A Juicy Big Mac

One of the big stories that has dominated the last few baseball offseasons is the continued admittance of current and former players of using performance enhancing drugs. It seems with each passing name, the reaction has lessened.

Then the word came yesterday of former MLB slugger Mark McGwire's admittance to steroid and HGH use during his playing career, including his 70 home run season of 1998. This news comes as no surprise to many, as McGwire for years had been linked to performance enhancing drugs.

What McGwire's admittance does rehash is the poor media coverage of that 1998 baseball season. Instead of questioning how a pair of sluggers in McGwire and Sammy Sosa could both be in such a prolific chase, members of the media on the whole wrote glowing stories of both. Despite McGwire admitting to using androstene, after it was discovered in his locker by reporters, the story did not get a great deal of followup or scrutiny by the press.

Almost twelve years later, that tide of coverage has turned almost completely. Rarely can a sports section be opened without a player accused or confessing to taking performance enhancing drugs, or for doing something negative that is thoroughly reported on such as the Tiger Woods sex scandal and the Gilbert Areans gun situation.

Now, as 2010 has entered its early stages and new media and social networking continue to grow, the question becomes: has media gone from turning the cheek and reporting on the sensation of records to the other extreme of looking for the weakness of every great athlete and reporting on it diligently?

So far it seems the answer is yes. However, only time will tell if this path will continue.