Behold the Power of Blogging and the Written Word

Before I get into this article, I want to make it very clear that I respect the ideas and opinions of every sports columnist, writer, and blogger. I'm writing this in response to the recent allegations that a Philadelphia-based blogger made against Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Raul Ibanez regarding steroids.

For starters, I don't agree with the allegations, and as seen on Outside The Lines today, the blogger wasn't accusing Ibanez either. It's just a simple observation of a player progressing in his later years, and unfortunately in this day and age when a player starts performing well, fans start to speculate as to where the credit is really due.

We have to address this, not only as the mainstream media, but also us as bloggers and columnists. Ken Rosenthal stated today that the written word is very powerful, which it is indeed.

What he fails to see, though, is that we live in a country with freedom of speech. Yes, it's wrong to falsely accuse someone of something; that is called libel. Yes, it is wrong to write false statements, but is it wrong to speculate?

Raul Ibanez is 37 years old and has hit 20 home runs this season. In every season previous to this he has hit an average of 22 home runs per year. Does that mean he's on steroids? Of course not, but can we blame anyone for speculating? Absolutely not.

I've read and respected Ken Rosenthal for a long time now, but I have to say that I was very much on this blogger's side today while watching OTL. Rosenthal stated that everyone has a voice and that we can't just go around making false accusations about every sporting event that occurs.

He does have a great point. The power of the written word is unbelievable. It controls so much and dictates so much. Look at it this way: There are two Super Bowl winning coaches that are currently out of a coaching job at this very moment because of the power of the written word.

At the end of the day, though, that's all media is: speculation. We predict who will win the Super Bowl or the World Series every year. It never fails. We predict who will win the batting title or even the triple crown. We predict which records will be broken and so on.

So is it a crime to predict who is on steroids or not?

Let's flip the question, though. Wouldn't it be a crime not to predict that? The players in baseball have tainted the game forever. That's not our fault as the media or as fans. When a player finally does have a good year, it's almost routine to speculate that they are on steroids. Those are the brutal facts.

That doesn't mean one should come out and proclaim that these athletes are on steroids. Maybe Rosenthal is right and these thoughts and opinions should be kept to ourselves.

At the same time, though (and again, I'm not saying this as a fact) what if Raul Ibanez confesses after this season that he was a steroid user? Then what happens? Do we continue to condemn this blogger for his innocent speculation?

I hope and pray that Ibanez is indeed clean, but I'm just making my own speculations as well.

At the end of the day we have a couple things to learn from this episode of OTL.

1. The written word is more powerful than even we know. This blogger was just writing a simple column just like we here at Bleacher Report do every day. The next thing he knows, he's on ESPN battling his opinion with Ken Rosenthal.

2. Keep things in perspective. Raul Ibanez came out publicly stating how disgusting this comment was. We as the media must be case sensitive in a way in which we don't offend anyone, most importantly athletes.

3. How do we go about doing that? It's hard not to ruffle any feathers. We all have opinions and we are entitled to that, but we can't go around speculating that everyone is on steroids because of the year they're having. That is wrong.

Bottome line: Rosenthal is right. We wouldn't have jobs without these athletes and we must respect them in every aspect.