Media have flaws, but treatment of T.O. episode not one of them

Blame the media for lots of things, and I'm right there with you. Do we lean too far to the left while pretending -- insisting -- to be neutral? Absolutely. Do we blast the legal system for its treatment of Barry Bonds reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada while ignoring the bigger truth, that the law sending them to jail is clear, fair and necessary? Guilty.

Hell, I'll even give you, the reader, your outrage over that Ryan Howard story of mine earlier this month, when I wondered aloud if Howard's enormous body and enormous home run total might be the product of HGH. I say that story was speculative but fair. You say it was speculative and cruel. I disagree, but I see your point.

Terrell Owens? Suicide? If there is a recipe for a media feeding frenzy, that is it. (AP)

But blame the media for the latest Terrell Owens fiasco?

You must be joking.

And by you, I don't mean just you, the reader. I mean you, the media. Because there are enemies among us, enemies in major markets like Philadelphia and Miami who this morning are saying that somehow, the biggest loser in this entire Terrell Owens suicide story is the media.

In one way we did lose. The story changed on us -- allegedly -- as Wednesday morning became Wednesday afternoon. When the facts change, the ignorant out there point at the media and call us incompetent. Kind of like when the facts about weapons of mass destruction changed and John Kerry stopped supporting the war, he was ignorantly called a flip-flopper. (I told you the media is liberal.)

But today in the Miami Herald the headline says, "We are to blame for overreacting."

Huh?

Terrell Owens, a Hall of Fame talent at receiver, is hospitalized overnight for a possible suicide attempt, and the media is to blame for the coverage that comes next? Terrell Owens, one of the most fascinatingly repulsive characters in sports, is said to have had pills pried from his mouth, and the media gets ripped for climbing down this story's throat?

You must be joking.

The media didn't find Owens unresponsive, lying next to an empty bottle of pills, and call 911. That was one of Owens' own people, his publicist.

The media didn't type up the first report on Owens, a report that included the words "attempting suicide" and "pain medication" and "(Owens) stated that he was depressed" and "attempting to harm himself."

That report was written by the Dallas Police Department.