A Few More Words About Vick

By A.man.I
Here is another perspective on the Michael Vick situation. I received this press release from the NewsmakersLive Journal:

Sports fans and people of good-will should be outraged at the mean-spirited maltreatment of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick by the national and local media, says Rev. Darryl Winston, President of the Atlanta-based Greater American Ministerial Alliance [G.A.M.A.].

Vick, the NFL’s $130-million man and the game highest paid player, was buffeted by a barrage of stinging multi-media criticism and condemnation over the past several days for an alleged marijuana-related misdeed at Miami International Airport.

AJC Sports columnist Jeff Schultz was so vitriolic that he brazenly wrote “It’s time for the Falcons to let Vick go.” A bevy of other sports reporters and analysts echoed that searing sentiment. Vick has been shamelessly vilified for naught by an overzealous and unfair press.

“The mass media must apologize to Michael Vick for presuming his guilt while summarily rejecting in innocence,” fumes Rev. Winston, the 43-year-old progressive and politically active pastor of Church of the Greater Works on Jonesboro Road in southeast Atlanta. “The down-right inhumane way the media handled this contemptible. It is a clear example of the media overstepping its boundaries. We need to demand that sports media who engage in the sordid practice of ‘yellow journalism’ repent.”

We now learn that the super-star quarterback who has appeared in three Pro Bowls and is coming off a record-setting season where became the first NFL quarterback to rush for more than 1,000 yards has been vindicated. His image was wrongly attacked by piteous pundits. Vick has been exonerated by the Miami-Dade Police Department; cleared of any wrongdoing. The substance in his water bottle, that attracted nation-wide attention, was deemed not to be an illegal substance.

Still Vick has been stained and sullied by the sensationalism surrounding this media-manufactured controversy, Winston laments.

“In its purest form it is racism; at the very least it’s been demagogy of the highest caliber,” Winston opines. “This superbly gifted athlete has been wronged and bloodied by an arrogant press who think they have the power to do whatever they want to do to people of color. [Atlanta Falcons owner] Arthur Blank, civil rights activists, the African-American clergy, and fair-minded journalists should denounce this vicious vilification. I know G.A.M.A. is not alone in our righteous anger over this scurrilous media mischief.”