So, stop me when you’ve heard this before: “Radical, corrupt news organization conspires to take down a revered American using highly dubious, if not outright fraudulent sourcing.”
But enough about CBS and Dan Rather.
Right now, Al-Jazeera appears to be making their run at journalistic infamy. At least so far. An Al Jazeera undercover probe recently linked Peyton Manning and several other high-profile athletes to PEDs as part of a documentary that ran online Sunday morning.
The report claimed that Manning received a shipment of HGH (Human Growth Hormone) in 2011 while he was rehabbing from a surgery he had that year. The report claims that a pharmacist employed by the Guyer Institute in Indiana supplied that shipment to Manning.
The source for all this is a man named Charlie Sly, who allegedly relayed the story to an undercover reporter from Al Jazeera.
Charlie Sly
All this adds up, with the rather important caveat that absolutely none of it happened. At least according to Mr. Sly, who now completely recants his statement to Al Jazeera:
“The statements on any recordings or any communications that Al-Jazeera plans to air are absolutely false and incorrect,” Mr. Sly said on YouTube. “To be clear, I am recanting any such statements and there is no truth to any statement of mine that Al Jazeera plans to air. Under no circumstances should any of those statements recordings or communications be aired.”
Al Jazzera’s undercover investigation claimed Sly worked at the Guyer Institute in Indianapolis in 2011 as a pharmacist while Manning was recovering from neck surgery. However, Sly told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that he isn’t a pharmacist and was not employed by the institute at the time.”
Sly admits telling Al Jazeera hurdler Collins that Manning and other athletes used HGH, but that he gave the false information in order to “determine whether this guy was legitimate or just trying to steal some knowledge about the business.”
The would-be accuser recanted his story to Al Jazeera after realizing the news outlet was going to use the made up claim. The news outlet pushed ahead with the report anyways.
Always a problem when your pharmacist turns out to not be a pharmacist.
When asked by NBC’s Peter King whether or not he planned to sue over the Al Jazeera report, Manning responded:
“Yeah, I probably will. I’m that angry.”
Which, may not sound very threatening to you and me. But in the massively understated world of the Mannings, that’s tantamount to war.
A war I hope he fights.
