Ger Cromwell has a go at Tommy Campbell

Slideshowbob

I thought previously about posting a comment regarding Cromwell's twitter ''Irish Cycling'' but never bother until now ......

Now Cromwell seems to be claiming the higher ground when it comes to ''Irish cycling journalists'' on his http://twitter.com/irishcycling with his comment regarding Tommy Campbell's pieces on irishcycling.com

For someone that claims the mantle ''Irish Cycling'' on Twitter, I have on many occasions over the past few months found Cromwells tweets to be:

1. a re-hash of other people's news
2. out of date when posted
3. Sometimes inaccurate
4. Meer contention and his own worthless opinion (take his gibberish regarding Brad Wiggins / Cadel Evans transfer rumours)
5. Sporadic and unreliable

I also understand he did some ghost-writing in Irish newspapers for our Pro's which I generally found to be crap and not worth reading.

gimps

i completely disagree ger is a great journo and is on the ball with his articles. as for tommy campbell i think he is MUCK and very bias in his articles. he is very smart and embarrassing in his articles . SHANE STOKES is the best at reporting on irishcycling. bar none

Slideshowbob

gimps wrote: »

i completely disagree ger is a great journo and is on the ball with his articles. as for tommy campbell i think he is MUCK and very bias in his articles. he is very smart and embarrassing in his articles . SHANE STOKES is the best at reporting on irishcycling. bar none

Don't demote this thread to personal insults - we are talking about standards of journalism / web articles so perhaps don't call someone muck or we will probably get a slap on the wrist from a moderator.

Can you point me in the direction of some great articles by Ger please?

Chips Lovell

LOL

Slideshowbob: Ger Cronwell writes worthless gibberish
gimps: Tommy Campbell is muck
Slideshowbob: Don't drag this thread down.

Lumen

I am not a lawyer, but my layman's understanding of libel law (based entirely on a few seconds Googling) is that libel:

- Includes personal or abusive statements, accusations of professional incompetence, or of unethical, illegal or immoral behaviour, unless truth of statements can be proven. ("Proven" may mean "in court, at considerable expense").
- Excludes "fair comment" on artistic works.

Therefore specific criticism of Ger Cromwell's tweets seems reasonable, although it's a bit stalker-ish to start a thread about it.

"Tommy Campbell..is muck" is a bit close to the line; I'll assume that was a criticism of his artistic works and let it pass.

Deleting threads makes baby Jesus cry, please don't make me do it.

Also, it would be a shame to waste the meagre resources of boards on legal fees.

Chips Lovell

@Slideshowbob What makes you think Cromwell is having a go at Campbell? I presume you're referring to this post. I read "beyond a joke" as referring to what Campbell was writing about, i.e. failure to have an under-23 team at the World Cycling Championships rather than his piece itself.

niceonetom

Slideshowbob wrote: »

I have on many occasions over the past few months found Cromwells tweets to be:

1. a re-hash of other people's news
2. out of date when posted
3. Sometimes inaccurate
4. Meer contention and his own worthless opinion (take his gibberish regarding Brad Wiggins / Cadel Evans transfer rumours)
5. Sporadic and unreliable

That's what twitter IS! It's called twitter ffs, does that not give you a little clue as to the kind of stuff that it's likely to contain? It's not called newser, or profundo, or truthie, is it?

Maybe he chose his handle a bit rashly, but I don't think he claims to be acting in any sort of official capacity on twitter. It is a silly little microblogging site where people post ephemera. Move on.

If you don't like what he's saying, stop following him.

zzzzzzzz

el tonto wrote: »

@Slideshowbob What makes you think Cromwell is having a go at Campbell? I presume you're referring to this post. I read "beyond a joke" as referring to what Campbell was writing about, i.e. failure to have an under-23 team at the World Cycling Championships rather than his piece itself.

That's what I took from it too

Junior

I took from it that it was ger having a pop over Tommys gibberish. Which is a bit of the kettle calling the pot black. Ger as far as I know wrote the Roche and deignan columns, which is all credit to him, however while he may knock Tommy he's never set out to prove himself better, or set a standard that he can look down at some one else who is promoting local racing.

