Platt: How do we report about our own? (Child molesting sports writer)

Philadelphia Daily News ^ | Dec. 21, 2011 | Larry Platt Editor Philadelphia Daily News

[End Times Sentinel]

(Background provided by Owl_Eagle) Legendary Philadelphia Daily News Sportswriter Bill Conlin retired abruptly yesterday amongst allegations of sex abuse reported by sister paper The Philadelphia Inquirer. Larry Platt is/was Conlin's editor.

(Snip)

I have known Bill Conlin since 1990, and before that, I knew him as a legendary voice on the page. I simply do not know how to reconcile what I've read with the man I know. I spoke to him Tuesday. He offered to retire and I immediately accepted. I knew I'd never be comfortable running his byline again.

For a long time Tuesday, we struggled with how to best acknowledge this story without knowing the facts or reporting on it ourselves. It is a strange and sad time in the newsroom, and we will do our best to cover this as if it were any other high-profile figure in Philadelphia. But of course it is not just another high-profile figure in Philadelphia.

(End excerpt)

Conlin has been synonymous with this paper for five decades, and to pretend that we know how to approach a story like this is to insult your intelligence. All I can promise you is that we will attempt to be as thorough and fair as we can possibly be - not just to the facts of the story - but also to you, our readers. And that means being as open and transparent as we can be.

[MurrietaMadman]

All I can promise you is that we will attempt to be as thorough and fair as we can possibly be - not just to the facts of the story - but also to you, our readers. And that means being as open and transparent as we can be.

And how open and transparent is that? They implied twice in two lines they aren't going to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so what's the point?

You might think, them being a newspaper and all, they'd recognize that folks don't buy that open and transparent thing anymore after being subjected to three years of Obama's version of it.

[Tribune7]

I truly pray that this isn't the start of a major trend.

I'm hoping and praying that these revelations are end of a major trend. Sandusky and Conlin would have been my last guesses at pedophiles. I wonder how many are judges and attorneys and legislators and school administrators. Oh, and Hollywood.

You are 100 percent right. There is a reason for the degradation this country has gone through. This might be it.

[MrEdd]

The solitary ones are usually gender focused.

larger “Pedophile rings” on the other hand often grab any vulnerable victim. Maybe it is a mob mentality for pedophiles thing.