I’ve been critical of Dave Meltzer, bellwether of serious wrestling journalists, for failing to pursue the blatant irregularities in the public record of the Benoit investigation. In general, it’s sad that wrestling newsletters and news websites, which are quick to pounce on even the most trivial mistakes the mainstream media make about this extraordinarily secretive and complicated industry, substitute shallow chatter for hard news at the precise moments when they are uniquely qualified to contribute to the public’s better understanding of the most sensational, and arguably most important, scandal in the history of pro wrestling.
Having said that, I now notice that one of my criticisms of Meltzer, in my May 7 post “Benoit: What the Missing Voicemail Evidence Would Explain,” http://muchnick.net/babylon/2008/05/07/benoit-what-the-missing-voicemail-evidence-would-explain, may have gone too far.
When Meltzer pooh-poohed the importance of the disappeared Benoit cell phone voicemail and added that there were also missing text messages, I suggested that this showed his lack of focus: “[A]s far as I know, they got all the text messages.”
But I’ve taken a closer look at a February 12, 2008, letter by attorney Richard P. Lindsey, which catalogues all the documents available to the public under Georgia open records law. According to the list, “relevant” texts are included “with investigator’s summary.”
As we have learned from, among other things, the kid-gloves questioning of Scott James (Armstrong), the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office has had a very crabbed, WWE-serving definition of “relevant.” Dave Meltzer is right about missing text messages. Indeed, Dave may be even more right than he realized.
Irv Muchnick