Friday 19 June 2015

Is this really news?

I'm sitting here on a Friday night watching the news - and one of the leading stories is that Mo Farah has missed two drug tests over two years.

Now let's just dissect this: 
  1. Mo Farah has not been accused of taking perfomance enhancing drugs.
  2. Allegations have been made that Alberto Salazar (Mo Farar's trainer) practiced doping techniques in a Panorama documentary.  No organisation has confirmed this. Salazar has not been convicted of providing performance enhancing drugs to any athlete.
  3.  Mo Farah has missed two drug tests - according to Ukad rules (UK anti-doping) an athlete who missed three tests in any 18-month period could face up to a two-year ban. Yes that's three, not two.
  4. Farah's first missed test was in early 2010, months before he joined Alberto Salazar's training programme.
  5. As Dan Roan, the BBC sports editor said "Anti-doping regulations state athletes must give details of where they will be for one hour every day. But inevitably, on occasions, they're not at home when the testers come calling. We know that in 2011, around the time this story relates to, nine UK athletes missed two tests. But that number can change. In 2014 it was only one, so it's not common but it's not unheard of either. But the ramifications of missing a third test can be very serious."
So to recap here.......
Mo Farah isn't accused of taking performance enhancing drugs.
He's within the testing attendance parameters set by the UK anti-doping.
Someone he works with has been accused (not convicted) of providing performance enhancing drugs but not to Mo Farah.
 =
NO STORY!

On the positive side this man did win two gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics.


My big issue here is that this is NOT news.  It is conjecture at best.
In the grand scheme of things this is not important.  
Important things that news should be about are:

climate change
environmental degradation and wildlife poaching
peak oil
fracking 
economic depression, 'sustainable growth' and austerity
human trafficking and slavery
war and terrorism
poverty

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