Olympian Michael Phelps caused a minor stir in town yesteday as he plead guilty to drunk driving. There were news vans from Baltimore and Washington DC in the court house parking lot when I passed by.
Is it really so big a deal that news vans need to be dispatched to the courthouse? He was drinking and driving. Not a good thing at all, of course, but guess what? Its not like he just robbed a bank or shot a cop. Lots of people have driven while drunk (not myself, I never would, but I know of many who have). Drinking while driving doesn’t even have anything to do with his profession, nor is it in any way remarkable or even vaguely interesting. I mean c’mon, you have to put the word “Olympian” in front of his name to get people to go “Oh, yeah… that guy.” admittedly, I barely watched the Olympics, I had to google his name. His record is impressive but I doubt his name rings a bell with the average person.
Had he been an former President or a televangelist, yeah, I could see that being newsworthy.