You may well have heard the story about Schwarzenegger's corrupt ties with two muscle magazines: he had a multi-million dollar contract with them, including a commission on their sales of supplements ads...while he was Governor and vetoing bills that would have reined in supplement sales.
Just another Schwarzen-scandal?
Dan Morain and Peter Nicholas in the LA Times find evidence that is was something much worse, a profoundly cynical abdication of leadership on an issue that will directly affect the health of a generation of young athletes. They write:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger kept his job as executive editor of two muscle magazines — and continued to collect a portion of ad revenue as payment — for five months after telling one of the publications' top executives that he found the ads for steroid-like substances and penis enlargement inappropriate.
"These are ads which promote supplements as having almost 'anabolic steroid' properties both in the name of the products and the way their benefits are described," Schwarzenegger said in the letter, dated Feb. 25, 2005. "For us to be successful in winning our dietary supplement case in the court of public opinion, I feel we need to ensure that we adhere to a higher standard than that shown by these ads."
Did you catch that? Schwarzenegger was not upset that it was morally corrupt and profoundly cynical for him to financially gain from the sale of faux-anabolic steroids. He was upset that IT MIGHT LOOK BAD.
This is leadership?
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