Jon Stewart put a huge dent in his credibility with this interview of disgraced Olympic star Marion Jones on Monday night. Stewart has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, allows Jones to tell falsehood after falsehood, accepts all she says as fact, repeats her lies, then showers Marion with sympathy and praise.
Virtually everything Jones tells Stewart is a lie. She claims she had no idea she was taking performance enhancing drugs for years. “I trusted the people around me and didn’t ask questions,” a wide-eyed Jones tells Stewart. Yes, that is why a judge dismissed her $25 million lawsuit against her former mentor Victor Conte, who has written and spoken in-depth about injecting Marion with steroids and teaching her how to use various performance enhancers.
Jones says she was the only one “in her inner circle” who went to jail or were even tried and sentenced. Guess the four months Conte spent in jail didn’t count. Or the year of house arrest her coach Trevor Graham received.
She says she spent six months in jail for lying about steroids. The truth? Jones was sentenced to two months for lying to investigators about taking steroids. She was sentenced to four months for a check writing fraud scheme, where she gave her boyfriend Tim Montgomery $25,000 to buy heroine with intent to distribute.
This is just the latest stop in Marion’s rehab tour—previous appearances include Oprah and Good Morning America—and she has her fairy tale down pat. Still, it makes you worry about other interviews Stewart does. All the lies in her book—which Jones was hawking Monday night and you can buy on Stewart’s website—are easily dispelled. And she told more than I repeat here.
It also brings up questions of the Feds’ motives. The Bush Justice Department could never prove Jones was lying about steroids. Investigators used the check fraud to force her confession, then pounded their chests about catching a steroid cheat. Hmmm, steroids vs. heroine. Nice priorities.
But don’t expect to hear any of that in Jon’s lovefest with Marion.
