It may appear that lawsuits filed by Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard against Al Jazeera are public relations plays -- like so many lawsuits that are threatened by athletes under public pressure -- but they actually present a tremendous legal threat to the network.
We know by now that the Al Jazeera report centers around an athlete-turned-undercover-reporter, Liam Collins, who secretly videotaped a self-proclaimed expert in nutrition and supplements, Charles Sly. Sly is on camera saying that he had provided performance-enhancing drugs to a number of athletes, including Zimmerman and Howard.
But here's the issue: Because some of the contents of the story were placed in other media before it aired, Sly made his own video recording and recanted all of his assertions, including those against Zimmerman and Howard.