Marion Jones: The Media Wins

The mainstream sports media is a powerful entity. Molding stories to sway the opinion and the minds of the consumer.

For years, we as a Nation and a people have been subjected to the purposeful psychological incarceration at the hands of those who set the agendas which fuel corporate America and the mainstream media. Bombarded by constant stories, ads, 'news', music, movies and all the other content driven avenues developed to aid our overlords in molding our thoughts, opinions and values. It's an oppressive process to ensure that we eventually see ourselves the way they want us to be seen. To ensure that we fit into the system the way they believe we should.

They not only market their products to us, they market ourselves to us. Consumers don't drive this market. The marketers drive the consumers.

If the concept didn't work, advertising wouldn't be a trillion dollar world wide industry. Media outlets wouldn't be owned by billionaires.

Our minds are conditioned to eventually believe what they tell us. To believe that we are what they say we are. To become the stereotypes that they demand we be.

Enter Marion Jones.

A graceful runner. An educated woman. A stunning athlete. And a wonderful person.

Representing her country proudly, she competed on the world stage for the glory of the American Republic. Her life spent training and sacrificing so that the day would come on which she would stand atop that platform and hear the notes of the anthem of the country for which she had been molded to live, breathe and die.

Then scandal. Accusations and insinuations.

Marion cried. She became angry. She lashed back. How dare they accuse her of foul play. How dare they say that she - who gave all she had for the Republic - had disgraced it by cheating. She denied these egregious insults and derogatory notions. Vehemently. Categorically. Believably.

The story left the front page, but never went away. The mainstream media, whenever steroid talk came up mentioned her. Always relating her achievements to the accusations.

Years go by. Her achievements and steroids become irreversibly intertwined. The mainstream media effectively, patiently and efficiently turned the name Marion Jones into a synonym for steroids.

The media is far reaching, omnipresent and reality distorting.

It also is almost always successful.

The media's reality, over time, has become Miss Jones' reality. Her past denials and truths a distant memory. Replaced by the media's version of reality. The never ending barrage similar to the ancient Chinese water torture used to drive a prisoner mad.

Finally, after virtually a decade of torture, Miss Jones has cracked. Her reality shattered. The stamina she once exercised to fight the media's relentless assault no longer able to alleviate the pressure.

Her reality succumbed to the media's manufactured definition of who Marion Jones is. The stereotype of the cheating athlete.

The cheating Negro athlete.

The desperate need to erase athletic achievement. The type of achievement that clearly defines the Negro as the superior physical human. Erase that, and the mainstream media can preserve the self worth of the white race they represent.

This is an old story. It is a common story.

It is a true story.

The same type of truth as Marion Jones' previous denials.