echappist wrote:
monty wrote:
However, MI admits on the record that MI is “ unable to present definitive evidence to say either Ashley cheated, or that Ashley’s result is legitimate“. If that’s the case, MI’s public prosecution isn’t ready for prime time, and the wiser course of action would have been not publishing this. // I think MI and most the rest of us know what happened, or at least something fishy happened. You are reading way too much into his soft sell, and this will help him collect more evidence from others that were there and witnesses. When I see some non elite woman beat the best men in the world(last two substantial splits) I really don't need much more than that. Forget about her history, it just is one of those impossibilities. Like if you saw some top AG woman outsplit Kristian B in the run of an ironman(which he won of course). It just is not possible, just have a look at that list of top men runners over the years that put up incredible times for that section, and then with a straight face tell me that it was possible for her to out run them..The evidence collection should have been done in a much more private manner, before he (MI) decided to post for public consumption something laden with insinuations but lacking in definitive evidence (his own words, and i’m going to take his words at face value b/c his avocation deals with truth).
Instead, MI’s post is a fishing expedition, done with the aim that the accused would take the bait, b/c MI has gathered as much circumstantial evidence as he could but failed to obtain anything satisfying his standard of dispositive evidence.
The line of “[e]ither way, the truth needs to come out. The scrutiny is warranted based on the incredible performance, and Ashley’s past controversies. If it is proven that her run was legitimate, it would be a fantastic story of redemption” is nothing short of passive-aggressive goading. The accused may owe an explanation to the organizers, but she doesn’t owe MI anything. That line from MI is more desperation than anything else, made all the more stark b/c based on his track record, he hasn’t really posted half-assed insinuations before.
This is basically a half-assed prosecution that relies on plausible circumstantial evidence and hopes that reputation of MI and/or slip-up from the accused would allow MI to prove his case.
The shoddiness of MI’s post is separate from whether the accused engaged in anything untoward. Frankly, i don’t care, b/c the only reason why i know of the accused is through MI’s post (which is to say, it reached me only b/c i read about it via a proverbial poisoned chalice). For someone who built an avocation on excoriating those who cut corners, it’s all the more ironic that the same someone would cut a few corners of his own.
This particular incident surrounding the accused is of importance to you. If you to have something convincing (if not by my standard, than certainty @slowman’s standard when it comes to accusations), present evidence more convincing than what MI has gathered.
you've summed up, in a lawyer's words, the reasons behind my ongoing ambivalence about MI.
I've never liked the idea of accusing someone of cheating in a race and then inviting them to prove their innocence:
"just share your garmin files!"
-wait, who are you, MI? and why do I owe you my garmin files? what will you do with them? why are you the arbiter here?
-personally, I only got my first garmin a few years ago. they're bloody expensive. what if I don't race with one?
"look at past results!"
-if you look up my results, you'll find a lot of up and down. sometimes i race with others, or walk in a flat to finish last, or whatever. last weekend I was top-10 in a little 5k run. this weekend I'm doing a bike race with my wife. her first century, and I'm her domestique, so I'll likely finish waaay back. put those together and you've got circumstantial evidence that I must have cheated in the 5k, right?
I think there have been plenty of cases on MI of righteous busts. but there have also been a whole lot of feeding frenzied that went too far, and in at least one case directly contributed to a suicide.
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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/