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I think there is a grain of truth in what you're writing but I don't think it's the whole story. The media will portray athletes partly in how the media is treated. If an athlete is a jerk to a reporter, how likely is that reporter to write glowingly about the athlete's personality?
I often read in the sports pages about how the media loves this player or that player. The journalists have a job to do like anyone else. They appreciate it when athletes stop after a game and answer all their questions. The pro athlete has no requirement on doing that. It's not part of their job to answer questions of the media, and journalists know that. When an athlete doesn't need to do something, but helps out a reporter by answering any questions asked, they're going to like the guy and it's going to come out in the writing.
Barry Bonds was highly disrespectfull towards the media, his fellow players, and others. He was like that while he was here in Pittsburgh with the Pirates and he's apparently gotten worse. Lance Armstrong on the other hand has not only better media savvy, but more respect for other people. Or at least he's better at portraying that.
So you ask the normal person on the street here in Pittsburgh you ask them who they think is a better person and why and they'll tell you the above reasons and more. Yes the media obviously affects our perceptions because it's all we have, but those perceptions in sports about specific athletes are direct reflections on how the athlete interacts with the journalist. Pro Athletes are aware that how they interact with a local sports reporter is essentially him interacting with the entire city. If he swears at a reporter, calls him names, and insults his family...well the athlete is just begging to be portrayed like a jerk, because that's how he's portraying himself to the report. Rarely is a player nice to a reporter, answers all his questions, and is portrayed like a jerk.
Plus the visual evidence with Bonds is far more striking to most people than a vindictive french sports paper who always hated Armstrong claiming they have some evidence against him, that even the lab itself denies.
So can the media shape perceptions? Yes. Is that perception generally created by the attiude and actions of the player himself? Yes.
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