Some wrongs never can be made right
Jay Mariotti
Some wrongs never can be made right
August 13, 2006
BY JAY MARIOTTI SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
One apology isn't enough for Eddie Johnson. He wants an apology every day of every week for the next year, if not for the rest of his life. The Chicago Tribune, a national radio show and a number of TV stations have smeared his fine name, mistakenly identifying the Chicago-bred basketball legend and former University of Illinois star as the Eddie Johnson charged last week with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in Florida.
And he can't shake the horror that people are associating the allegations with him, despite corrections from the offending outlets and a flurry of outrage and sympathy from the basketball and media worlds. The damage to his reputation is permanent, he fears, so haunting that he isn't ruling out legal action against the Tribune, the Jim Rome radio program -- hosted that day by Skip Bayless -- and TV stations that used his photo from Internet sources.
''I think about all the temptation I avoided growing up in Chicago, trying to do the right thing my whole life,'' said Johnson, a charitable sweetheart of a guy who runs summer camps for kids and whose rap sheet consists of a few traffic tickets. ''It's not fair that even one person is out there thinking this is me.
''Some people didn't do their homework. Because of that, 47 years is gone.''
Over the telephone from his Arizona home, he still seems in shock, angered by the bewildering mission that awaits him. Edward Arnet Johnson, who played 17 seasons in the NBA as a 6-8 dead-eye jump-shooter, is so devastated by the bizarre mixup that he has launched a crusade to let the masses know he is not ''Fast Eddie'' Johnson, who played 10 NBA seasons as a 6-2 guard and has been convicted of numerous crimes since 1989. Before anyone suggests that such mistakes subside over time, understand that high tech has yet to produce a worldwide bullhorn. Also consider what Johnson has dealt with already. Weeping childhood friends are calling him. Incensed parents are e-mailing him at his Web site, horrified that he runs camps. Imagine what his relatives thought that wretched day.
''My brother called. He was hysterical,'' Johnson said.
One apology not enough
It all started in the early hours of Wednesday morning -- 5:11 Pacific time, he says -- when his plane landed from Hawaii after a vacation. On the cell phone was his longtime friend, Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson, who told Johnson that his picture was all over the Internet for an alleged crime he didn't commit. ''I was a little taken aback. I figured they'd correct it quickly,'' he said. ''Then, as I was driving home, it hit me: This guy got arrested for the [alleged] rape of an 8-year-old. I get home and hear about the Tribune article. A few hours later, Skip Bayless is killing me on Jim Rome.''
The phone hasn't stopped ringing since. Most of the calls are from Chicago, where the Tribune sports section ran an item in its late-edition notes package Wednesday that somehow assumed in the headline and first paragraph that the local Eddie Johnson was the one in trouble. Associate managing editor for sports Dan McGrath moved quickly to correct the error and apologize to Johnson on the Tribune's Web site and in the print edition the next day. But Johnson wasn't impressed. One had to scroll down farther than necessary on the Web site to find the correction, which was buried under baseball and football headlines and looked like a footnote.
''It doesn't go away. That doesn't end it,'' Johnson said. ''If he tells me he's going to put in the apology for 365 days, fine. But it's just one day. What happened [Thursday], with the arrest of a potential terrorist, put the focus of the news back on that. Some people have it ingrained in the back of their minds that what they read [Wednesday] about me is still true.
''I'm not comfortable with [the correction]. It didn't apologize with the same vigor that they came after me. It's almost like they had to go 10 times the effort to make up for it. As everyone knows, the Illini fan base is huge. They just did a spread on me for making the All-Century team. They have all my numbers; call me. They've never heard anything bad about me. Just check my history.''
Mistakes happen on deadline. We all make them. But a mistake of this magnitude is rare. ''We made an inexcusable error, a human error, on deadline putting out Wednesday's paper,'' McGrath wrote by e-mail. ''We have apologized to Eddie Johnson, to his family and his friends and to our readers. The correction and the follow-up that ran in Thursday's paper is our statement on the matter.''
Truth is little consolation
Johnson is right about the fleeting nature of corrections. After particularly flagrant errors, newspapers should commit to a prominently displayed correction section in their print and Internet editions for lengthy periods. In his case, part of Johnson's livelihood suddenly is vulnerable. In addition to working as a commentator on Phoenix Suns broadcasts, he runs jump-shooting clinics in the Phoenix area for kids 11 to 18. He also does motivational speaking that focuses on overcoming a rough childhood in Cabrini-Green, where drugs, gangs and guns were daily obstacles.
Now what does he say to confused families?
''Everything I do is based on my name,'' Johnson said. ''Somebody told me a long time ago: 'The most important thing is your name. Keep your name right, and you can get inside doors.' Before this, it was, 'Eddie Johnson, Phoenix Suns, I can talk to him.' But this knocked me backwards. All I can think of is how much repair work I have.
''I got some hard e-mails on my site. I don't blame them. I called one guy back, and he was nearly in tears after he realized a mistake was made. I understand. I have a 13-year-old girl.''
Pausing from his pained rambling, he vaguely remembered playing against ''Fast Eddie,'' who also was charged with sexual battery and burglary in the alleged rape of a 25-year-old woman earlier this month. ''One time, we talked at halfcourt during a game,'' he said of the shorter, older Johnson. ''It was my second or third year, and I told him, 'You know we have a special name.' He just smiled.''
At least the proud Eddie Johnson, the innocent Eddie Johnson, has the truth on his side. But it's hard for him to cut through the bitterness of being a victim. ''If I could have picked a bad dream, it would have been these three entities getting me -- a large newspaper company, one of the most popular radio shows and an Internet company that services TV stations. I couldn't have had worse timing.
''It's unbelievable what I've had to deal with here.''
The apologies, understandably, are not accepted.
