Posted by Paul No, your opinion is very welcome, that's why this is called a forum. You bring up a good point. Already in the introduction I pictured a copy landing in McGwire's hands and him thinking, "I'm reading a book by some stranger who I have never met who is going to speculate on what I did in 1992? What does this guy think he knows?" That is exactly why I suggest that Mark speak for himself in an autobiography as opposed to Rob Rains, me, and the media writing biographies about him through research. Now, as I will write, Mark has already spoken for himself and said that is all he will ever say, that he's made hsi statement on capitol hill and is leaving it there and moving on, never to address it again and move on. My point is that his fans, his "approval rating" his marketability and his example as a role model have all been diminished. Fans have suggested that if would just be honest they would respect him and root for him again. One guy wrote that Giambi came clean and his name never comes up again. The scandal will no longer be a scandal if Mark comes clean. Now the idea of you and I coming clean about our lives and airing our own dirty laundry instead of pulling specks out of other's eyes - in interpersonal relationships, you are absolutely right. But McGwire is a public figure, and with that comes answering to the public. It is not unethical to ask a public figure to answer to the public on which his life and career depended. His hall entry hangs in the balance, and my thought was that he will regain the respect he lost and increase his chances of forgiveness by the media and public if he came clean. I mean this as a very specific and diliberate context. I have written that I don't care for this lynch mob inquisition scene where we want a trial, confession, and execution. Thats is why there is a chapter airing his clean laundry and another on us making him a realisitic hero. This why we also discuss the difference between the human, private McGwire and the public image McGwire. If this was just about airing a man's shame, making him pay, and judging him, I agree completely with your opinion Rob. But this is more of a call to public responsibility, tempered with forgiveness, in an attempt to regain everyone lost on Capitol Hill who just wanted him to be honest and were heartbroken in the end. Paul
on 11/4/2006, 13:02:46, in reply to "Re: Hallworthy"
Rob,
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