Media critic David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun on the Ray Rice story:
TMZ did the job the mainstream sports media failed to do in showing us the ugliness of this incident. And don’t talk to me about paying for video. Everybody does it in one form or another today, from the networks to the cable channels to the biggest mainstream web outlets in the world.
I wonder how all the fine Baltimore fans who gave Rice a standing ovation when he ran on the field at M&T Bank Stadium before an exhibition game against the San Francisco 49ers last month are now feeling about their actions in the wake of this video?
I wonder how all the local hosts on sports radio and newscasters on local TV affiliates who swallowed the Ravens shameless spin all summer and reproduced it on their shows are feeling today. Was it worth it to compromise yourselves this way so as to not have Ravens management glaring at you when you came over to cover the team?
I wonder how Ravens management is feeling today. I wonder if there is anyone in that organization who tried to minimize or bury what Rice did who can now look the women in his or her life in the eye and not feel a need to apologize. And this goes from Steve Bisciotti, Ozzie Newsome and John Harbaugh on down.
Forget Roger Goodell. He’s pathetic. The national media did to him what we didn’t do here in Baltimore: Publicly shame him for the joke two-game suspension he levied against Rice. If Goodell has any shame, it’s time for him to think about an exit strategy.