begun in earnest; although quite weakly. The Sun of Lowell (Mass.) is reported that Canseco owes over $32,000 in taxes to the state.

It can safely be said that either Major League Baseball or a surrogate "alerted" The Sun of Canseco's debt to the Bay State. A small, inconsequential paper like The Sun could be easily duped into printing such a story. I've been to Lowell. I bought nine pounds of linguica there last December. There's nothing there!

This is a very typical media trick purportrated by organizations to deflate the momentum of a product, star or pop culture sensation. When attacked, first smear your opponent.

Michael Jackson was accused of child molestation. In short time there were stories insinuating bad parenting on the part of the accused mother.

The former terrorism czar under President Bush, Richard C. Clarke, accused the administration of botching the war in Iraq. Quickly, there were stories all over the news that place Clarke somewhere between a crackpot and a grumpy old man. This is standard procedure.

There is a perception that Canseco is promoting his book solely for the money, which may be true but also does not eliminate the fact that his accusations may be true. This story surely adds weight to those claims, but does not allow any rational person to deny his allegations when coupled with our suspicions and grand jury testimony in this scandal.

Major League Baseball is going to have to come up with a far more effective smokescreen than this to make us forget that a known steroid cheat like Barry Bonds is about to shatter one of the games most hallowed records.