[leilani]

No question the press should be horesewhipped, luv2ski!That teleconference last evening was painful to listen to - I just wanted to wrap Floyd up in a quilt and carry him out of there. And, actually they were relatively nice. (He handled 'em like a pro today, I thought) But you know there's really only one entity that had control over that A sample info. They're the only ones who knew at the time they leaked it that a sample result with an "abnormal" T/E ratio didn't actually mean diddlysquat about whether Floyd rode that stage juiced or not. They did know, however, that it would take the rest of the world a couple of days to catch up to that fact, and that by then the damage would be done. With full malice aforethought "the leaker has accomplished exactly what they wanted. They have destroyed the celebration, and have created a doubt about Floyd" as commish pointed out upthread in #18.

So, first & foremost in my mind, the UCI needs to be held accountable, no matter what happens to Floyd Landis. We can't get all the idiots in the press who wrote columns last night instantly condemning FL to the ash-heap of history's cheats without bothering to check their own wire services to see that the ICU's "evidence" they were relying on to make that assessment was being exposed as insubstantial as the blank paper they were writing their screeds on to ever own up to their professional incompetence. But the UCI leaker sure as hell can be investigated & sued with the whole world watching and, the irony is it's going to take the press to make that happen.

But sadly, you are so right. Regardless of that outcome, Floyd is condemned the rest of his life to laboring at the Sisyphean task of trying to "unring the bell" that he cheated, just like the perfectly innocent fratboys at Duke who had their pictures plastered on the cover of Newsweek as rapists will have to do for the rest of theirs as you pointed out, It's depressing as hell, I know. And unbelievably infuriating. Sigh. But today I'm finding myself in the "don't get mad, get even"camp.