“I have no choice but to hire somebody, because I don’t know anything about science," Landis said. "... But as soon as I hire someone, everyone is saying, ‘Oh, Floyd’s paying him.’ Well, what choice do I have?"
How about fessin' up, Floyd?
Though Scott and Strauss signed confidentiality agreements barring either from speaking about the conditions of the separation...
Wow, they both got paid. Scott got paid to help Rock beat the inevitable doping cases. Scott paid Strauss to keep his mouth shut.
Both these guys are in it for the money. Look, you want impartiality, contract these anti-doping services out to reputable sports medicine programs at accredited universities. Don't just dump all that payola in one or two people's laps. You plow that money back into the education systems, stake the reputation of the university on it and you'll see impartial results. You think Kayle Leongrande wants his blood samples scrutinized by a half dozen grad students and then validated by their professor and then later USADA and WADA?
“My own personal feeling is that science is science,” Scott told VeloNews. “It stands independent, based on the objective analysis of the data and facts at hand. You don’t need to be taking sides to reach such a conclusion."
But you can take sides, and that's the issue. To say, "I'm not biased and therefore I trust myself and so should everyone else," is a very low threshold of integrity. The threshold stands at the
appearance of a conflict of interest. If there is an
appearance, you extract yourself from the proceedings because you know people will point out the obvious conflict of interes. You wouldn't have a judge presiding over his golfing buddy's case, right? Bad example because it's happened, but clearly, if there's an appearance, you've got an issue.