The Michael Phelps Bong Brouhaha
February 2nd, 2009So a British tabloid buys an exclusive photo of the greatest Olympian of all time smoking a bong and the world goes freaking nuts.
The News of the World tabloid ran a story today showing this photo of Phelps, 23, allegedly taken on November 6, 2008, weeks after the Beijing games, at a house party near the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia.
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| News of the World |
| Michael Phelps puffs a bong: So what? |
The tabloid proclaimed:
“THIS is the astonishing picture which could destroy the career of the greatest competitor in Olympic history.
“In our exclusive photo Michael Phelps, who won a record EIGHT gold medals for swimming at the Beijing games last summer, draws from a bong.
“The glass pipes are generally used to smoke cannabis.”
Well, duh!
The over sensationalized headline?
Considering the fact that our current president admitted smoking pot and snorting cocaine in his youth in a book, that former Vice President Al Gore and Bill Clinton both admitted smoking marijuana, although Clinton claimed never to have inhaled, and considering that George W. Bush and his wife Laura were stoners and Bush himself was a coke-head, even the normally staid Associated Press asks if Phelps should be given a break.
Does embattled Michael Phelps deserve a break?
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.
It is reported that the Olympic committee and his sponsors are considering what to do about it. They have issued no statement yet.
It should make for a funny story on The Daily Show tonight anyway.
Rolling Stone magazine’s National Affairs desk could not figure out what to say about it, except they can’t stop thinking about Michael Phelps’ Lung Capacity. As a swimmer, you get it…
We say let the guy have a little fun. He’s been in intensive training for most of his life. He won more gold medals than anyone in Olympic history. Puffing a little weed obviously didn’t negatively affect his performance. It was after the games were over. And last time we checked, marijuana was not on the official list of performance enhancing drugs anyway.
Let it go, people. Let it go.
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February 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Nice bong.
Our ancestors smoked marijuana, and countless cultures used peyote and mushrooms for religious practice. The use of the peace pipe by American Indians: “smoke um peace pipe.” No wonder no one wanted to fight; they were stoned and grooving on the dancing around camp fires.
The Bible? Give me a break. The burning bush that was unconsumed by fire. Uh-huh. Moses had a buzz and went looking for munchies and came by with the 10 Commandments, none of which said any natural herbs were sinful.
When I was in college in the seventies the best pot came from criminal justice majors who went into law enforcement careers. Suddenly, it was all bad for you.
So fast-forward and today’s cultural misrepresentation of drug use has many people thinking all drugs are bad; crack, heroin, sure…reefer only makes you want to forget how bad Bush fucked up this country and he did coke and because he was a Bush baby it was OK.
If I had some I’d be toking blowing smoke rings at Congress. Look at Nancy Pelosi; she always looks wired, Barney Frank, he is in ‘ludes and Alabama’s Governor Riley always looks like he just finish a line.
It hasn’t occurred to these hypocrites that natural herbs have been, and always will be, part of the planet’s eco-system and how bad is something that makes you hungry, laugh, want to fuck and creative?
Not at all.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Looks like he asked for fresh water.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:41 pm
New headline:
College student parties!
It is nice to see that he has a life….
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
Dude Takes A Toke – stop the presses! %0}
February 3rd, 2009 at 10:51 am
I’m absolutely supportive of Michael Phelps on this matter. I’m a supporter of legalized MJ, and as such think the whole thing is so much overblown “leaves.”
However, I also am disturbed by the double standard by the media. While they have run constant stories about this petty crap, they also have failed to display the diabolic hatred and animosity that they have shown towards other athletes in the past. I believe that the difference is due to race. If Michael Vick gets caught with MJ in a water bottle, the media (including sports media) talks nonstop about “role models” and “gang activity” and “gun violence” and other assorted and sundry non-related topics. (I’m no Michael Vick fan, but the MJ incident happened before the dog fighting).
Look at the difference here:
Column from Bleacher Report about Maurice Evans
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 pm
You may be right. The media in this country tends to mirror the population, though, and we are a nation of prudes and hypocrites.
As the Ben Bradlee character says in the movie All The President’s Men, “We don’t report the truth. We report what people tell us.”
There is a distinction between national media and local media and print vs. broadcast vs. Web.
The national broadcast media will hype any fake story to get your attention and ratings. This also includes talk radio. The national newspapers have historically been better at getting closer to the truth, but in recent decades the sensationalism has taken over everything.
The local papers, however, are still stuck in the old “family newspaper” world and have a hard time getting anyone’s attention, because the conservatives they pander to for the sake of their corporate advertisers don’t read “liberal” newspapers, no matter how corporate, conservative they really are. Somebody should have put a muzzle on Rush Limbaugh a long time ago, but everybody wants to believe in free speech and the ability of the masses to figure how who is telling the truth.
But in the end we now know they can’t. They need to be led to the facts and have it hammered at them on a daily basis.
On the Web, with the proper supervision — and I’m not talking about untrained, unprofessional “bloggers” — we can get to the truth in a more wide open way that will still draw an audience. If we shout down and ban the zealots, that is, which is what we do here.
The right-wing attack machine (and some of their ostensibly lefty friends) do read us here, and they try periodically to get through the filter and bash what we are doing, because it doesn’t fit their unfiltered sense of what the First Amendment means.
There has to be an edited place on the Web that builds trust over time. That doesn’t mean we will get it right the first time every time. Everybody makes mistakes. But at least we try harder than most…
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:13 pm
If Michael Phelps is into smoking pipes then good for him. Just because he enjoys smoking a water pipe does not mean he should have to lie about it and talk about the “big mistake” he made. The government makes a mistake every time it enforces marijuana prohibition at the expense of America and good since. America should grow up and quit attacking its own citizens for how they decide to spend their recreational time.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I agree with Glynn. Hypocrisy reigns on this one. What are the standards tabloid “journalists” live by that they are trying to “defend”?
February 4th, 2009 at 7:49 am
A new column in the Washington Post says almost half of Americans smoke pot, so why should Phelps be prosecuted and persecuted?
Phelps Takes a Hit While Half of America Smokes