Buzz Bissinger Recants Support for Lance Armstrong
Buzz Bissinger, the biggest Armstrong fan there was, very loudly renounced his support for the fallen cyclist today in The Daily Beast. You may remember Bissinger’s August cover story in Newsweek (you may remember Newsweek), in which he defended Armstrong against the haters and the USADA, which had recently stripped him of his record seven Tour De France titles. Today, in advance of Armstrong’s forthcoming “Oprah” interview, he’s taken it all back, calling Armstrong “unimportant and worthless.” (By the way, I know going on Oprah is supposed to maximize visibility etc., but does anyone know what channel OWN is?) As in Buzz’s pro-Armstrong column, there’s a lot of bluster and vitriol, and the piece says more about the author than his subject. But buried amid all the flagellation (self and otherwise), Bissinger reveals some interesting details about his relationship with Armstrong.
When he reads this column, he will no doubt accuse me of jealousy and a need for revenge because I, like a thousand other journalists, was hoping that he would confess to me.I did want him to confess, because I knew it would be a nice notch on the belt, lots of pats on the head from editors who were all over me to get to the exclusive. I did coo in his ear, playing the familiar but odious game of pissing on his detractors. I did write him emails saying that no journalist would treat him more fairly than me. I detested those emails. I was only further contributing to the slime.
