So Cal Pete wrote:
Not only that, but the young writer you contacted to do the NY Times piece (in an effort to control how this story was released) will have to answer for printing false information in his story - of course, he failed basic journalism by taking your word for what happened, so he's kind of on his own.
I don't see what Stephen printed that was false.
I'm not surprised that Christian lied to Scott Douglas.
The cheats usually do until they come clean when forced to.
I guess many would argue this line is way too lenient on Christian, "But as he followed Usada’s case against Armstrong, he decided to come clean."
As for Christian trying to cash in till the very end on Competitor.com. I don't see it that way at all. I just posted this in the comments of this article:
http://running.competitor.com/2012/10/staff-blog/staff-blog-anything-for-eyeballs_60384"I'm one of the founders of LetsRun.com. First, Stephen Kasica approached LetsRun with this story as well. I too from the description concluded the athlete was likely Christian Hesch. From that point on I see things differently than Mario. I decided the story was Stephen's since he brought it to us, even if he inadvertently gave away the athlete. Mario saw it differently. Mario told Christian, "Why would I want to link to another source if I was one of the first to catch wind of the story? The only reason I’m not writing it/breaking it myself is out of respect to you." 1) Mario wasn't the first to catch wind of the story. Stephen brought it to him. At that point Christian was off the record. So unless the story was, "Stephen Kasica pitched a story to us about an athlete on drugs who I've concluded was Christian Hesch" there was no story. Publishing such a story would definitely be the "anything for eyeballs" approach that Mario decries. That is why LetsRun.com concluded the story was Stephen's.
2) I have no idea if Stephen broke an agreement to do a story for Mario. Mario gives that impression. However, the agreement does not seem too firm as Mario had no problem in cancelling the story with Stephen. "I agreed to keep quiet as well, but would tell Kasica that the assignment was off."
3) I think we should be most upset for Christian for his decision to dope not because his piece on competitor.com was published only 10 minutes before a piece in the NYTimes.