THE TV PROGRAMME that made new allegations about cyclist Lance Armstrong taking drugs has refused to apologise and said that its story is “truthful, accurate and fair”.
The CBS News television programme recently exposed new allegations that the seven-time Tour de France winner may have used performance-enhancing drugs whilst competing at the Tour de Suisse in 2001.
Lawyers for the star demanded an on-air apology from the ’60 Minutes’ team with their client repeatedly denying all allegations that he engaged in doping.
However, a statement, issued by the chairman of CBS News Jeff Fager and published on The Hollywood Reporter reads:
60 Minutes stands by its story as truthful, accurate and fair.Lance Armstrong and his lawyers were given numerous opportunities to respond to every detail of our reporting for weeks prior to the broadcast and their written responses were fairly and accurately included in the story.
Mr Armstrong still has not addressed charges by teammates Tyler Hamilton and George Hincapie that he used performance enhancing drugs with them.
In the programme, former team-mate Tyler Hamilton alleges that he himself used performance-enchancers and that he saw Armstrong use a drug called EPO, which increases red blood cell count and enhances endurance.
Armstrong immediately rebuffed the assertions by his former team-mate but that hasn’t stopped a number of other stories emerging.
These include one by the Associated Press that the Swiss anti-doping laboratory informed federal authorities in the US last autumn that Lance Armstrong’s test results from the 2001 Tour de Suisse were “suspicious” and “consistent with EPO use.”
