The Gary Matthews Media Check Up

It's been about eight hours since the Gary Matthews news broke, so it's probably a decent idea to revisit the day's coverage - or lack thereof - regarding what should be a bombshell story.

In other words, as commenters have noted, there has been no explicit mention of Matthews' name at ESPN or any of the other major national news outlets. (Well, except us. No. 1 on Google News, baby!)

So why the hush-hush treatment? Matthews' name was given to the Seattle Post by confidential sources, but those sources seem credible. It's hard to imagine the PI running "Gary Matthews Maybe Buys Steroids" without a decent idea that the information about the investigation was verifiable.

Still, ESPN's story doesn't even give Matthews' name an "alleged" mention. Instead, they mention Jason Grimsley (no reputation harm to be done there) and refer to "sports figures," "athletes," and "celebs."

What gives? What are your thoughts on the situation? Is Matthews falsely accused? Is he receiving a lighter treatment from the national outlets than, say, Barry Bonds or Rafael Palmeiro or Mark McGwire has? What's the deal here?

One more interesting find: I've got to sort of feel bad for the San Bernandino County Sun, who yesterday ran a feature on Gary Matthews. Bad timing, huh? What's worse, the story led with Matthews' "preparation," the sort of preparation required to make that ridiculous diving catch he made last year. Eeesh.