Vick the Victim: NY Times Article Paints QB as 'Failed by Friends'

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Michael Vick, victim. That's how Selena Roberts' article in today's New York Times largely portrays the NFL QB accused of involvement with dogfighting. The article's headline sets the tone: Vick Is Trapped in His Circle of Friends.

Excerpts:

• The crooked circle Michael Vick drew around himself has tripped and squeezed him.
• The first to fail Vick was Davon Boddie, a cousin and personal chef. His marijuana possession charge in April led police to a white house with black buildings behind it on Moonlight Road in Surry County, Va. [Darn that Davon. If only he hadn't been busted on the pot charge, Vick might have been able to continue -- allegedly -- killing dogs that didn't make the grade.]
• The first to flip on Vick was Tony Taylor, a fast friend from Newport News, Va., with an arrest record for drug trafficking and a traffic record for reckless driving.
• The latest to betray Vick is Quanis Phillips, a friend since middle school. Along with Purnell Peace, Phillips, who once served jail time on a drug charge, accepted a plea deal on Friday and implicated Vick as the owner and operator of a dogfighting ring. [Does Roberts believe in the law of omerta?]
• Group dynamics can collapse under pressure. Vick has been abandoned, left to contemplate a plea deal that could imprison him and ruin his N.F.L. career.

What is Roberts' point? Should Vick's friends, who presumably had all the QB's tough background but none of his advantages, have kept their mouths shut, prevented the truth from coming out, and done their time in order to protect him? It's hard for me to see Vick, with all the stardom and the $130 million contract that went with it, as the victim here. All he had to do was one thing: not participate in dogfighting.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, the fault, dear Selena, lies not in the underlings, but in the star.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

NY Times casts Vick as victim. Ping to Today show list.

[sinanju]

Jeepers. What happened to the “Don’t snitch” campaign?

[kinoxi]

He didn’t just participate. It seems he was the main ,if not sole source of funding.

[Wingy]

What happened to the “Don’t snitch” campaign?

The rumor is that next week the RICO indictments come down, with their 25 to 35 year sentences. If I could help out a friend and only do 30 years....ah screw him.

[rjsimmon]

You can take the boy out of the ghetto...

Vick chose his friends. They all seemed to have failed each other, and at society.

[CometBaby]

The first to fail Vick was Davon Boddie, a cousin and personal chef.

His personal Chef? Wonder how he cooked the dogs.

[sanjacjake]

NYTimes ..ugh...make people feel happy..the dogs
don’t count..only selling the rag..does??? No wonder
New Yorkers are dingbats...they read this crap...JK

[LibWhacker]

I’m sure if a Republican had been caught being cruel to animals, the NYT would rush to his defense and cry about how his friends had failed him.

[umgud]

Jeepers. What happened to the “Don’t snitch” campaign?

Vicks has been rubbed.

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

Exactly, he had a chance to escape his background, but he returned to his vomit.

[Continental Soldier]

I guess if the NYTimes had it’s way, nobody would testify against Vick, and he would have his freedom to continue to torture and kill dogs, the sweetest and most loyal of human companions. Who is this guy, Vick? Who does he think he is? As the public has already judged, the torture killing of defenseless animals is an unacceptable avocation. Where are all of those ubiquitous former FBI profilers now? Why aren’t they on the air telling us all how vicious, serial killers start off by torturing and killing animals? You can be sure that if Vick could torture and kill a dog, he could do the same to you!

[Eaker]

I fight Pomeranians and Coon Hounds in my living room.

What is the problem?

[livius]

What about, “he’s a creep and is getting what he deserved” - nah, that might mean we’re RESPONSIBLE for what we do. Forget that.

[Drew68]

You can take the boy out of the ghetto...

Yep! In one season he was poised to earn 20 times as much money as most people make in their lifetime and yet he still goes out and acts like a thug.

Atheletes like Vick (and countless others) are the reason why I have totally abandoned any interest in watching professional sports and will not contribute one thin dime to enrich the salaries of the tattooed, scowling gangstas, thugs and criminals known as "professional atheletes."

[Chode]

skin that FOPS alive... then set his azz on FIRE!!!

[semaj]

Although I think dog fights are cruel and inhumane, and should be illegal, with all the hoopla surrounding this case, you’d think that Vick was invlved in genocide or something.

[ex-snook]

When you hang out with dogs, you get fleas.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Selena Roberts