Fact Is, Media Jumped the Gun in Giving Tonya a Bad Name

The Boston Herald

It would be nice if just once in a while you ran into some fair, thoughtful, truthful, unbiased news stories. But it's all laced with gossip these days. He said. She said. Overheard. Alleged. According to unnamed sources. Witnesses maintain. Or it's inappropriate cleverness, a.k.a. the Bobbitt and the Michael Jackson stories.

Or it's out-and-out fantasy, as in the instantaneous speculation about whether Tonya Harding was personally involved in the Nancy Kerrigan attack, before any facts could support the allegations. 

It's pure garbage, all of it, yet we read it and listen to it and are influenced by it and end up actually believing it and talking about it and arguing over it. All of it. The facts AND the fiction. The problem is there's no distinction anymore. News is, after all, business. Big Business. There has to be enough of it to fill hundreds of newspapers and thousands of radio and television hours every week. And the people reporting it have to come up with exciting, interesting and unique stories so that they, the reporters, will stand out; so that some big, important executive somewhere will offer them a better job with more money. So that they will be CELEBRITIES.

People will sell their souls for celebrity.

The Nancy Kerrigan story is big all by itself. Everyone loves Kerrigan. She's pretty and sweet and dedicated to her family and to her profession, and when she got attacked it stunned and hurt and angered almost everyone who's ever seen her skate. 'Why?' she asked in tears after the attack. 'Why?' is something we all asked.

But only the news people had the arrogance to begin filling in the whys before there were any clear answers. Why let the truth stand in the way? When you have nothing to report, invent something. These are the new rules of journalism. There's always a deadline, you know. All that air time and all those empty pages need to be filled now. 

And so came the slurs against Tonya Harding. Not from the sportswriters. They stuck to the facts because they knew them. They didn't have to invent stories to fill their spaces. All they had to do was go back in their files and recap for the public the skaters' histories.

But the tawdry, tell-all shows that pass for news these days weren't content with this. Facts do nothing for ratings. Nor were news reporters and columnists assigned to the story satisfied with mere truth. They put spin on it. They made judgments and used emotionally charged words to build up Kerrigan and to tear down Harding.They praised Kerrigan for her dignity and grace. And criticized Harding for her power and strength.They complimented Kerrigan on her feminine frame. And put down Harding for her muscles and brawn.They called Kerrigan a lady. And she is. She is breathtaking both on and off the ice.

But they implied, these writers who are supposed to be impartial and fair, that Harding is something of a tramp. And she is not. She is different from Kerrigan, that's all. Their styles are different. They come from different worlds. They have different backgrounds, different ways of talking and acting and performing.

But Harding is hardly inferior to Kerrigan. She is not second-rate. And it is this that has been the gleeful, mean-spirited opinion of a press that's supposed to report the news, not shape it.

Did Harding know about and agree to the attack on Kerrigan? I don't know. And neither does anyone else. Yesterday reporters led the news with the flash that the U.S. Olympic Committee is pressuring Harding to withdraw from the Olympics. But then in the next breath, they said that an Olympic official insists this is not true. But not knowing what's true and what isn't doesn't keep eager-to-shine networks and newspapers from reporting what is rumor as fact.

Nancy Kerrigan and her family are the only public people in this fray who have behaved appropriately. They have kept their mouths closed. They have refused to speculate. They continue to wait for the facts.

If Harding comes out a victim in this case, the press will immediately change its tune. Harding's life, which has been used to indict her, will be turned into a long series of hardships which the dedicated, and strong-willed (strength being an asset now) young woman worked relentlessly to overcome.

Not even this last tragedy could defeat her, commentators will slobber. That's the way it works. Those who can do. Those who can't write about those who do and build them up or tear them down depending on the needs of the day.