I spoke to Ger before I built thebike.ie to ask would he be interested in vetting in involved, he humed and hawed and eventually turned it down, I had said I want to provide a reasonable alternative to irishcycling and the reporting. So I don't think he's got a right to complain about the writing, you can't complain about something when your not willing to do anything about it.

ROK ON

@Sideshow bob.

I have noticed that some of your threads contain criticisms of Cycling Ireland/An Post and now this journalist.

I have no problem with any of this. I would like to ask however that maybe you come on to the site and give a coherent criticism of what is wrong with the sport or its organisation in Ireland presently, as well as what you would recommend. It may also be useful for those on these site who are well connected to provide a person to offer rebuttal. An online debate so to speak.

The reason I ask this is that many of us here are really only clueless enthusiastic cyclists who are not in any way informed about what you are talking about. I would find it possibly useful and informative to watch such a debate/argument unfold as long as it didnt descend into the type of criticism/touchiness that unfortunately has arisen on some of the An Post threads.

Maybe this is something that folks could have a think about. Fascinated but clueless about what is actually going on in cycling and who the personalities etc are.

alfalad

ROK ON wrote: »

@Sideshow bob.

I have noticed that some of your threads contain criticisms of Cycling Ireland/An Post and now this journalist.

I have no problem with any of this. I would like to ask however that maybe you come on to the site and give a coherent criticism of what is wrong with the sport or its organisation in Ireland presently, as well as what you would recommend. It may also be useful for those on these site who are well connected to provide a person to offer rebuttal. An online debate so to speak.

The reason I ask this is that many of us here are really only clueless enthusiastic cyclists who are not in any way informed about what you are talking about. I would find it possibly useful and informative to watch such a debate/argument unfold as long as it didnt descend into the type of criticism/touchiness that unfortunately has arisen on some of the An Post threads.

Maybe this is something that folks could have a think about. Fascinated but clueless about what is actually going on in cycling and who the personalities etc are.

I would be very interested to find out more as well!

RobFowl

Ger Cromwell
Cycling Journalist write for the Star, Mail and occasionally Indo

Tommy Campbell
General Sports and Cycling journalist writes for the Herald and Irishcycling.com

Sahne Stokes
Cycling journalist writes for the Times and cyclingnews.com

I Find Shane and Ger's stuff well written, personally don't like Tommy Campbells style and find his articles difficult to read at times.

FTR Shane is a full time cycling journalist while Ger does it part time and ghost writes alot of the Tour diaries you see in the papers.

Quigs Snr

Ok, apart from updating my own club site, I am no writer so I cannot comment on the ability of others. From a personal perspective in terms of what I like to read, Shane is pretty decent. No opinion on Ger really, his stuff is insubstantial and fluffy to me but he seems like a good writer.

Tommy, whilst I have great time for the man personally sometimes gives the impression to me that his process for his weekend previews is to spark up a bong and pick words at random from the dictionary. He is no writer thats for sure, often the sentences just do not make sense (and sometimes the content is off, for example one might find oneself listed as a favourite to win a race the coming weekend despite not having had a result all season - based seemingly on the performance of some of your teammates in races weeks earlier). That being said Tommy's stuff is sometimes so far off the wall it becomes a light hearted topic of conversation at the weekend rides, in that sense he provides a valuable service ! It's well intentioned too.

At least they are contributing something though. Unlike us bitter shower of miserable b*stards ! Its a tough old job, I know myself from my RAS updates this year, I had people emailing me to point out spelling and grammatical mistakes - to which my response was always, you try to type 2500 words on an iphone whilst semi conscious from sleep depravation my friend.

Slideshowbob

May I surmise my response to the above posts:

To Lumen – thanks for letting this thread continue. RE stalking: perhaps one man’s stalker is another man’s lover!

To El Tonto – From reading it; I assume GC actually had a go at TC with his (now removed) twitter message. I myself don’t think it was specifically about the non participation of u23 team in worlds. In any case, I deduce it was a stab at the writer ie TC. What makes you think it was regarding the u23 team issue – there hasn’t really been continued over the top re-surfacing of the topic over recent months. If the tweet stood up as valid criticism of the CI world’s qualification set up etc why is it now deleted? ! I have heard people criticise TC’s writings over the years but perhaps he does it on a voluntary basis, under time constraints – who knows? At least the substantive club / race info gets out an airing each week.

