Al Jazeera: 'We're not making the allegation against Peyton Manning'
An Al Jazeera reporter claimed on Tuesday the steroids story they ran isn't making an allegation against Peyton Manning.
By
Will Brinson
•
2 min read
On Saturday night the football world erupted with the reported allegation from an Al Jazeera report about Peyton Manning being involved with a clinic that distributed HGH.
The Al Jazeera report was first promoted via the Huffington Post, which highlighted Manning's name in the report because his wife allegedly received HGH shipments in Florida. Manning fired back quickly and aggressively, calling the report "complete garbage" and discussing the possibility of suing Al Jazeera for defamation.
The latter may explain why Deborah Davies, the Al Jazeera reporter, did her best during an appearance on The Today Show to note there are no allegations against the Broncos quarterback.
"The allegation is very simple. That when Charlie Sly worked at the Guyer during part of his training, his rotation for pharmacy, the clinic was sending out not one shipment, but repeated shipments to Ashley Manning in Florida," Davies said. "That's it. That's the allegation."
In other words, Al Jazeera is simply inferring there is some connection with Peyton Manning here. Davies did double down, claiming Peyton Manning hasn't denied Ashley Manning received HGH shipments and noting that it's still illegal in the United States in most instances.
"So he's not denying that growth hormone has been sent to her. I have not seen a denial from Peyton Manning. " Davies said. " If you look at the status of growth hormone, it's an incredibly banned substance [for the] NFL. No one's ever tested positive for it.
"On the one hand you have a banned drug being sent to the wife of one of the most famous football players in your country. On the other hand you have a drug that is actually illegal to prescribe to a patient for anything other than one of three incredibly serious illnesses. So if growth hormone is being sent to Ashley Manning, over what period, in what quantities and for what purposes? Don't reveal your medical condition, but confirm that you do not suffer for one of the things for which it's legal to prescribe it."
Kudos to the Today Show hosts for pressing Davies on the issue -- Peyton Manning's wife receiving HGH is interesting if there's evidence against Peyton Manning, but Al Jazeera has nothing of the sort and Davies was forced to admit that.
"We are not alleging that in the program," Davies said. "The only allegation in the program ... is that growth hormone was sent repeatedly from the Guyer to Ashley Manning in Florida."
"We're not making the allegation against Peyton Manning."
Ari Fleischer, retained by Manning for crisis management purposes, said in a statement the news organization is "backtracking and retreating."
“Al Jazeera is backtracking and retreating," Fleischer said. "Their story was not credible to begin with and it’s not credible now. Within 48 hours of the broadcast, Deborah Davies is now contradicting her own reporting.”
Davies also added the discussion of Manning occurs in a "very short section" at the end of the program.
"This is an hour-long documentary about doping in sport," Davies said. "Within that documentary there is a very short section at the end, that section follows a very long journey charting our investigation into banned substances, one of which is growth hormone."
A very short section and a very convenient section for Al Jazeera because of the attention it brought to a story that otherwise wouldn't have generated much attention.
