Before you write off this article as just a big piece of nonsense, hear me out.
Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach from 1969-1999, is accused of very heinous crimes against children. The Grand Jury Report is sickening. If found guilty, Sandusky deserves to spend the rest of his life confined in a tiny cell, with no chance at parole.
With that being said, there is no excuse in the world that could justify the type of humiliation and vilification the media has thrust on the entire Penn State community. For three straight days, all anyone saw on TV or read in the paper is how bad Penn State is and how its entire reputation is tarnished. This lasted for three straight days, 24 hours a day. That’s 72 straight hours of negative Penn State comments and reporting that blew this terrible situation way out of proportion.
This Jerry Sandusky scandal has been labeled by the media as “the worst scandal in the history of college sports.” Fair enough, I just
Penn State students show support for the victims of child abuse during this candlelight vigil
have a few arguments against this. A situation very similar to this is unfolding at Syracuse University, yet compared to Penn State, there has been very little coverage of this story. On the contrary, I have seen many stories about how the basketball team at Syracuse is playing very well and that the players have handled the situation very well. There’s a reason that the players at Syracuse have handled this news well. Syracuse was offered support by the media, saying that the players are not to blame and that Syracuse is more than just one person. The complete opposite was reported about Penn State. All of the stories stated that Penn State football should forgo a bowl game, and that it will take years to rebuild a broken program.
As a result of constant media pressure, longtime football coach Joe Paterno was fired without as much as a single press conference to tell his side of the story and to answer questions from the media. How many times has Jim Boeheim been able to tell his story and answer questions from the media? Many times.
Has anyone heard of the murder that occurred at Florida A&M? Has anyone heard of the allegations of child abuse against Bill Conlin, who was a very respected baseball analyst for the Philadelphia Daily News? I’m hearing the crickets chirping.
Child abuse is a huge problem in our world today. It is our job to protect the children so that they can live a safe and happy childhood. That is why Penn State has raised over $600,000 and has pledged another $1.5 million to the fight against child abuse. A support clinic will be built at the University’s medical campus, which will provide help to all children suffering from abuse. I don’t hear this being reported by the media.
The media has publicly condemned Penn State University even though 99.99% of the people associated with the school has absolutely nothing to do with the allegations against Jerry Sandusky. 96.000 students and over 500,000 living alumni have been publicly humiliated and have been dragged through the mud over the past seven weeks. Can this compare to the pain the victims are feeling? Absolutely not. However, dragging students and alumni through the mud will not make this terrible situation any better.
Seven months later and given the university’s knowledge and complacency, I do not think its out of proportion a t all.
Seven months later and given the university’s knowledge and complacency, I do not think its out of proportion a t all.
All of you folks commenting here are in major denial as to what really happened at Penn State. Please read today’s report by Louis Freeh, Penn State’s administration and alumni should be ASHAMED of themselves, for fostering an environment to allow
(sic) pedophilia. Anyways Penn State is doomed, I know TONS of lawyers who will completely destroy Penn State’s net worth in the next couple of years – this report is just the tip of the iceburg folks!
Thank you, John DeRosier, for your accurate depiction of what happened at Penn State, though I would hardly call us “doomed.”
The media villified Penn State in general, and Coach Paterno in particular, because we have always held ourselves to a higher standard. The media revel in bringing down anyone or anything which holds itself to be above the rest. I am one of the living alumni, and it has been painful for me to see these events unfold. But I realize that sensationalism sells; and because Coach Paterno has always preached doing it the right way, the media needed to make him a villain. The Board of Trustees, cowards that they are, deflected culpability from themselves by firing President Spanier and Coach Paterno. The outside world doesn’t know Curley, Schultz, or Spanier; they only know Coach Paterno. Outsiders have been waiting for the day they could say “See, Coach Paterno, for all of his righteous speeches, is no better than the rest of us. In fact, he’s worse because he advocates child molestation.” Any one of you Penn State haters who deny this is true is deluding yourself. The outsiders are secretly glad that this very good man who devoted 61 years of his life to our University has been taken down. The disgrace here is not on Penn State and not on Coach Paterno; it is on all of the sensationalizing media and all of the petty haters.
I know that many of us alumni do not feel defeated. Do not count us out. We are fighters. We are strong. We will not be made to feel inferior. We are (still) proud! We are (still) Penn State!
I think NL1982 is delusional… The media set off a nuclear bomb at Penn State, they merely lit a tiny flame at Syracuse.
Yeah, the media commented on Penn State donating the bowl funds, but continued by saying that it is not enough and that the University is garbage blah blah blah BS BS BS.
Investigations in the past by ESPN? Are they child services or the FBI? All I know is that ESPN kept that tape from authorities in 2005, saying they weren’t morally obligated to give that tape to the authorities… Hmmm they say that, yet they crucify Joe Paterno.. Hypocrites…
Just another disillusional fan.
There were plenty of coverage for both PS and SU. If there were any “less” coverage over the scandal at SU, it’s because there had already been investigations in the past by ESPN, the city’s newspaper, and by the folks at the university. The “victims” at SU has now filed for character defamation suit. “Character defamation.” It must really not be for money. Right…
Also, there were plenty coverage on Penn State donating its bowl funds for charities. Clearly, you’re all ears when the media says something negative but the moment they say anything nice, you ignore it.
Good job on this quality piece of journalism.
Thank you for an excellent article. Hopefully as saner heads such as yours prevail those truly guilty will be punished and those who were crucified by the media and the Penn State Board of Trustees for no good reason will be vindicated.
I agree with you but you were way too nice. I would have mentioned that maybe Syracuse was treated differently because many sports journalists are alums. I would have mentioned the hypocrisy that Boeheim blamed the victims and is still coaching and Paterno reported Sandusky and got fired. The coverage at Penn State was beyond irresponsible with complete absence of fact-finding and almost fabrication of stories. Is anyone asking why NBC news reporter Jay Gray was socializing (getting drunk) with Sandusky’s lead attorney? Yes Penn State was doomed by an over-zealous media.
Thank you John DeRosier!!!
As one of those 500,000 living alumni, I would like to say thank you for this article. In times like this the real Penn State spirit is shown with raising money and awareness to prevent future abuses. In addition the media forgets that it is the Penn State dance marathon (THON) that is recognized as the worlds largest student run philanthropy. Since its inception, THON has raised over $78 million (over $9.5 million in 2011 alone) for the fight against pediatric cancer. As they say at THON it’s all ‘FTK’ (For The Kids). Not any mention about this in the media that wants everyone to believe the entire Penn State community is a bunch of child abusers! Anyone not familiar, check out thon.org. Additionally, those current players that everyone thought should not go to a bowl……..of the final BCS rankings, they hold the number one ranking for academics. Again, no mention in the media!!
Doomed is overstating it, but the collective media definitely threw the University in the shower for the sake of its own gratification. Now the school’s a victim as well and will it live with this for a long time.