To niceonetom – I agree twitter is not called "newser, or profundo, or truthie" – you are on the ball too – it is called Twitter, so true! I would love to start a “silly little microblogging site’’ which is now worth 1,000,000,000 dollars! (Source http://mashable.com/2009/10/04/twitter-stats/ ) Any statistics on your ephemera deduction? I think most tweets remain up once posted unless they are removed ;-) BTW the way, I will “move on” and stop browsing GC’s twitter when I feel like it – I certainly don’t need your prompts!

To Rok On – I don’t recall being critical of An Post – maybe you could refresh my memory please? I stand over all I said about CI – I think it has many great attributes and people in it. I was recently critical of Phil Leigh here alright and I still stand over that.

Any elaboration available on the ways and means of me coming onto the site and giving coherent criticism? Which site do you mean? You have a list of issues? Could I make money from it? ;-)

There is far more right in Irish cycling than wrong! (refer to my more positive and praising threads) I gripe here about what I don’t like in it! I am not answerable to others to give exhaustive opinion on all n sundry! I write here as an anonymous poster – I enjoy that liberty – why would I make ‘recommendations’ here if I do not necessarily want the bother of substantiating them or taking responsibility for them!

Anyway, the online debate is alive n well by looks of this cycling forum.

For those who Rok On may refer to as “clueless enthusiastic cyclists” – I always try to reference my posts to contextualise things for those who care to read – just follow the links etc.

Finally - To Gimps - still waiting for you to point me in the direction of a great GC article!

Take care y’all

Bob

gimps

ger cromwell was behind the mag irishcycling but due to the small community that we have it unable to continue. as written above his ghost written reports from philip and nico where very well written and as for the comment above about tommy doing his reports for free well the less said about that the better.

RobFowl

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Can you point me in the direction of some great articles by Ger please?

I think this one count's as great
http://www.stamullenroadclub.com/artman2/publish/other/A_MAN_CALLED_HORSE.shtml

