_______________THE UNEASY DEATH OF FLORENCE GRIFFITH JOYNER BY KRISTINA REBELO ANDERSON (12/04/98)

I believe in full disclosure when it has an affect on the living, but I don't know what possible good can come from perpetuating rumors of how Florence Griffith Joyner died. Whether she got away with using performance enhancing drugs is irrelevant! As shocking as it may be, the final word on Flo-Jo has come down. "She's dead, Jim." Leave her alone. Allow her memory not to be dragged through the muck for some headline chaser looking for a shock effect story. If Salon had the power to exhume Flo-Jo's body in order to run the tests to prove she cheated, would that satisfy this insatiable lust for scandal? Probably not. Next we can dig up Princess Diana and check her private parts for a non-functioning penis. -- Jeff Winbush Columbus, Ohio You all should be ashamed. You are encouraging the unfounded rumors of the drug use by Florence Griffith Joyner. It is my belief that because a beautiful African-American female did many wonderful things, the media had to shoot her down, which we as African-American women are used to by now. Please, let her rest in peace and stop pouring fuel on the fire! -- Lashawna Hill Clearly, absolute evidence to support the contention of steroid use by Flo-Jo doesn't exist. Speculate all you want, but Flo-Jo was tested for drugs more often than any other athlete at the Seoul Olympics. All tests were negative. Yes, her performance at Seoul was eye-popping -- and grand, and beautiful, and elegant. That is her legacy, along with overcoming the real obstacles of growing up poor in the ghetto known as Watts, in Los Angeles. Unless Anderson has some real information to add to the long-running review of Flo-Jo's life, I suggest she try hard to overcome the pursuit of an "easy story" and do something grand in her own life. -- George D. Chapman The substance of Kristina Rebelo Anderson's article does little more than repeat what to this day still are rumors, and nothing more, of Joyner's alleged use of steroids. More disturbingly, the article expounds at length on a theory of strangulation in the death of Joyner, which the county coroner rather quickly concluded was unfounded. Why delve so deeply into an area that did not even reach the level of allegation before medical examination and of which investigation reached the conclusion that there was no evidence of foul play -- a conclusion that no other expert contacted by Anderson questioned? I can only imagine the compounding of the Joyner family's grief which will doubtless occur due to the publication of this essentially groundless article. I understand that it is not the job of a journalist to provide all the answers, but that it can be enough to raise questions. However, there should be some minimal grounding in fact, and not merely of rumor and insinuation, before a publication such as Anderson's gives credence to a story which will cause pain to a few while creating a false impression in the minds of so many more. -- Robert Anderson Kristina Rebelo Anderson's article raising suspicion regarding the death of Florence Griffith Joyner does a disservice to the profession of journalism and qualifies Salon as a true piece of trash journalism. Throughout the article, Anderson uses quotations clearly taken for their shock value and not for enlightenment. She waits three pages before reaching the only reasonable conclusion: No evidence suggests steroid use by Joyner, and no evidence supports a theory of homicide in her death. What a terrible insult you have made to both the memory of Flo-Jo and to the dignity of her widower. Perhaps the obvious conclusions in this story wouldn't sell banner ads. But publishing such character assassination makes Salon contemptible. I will never read anything published by you again. I will encourage everyone I know to "vote with their mice" as well. -- Jim Vernon N E X T+P A G E+| Bemoaning Henry Hyde's spectacle and the plight of university teaching assistants