Lindsay Jones did her job and social media destroyed her

I’ll be the first to admit that when I heard the question asked I was shocked. It was definitely unexpected in the midst of a Peyton Manning retirement presser that had up until that point  been nothing if not celebratory. Mondays being my day off I was positioned in front of my television with my laptop atop my lap “live Tweeting” the big media event. I typed “who the hell asked that!?”.

Moments later, Lindsay Jones, who I was pleased to learn was following me, responded to my Tweet: “It was me. Somebody had to ask it.”

The “it” that Lindsay asked Peyton Manning about was the allegation that he assaulted a female trainer when he was a 19 year old wunderkind QB at Tennessee. Lindsay’s exact question was this:

“Over the last few weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about things that happened 20 years ago in your career or in your life. What can you say now about them?”.

Everybody but Peyton Manning seemed unprepared for the inquiry. Football Twitter responded in shock and disgust and the assembled media nervously inhaled. Manning, for his part, simply responded to the question. He did so with the same poise as he had all the others. He wasn’t unsettled at all. His response in fact seemed rehearsed:

“First off this is a joyous day and nothing can overtake from this day. I think it is sad some people don’t understand the truth and the facts. I did not do what has been alleged. I’m not interested in re-litigating something that happened when I was 19 years old. I can’t say it any plainer than that.” He capped it off with: “Like Forrest Gump said, ‘That’s all I have to say about that.”

My initial horror toward the question immediately waned when I realized that it was Lindsay Jones who asked it. Jones is an accomplished journalist who covered the Broncos for the Denver Post before moving on to the USA Today. Her experience, credibility and general gravitas gave her the green light – at least in my mind. But thousands of people on Twitter felt differently.

I can’t recall ever having seen somebody with Lindsay’s prominence (not named Skip Bayless) be so viciously attacked via the social network. Men and women alike put her on blast. Lindsay tweeted “RIP to my mentions” and for good reason. She was called every name in the book and most of the insults slung her way were gender-specific in a way that seemed to take the women’s movement back to the dark ages. What was most surprising was that the bile directed toward her was most vicious coming from female Broncos fans.

Many people asserted that Manning’s retirement presser was neither the time nor the place for Jones to ask him about the allegations, which he had previously vociferously denied. Those people have a point. Had I been a member of the assembled media I certainly would not have asked him about it. But Jones had her reasons, as she described later yesterday afternoon when she appeared on 104.3 the Fan with Big Al and Dmac during their drivetime show. Manning, as she pointed out, does not frequently make himself available to the media. The press conference at Dove Valley was likely to be the last time he stood in front of a microphone representing himself as a part of the National Football League.

The question Jones asked was sitting in the backs of the minds of most journalists present at Dove Valley. The Tennessee story had, after all, been resuscitated in the weeks after the Super Bowl by an article in the New York Daily News and Manning had not been accessible to the media since. Still, Jones was the only person to address it. Frankly, had she not the entire press gaggle would have looked like a bunch of wussies.

As jarring as it was to hear the Tennessee topic brought up, more damage might have been done had it not. Somebody somewhere certainly would have openly wondered how “the Sheriff” had been allowed to meet the press for as long as he did to have nobody hold his feet to the fire over the allegations. Silence on the matter would have been fodder for critics of Manning, who see him as having always received favorable treatment from reporters – as was alleged by the New York Daily News.

By addressing the Tennessee allegations and by phrasing her question in the way that she did Lindsay Jones not only exhibited the high journalistic standards that she is known for, she actually did Manning a favor. Nobody can accuse him of ducking the issue nor can anybody imply that the press is frightened of asking Manning the tough questions.

Jones did not put Manning on the spot in the interest of drawing attention to herself. She wasn’t showboating and she wasn’t seeking a spotlight. She was just doing her job. If she regrets anything about the matter it’s probably the fact that she became a story.  The reaction that she garnered has been written about by outlets nationwide. Reporters like Jones shun that type of consideration. They prefer to fade into the woodwork and stay out of the headlines.

Lindsay Jones has been mistreated by fan boys and girls on Facebook and Twitter but among her peers and colleagues she is being hailed as a hero. As miffed as I was when I first heard her ask Peyton about a twenty-year old indiscretion I have come around to see her as one, too. Strange that it was a woman who had the balls to do the right thing.