It was on a winter spin that I first noticed him. You couldn't miss him really. He was about a year younger than me but he was way bigger than me. He was taller and had the physique of a boxer rather than a cyclist. He rode a massive, green, 25" Mercian bike. It was the biggest frame I'd ever seen and the emerald green colour just made it stick out even more. I had been going out on these spins for a couple of winters now and had become accustomed to being the youngest in our club. The older lads were used to me now and passed on the usual titbits of information on training, diet and whatever else they thought I would benefit from. On my first spin, a few years previous, I had surprised everyone by hanging on until the last few miles, when the attacking started. Now, I could attack them if I liked, near the end. As I rode up through the line, he was on his way back from a stint on the front. We got talking and he seemed a nice enough bloke. Said his name was Brendan. He wore an old club jersey someone had obviously given him. The back of it was yellow and it had blue and green vertical stripes on the front. I smiled at the way the back of his jersey hung down over his arse, laden with food, tubes and other paraphernalia. This was his first spin with a group, he told me. It didn't show. He was as strong as a horse. In later years he even painted the word 'Horse' under his saddle in the kind of gold paint normally reserved for touching up the writing on the sidewalls of his motorbike tyres, another passion of his. This was partly done because of the encouragement he received from myself and some other young clubmates and partly because he liked the idea of having a knickname.
'Horse' suited him we thought. He was big and wild and headstrong, like a Palomino. He could be as gentle as a Shetland Pony and had the strength of a Carthorse. Brendan often raced on legs alone, while the cranial portion of his body seemed to be off on holidays somewhere. Still, he won races. More than me. As we became teammates, we became friends. When we were juniors he would call down to my house and stay until 2am some mornings, watching old cycling videos and chatting about our future professional cycling careers. He would win the green jersey in the Tour de France and I would decide betwen the polka dot jersey or numerous stage wins. My parents didn't even mind that we both had school or work the next morning. He was that sort of bloke. Likeable!
When he left school, Brendan got an apprenticeship as a carpenter and one of the first real jobs he did on his own was to roof a shed for my Da. He was a perfectionist. Everything was measured and re-measured and that little roof was his pride and joy for ages. I remember him looking at it years later and remarking how it had been his first job and how surprised he was it had stood the test of time.
Brendan's sheer physical stregth and tenacity saw him win his fair share of races. He won more than me and a bit of rivalry soon impinged on our friendship. We would never say it to each other's faces but there would be little digs now and then. Out training, he would inflict pain on my skinny frame on the flat or in a strong headwindwind. I would have to wait until the road rose sufficiently to get him back. Climbing wasn't Brendan's forte, although most of the time his sheer strength again would see him through. Brendan had this uncanny knack of being at the finish of almost every race I got hammered in. He would then comment on how 'well' I had done, with that big 'cheshire cat' grin of his that every mother, including my own, seemed to love.
He broke his leg in a motorbike accident one time and constructed a wooden contraption which he connected to the frame of a bike and he still turned up at local events, complete with leg in plaster. Guys would come over and just stare in disbelief at the timber holding Brendan's broken leg in place while he pedalled with the other leg. He was mad. Eccentric. On stage races he would do things to deliberately try and crack you. He would stroll into the room as you were about to doze off, pull open the curtains and announce that he had to sleep with the windows open! It didn't matter if it was snowing out! His kit bag would be ceremoniously turned upside down and relieved of it's contents all over the floor, preferably somewhere between the door and your bed. Nothing would be touched until after breakfast the following morning, when Brendan would simply pick what he needed for that day's stage out of the crumpled pile on the floor and refill the bag. If you didn't get up in time, you could find half your breakfast gone. He wouldn't take tablets or pills of any description either, said your body should be able to fix itself.
Brendan was good at fixing stuff. Bikes, cars, houses, it didn't matter and almost every club member got him to mend some part of their bike or do some job around the house at some stage. He was just as good at breaking stuff. Motorbikes, bikes, cars, he pranged them all. He was lucky though. If Brendan fell into a bucket of ****, he'd come out smelling of roses. He spent months in hospital one time after a motorbike accident and ended up marrying the nurse who looked after him during his stay! When he couldn't cycle any more, he became a motorbike marshal on the FBD Milk Ras and could be seen zooming past the bunch with both legs outstretched in mid-air. One year he swapped bikes with cyclist Julian Dalby for the neutralised section of the last stage. Brendan puffed through the bunch in full leathers and helmet while the equally eccentric Dalby sped past the bemused riders on Brendan's motorbike. On or off the bike, Brendan was one of the most colourful characters on the road.
On a cold and wet October night in 1998 though, his luck ran out. Brendan was on his way home from work on his motorbike. It was a wild, wet and windy night. On a back road, in the darkness, a stray cow wandered into his path and he swerved to avoid the animal. In doing so he hit an oncoming van and was killed. He was 27 and had just recently become a father for the first time. Even though we had drifted apart over the years, his funeral was one of the saddest nights I have spent. It couldn't happen to him, you thought. He was too young, too wild, too stubborn to die.
I was in my mother's garden last week. I went into the shed. The roof is still there, as good as new. On the back of the door is an FBD Milk Ras sticker. Brendan was there when I stuck it up. He always wanted to ride the Ras .Win a stage maybe. He reckoned he wasn't a good enough climber to win overall! He only ever rode once and had the misfortune to puncture after about ten miles of the first stage and spent most of the day alone. We laughed about it later, but I know he was disappointed. He wanted to leave his mark on the Ras. We were the only two from our club to finish that year. On Saturday evening, our club will promote the Brendan Carroll Memorial race. It is one of the best supported races on the calendar and the amount of motorbike marshals on the race makes it "feel like you're riding the World Championships" according to one winner. Sometimes people ride Memorial races and don't know whose memory the race is held in. What were they like? Were they a good cyclist? Brendan was what everyone tries to be. A good person, a good mate, a good son, a good husband and even a good cyclist. As a tribute to Brendan, after his death, the Ras motorbike marshals got together and gave a new trophy to the race. The Brendan Carroll Memorial trophy is now awarded to the best climber in the Ras every year. Brendan would have laughed at that. The size of him. He couldn't climb out of bed!

Slideshowbob

The above article looks like a fine piece by GC - a fitting tribute to his friend.

DirkVoodoo

That's a great article, really sucks you in and a very moving piece.

I honestly have no idea who any of these journalists are, just thought that was a nice little article.

niceonetom

Slideshowbob wrote: »

To niceonetom – I agree twitter is not called "newser, or profundo, or truthie" – you are on the ball too – it is called Twitter, so true! I would love to start a “silly little microblogging site’’ which is now worth 1,000,000,000 dollars! (Source http://mashable.com/2009/10/04/twitter-stats/ ) Any statistics on your ephemera deduction? I think most tweets remain up once posted unless they are removed ;-) BTW the way, I will “move on” and stop browsing GC’s twitter when I feel like it – I certainly don’t need your prompts!

Snide much, Bob?

For all your charm, I still don't think you actually understand what twitter is to most people - a way of communicating their little thoughts and queries, spread rumours and post the minute-to-minute events on their lives. In short (literally), the ephemera of their lives. That's it's genius, and that's why it's successful, and valuable. None of that equates to any promise that tweets will be 1.original, 2.timely, 3.accurate, 4.verifiable or 5.reliable, which was the source of your gripe in the first post. If you are looking for those things on twitter, which you apparently are, then I suggest, again, that you have failed to understand what twitter is.

If, on the other hand, you're just the type of person whose love of cycling comes a close second to your love of a good oul' complain, well, don't let me get in your way. Gripe away.

Slideshowbob

niceonetom wrote: »

Snide much, Bob?

For all your charm, I still don't think you actually understand what twitter is to most people - a way of communicating their little thoughts and queries, spread rumours and post the minute-to-minute events on their lives. In short (literally), the ephemera of their lives. That's it's genius, and that's why it's successful, and valuable. None of that equates to any promise that tweets will be 1.original, 2.timely, 3.accurate, 4.verifiable or 5.reliable, which was the source of your gripe in the first post. If you are looking for those things on twitter, which you apparently are, then I suggest, again, that you have failed to understand what twitter is.

If, on the other hand, you're just the type of person whose love of cycling comes a close second to your love of a good oul' complain, well, don't let me get in your way. Gripe away.

Snide and charming at the same time - ain't I full of acomplishments! Anyway - this analysis of twitter is decending further away from the point of my first post - namely one (glasshouse occupying i.m.h.o.) Irish cycling hack having a go at another.

The general trend of GC's twitter has been an attempt to be informing and accurate - so I took it his tweet towards TC's article to be in the same vein.

Let's face it - tweets by anyone I have read (eg Shane Stokes, Lance Armstrong, Philip Deignan) ain't generally works of pure fiction.

Don't worry about the things I love either - no need to get that personal - I'll just assure you complaining or cycling ain't top of the list.

Slideshowbob

http://twitter.com/irishcycling/status/7343271492

Junior

Slideshowbob wrote: »

http://twitter.com/irishcycling/status/7343271492

How long before it's deleted again ?

Quigs Snr

That is a bit of a dig. I know Tommys roundups can seem somewhat off the wall at times :

See latest example:

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4503.shtml



Although it's clear that Tommy's command of the Queens good english is not on a par with Cromwell's, or indeed most people, it is still very petty for Cromwell to be going on like that. If he wants the gig, this kind of carry on is not going to further his cause.

DeadMan1

tommy is great off-the-wall entertainment. a pillar of journalism

can anyone post up the text from Cromwell's comments? keep getting there too late.

Slideshowbob

DeadMan1 wrote: »

tommy is great off-the-wall entertainment. a pillar of journalism

can anyone post up the text from Cromwell's comments? keep getting there too late.

It's gone alright - maybe Ger got too near the sherry over the xmas

Bad form for a hack having to withdraw his tweets!

Junior

Meh, if you have an opinion at least have the balls to back it up and stand by it.

Slideshowbob

Junior wrote: »

Meh, if you have an opinion at least have the balls to back it up and stand by it.

what are you talking about?

Junior

Ger, having a dig, then deleting it, as if thats ok. If he believes tommy's reports are ****e, then say so, point out why, and how he (Ger) does it better, or how Tommy can do it better.

Slideshowbob

Junior wrote: »

Ger, having a dig, then deleting it, as if thats ok. If he believes tommy's reports are ****e, then say so, point out why, and how he (Ger) does it better, or how Tommy can do it better.

ah yeah - i thought u were having a go at me!

thanks for clarifying!

good point!

another thing - Cromwell says on Twitter "Philip Deignan wins Irish Cyclist of the year 2009, as voted by Irish cycling media." - Is this something he made up himself or is there any substantiation behind it? (not that I doubt the result)

Quigs Snr

Slideshowbob wrote: »

what are you talking about?

Probably Cromwell making a comment about Campbell and then that comment vanishing. Again.

Slideshowbob

In contrast to Ger Cromwell's previous acerbic commentary about Tommy Campbell's weekly irishcycling.com article, I actually found this week's TC piece to be enjoyable and informative ! !

Link:

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/

I found "Lance's friend Predicts" to be particularly interesting and hopefully it will prove to be errily accurate in relation to the Irish riders mentioned !

Chips Lovell

Quick question. You're not Tommy Campbell are you?

Slideshowbob

el tonto wrote: »

Quick question. You're not Tommy Campbell are you?

No!

PS - I just think GC has a cheek having a go - so much for respecting your elders!

dave2pvd

I was actually able to understand that TC article. He mostly used English this time. Probably using a ghost writer now.

Dura Ace

The latest offering from TC may be one of the most irrelevant articles I've seen on irishcycling.com.

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4541.shtml

A press release about triathlon.

cunavalos

Dura Ace wrote: »

The latest offering from TC may be one of the most irrelevant articles I've seen on irishcycling.com.

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4541.shtml

A press release about triathlon.

I think the answer lies in the ad below the article


Main dealers for ....you've guessed it FELT bicycles

Slideshowbob

Ger's at it again:

http://twitter.com/irishcycling/status/14360921049

Can't seem to find Ger's weekly cycling round up - oh ya - forgot I'd need to buy the high brow Irish Star for that pleasure.

RobFowl

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Ger's at it again:

http://twitter.com/irishcycling/status/14360921049

Can't seem to find Ger's weekly cycling round up - oh ya - forgot I'd need to buy the high brow Irish Star for that pleasure.

It had a photo of me in it once and even then couldn't bring myself to buy it :rolleyes:

Just a step above the Sun IMO (and as a Liverpool supporter consider that rag a step below dog sh*t)

Junior

Looks like he deleted that tweet - I think I have a print screen somewhere.

Slideshowbob

Good to see the Nobel Laureate GC is at it again:

http://twitter.com/#!/irishcycling/status/18036629713190912

http://twitter.com/#!/irishcycling/status/18036289743880193

morana

Tommys stuff , for me as a board member, is hard to stomach at times. I know him personally and try to help him whenever he wants. like this weeks nonsense about transparency, the ivca and DOL.

I think Ger is ok and Shane is the best because I know him the best of all 3. But hey they are all contributing to cycling and its welcome.

Look ssBob and all others I am here. Fire the Q's and criticism at me and I will try to answer and deal with it. We have nothing to hide....If I felt we were hiding anything I would happily resign this highly remunerated position!!!!

niceonetom

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Good to see the Nobel Laureate GC is at it again:

http://twitter.com/#!/irishcycling/status/18036629713190912

http://twitter.com/#!/irishcycling/status/18036289743880193

In fairness, that Tommy Campbell article is one god awful bit of writing. It reads like the work of a drunk child writing in a hurry.

Beasty

morana wrote: »

Look ssBob and all others I am here. Fire the Q's and criticism at me and I will try to answer and deal with it. We have nothing to hide....If I felt we were hiding anything I would happily resign this highly remunerated position!!!!

Can I request that if anyone does want to fire any questions at morana in his role as board member of Cycling Ireland they start a separate thread rather than take this one off-topic

Thanks

Beasty

Chips Lovell

Is this the piece in question?

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_5347.shtml

niceonetom

el tonto wrote: »

Is this the piece in question?

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_5347.shtml

Has to be.

Gavin

el tonto wrote: »

Is this the piece in question?

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_5347.shtml

I don't know the personalities involved, but that's really awful writing.
"After an announcement from Bloomberg, that his appearance in the Tour 2009 swelled their coffers" - WTF !?

cyclopath2001

niceonetom wrote: »

Has to be.

A bot of opinionated fun, not bad at all for a man suffering with a broken arm.

Dura Ace

"L is for Lance Armstrong who is never far from the media as they pursue truths about the US Postal Team. Like it or not Lance is as clean as a whistle."

Should Novitsky now call off his investigation based on the above?