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ESPN's Coverage of Joe Paterno: One Disgrace Leads to Another -- John Ziegler --
bleacherreport.com ^ | 11/10/2011 | John Ziegler

Posted on 11/10/2011 11:02:18 AM PST by reformjoy

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To: fortheDeclaration
Everything will come out in time, then I will decide how culpable Paterno is, until then I'm not going to jump on the hang Joe band wagon. I wonder why the actual witness to the assault has not also been fired? In my mind he is far more culpable then Paterno.

As for Penn State, I think the rest of the season should be cancelled and the entire athletic department let go along with upper management at Penn State.

61 posted on 11/10/2011 12:28:42 PM PST by jpsb
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To: reformjoy

OK this guy lost it at the quarter pole. This IS the biggest sports story of the decade (a couple of decades actually) and JoePa IS the key figure in it. There’s no “ESPN decided” about it, that’s reality. The biggest football coach in college history did basically nothing about finding out there was a child rapist under his employ using his facilities. Name me another story that’s even in the same range forget bigger. On the 1 to 10 scale this is somewhere in 12 or 13 territory.


62 posted on 11/10/2011 12:29:08 PM PST by discostu (How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today)
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To: jpsb

“In my mind he is far more culpable then Paterno.”

If I witness a rape, I’m not going immediately to my boss. I’m calling 9/11. I don’t get the throw it up the ladder mindset.


63 posted on 11/10/2011 12:35:23 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: Free Vulcan
I absolutely don’t see it that way, and the grand jury didn’t see it that way either. The facts of the case don’t bear that out.

Paterno was careful not to break any law - I guarantee that the reason why Paterno waited a full day to report the incident to his superiors is because he first took the time to consult an attorney to make sure that he could get away with not telling the police.

As the grand jury proved, his attorney's advice was technically correct.

There is still the matter of the moral law, however.

And the facts of the case bear out that Paterno did everything he could to suppress this incident without opening himself up to legal liability. That's good coaching.

64 posted on 11/10/2011 12:35:57 PM PST by wideawake
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To: reformjoy

I used to like Paterno. Wonder what his political affiliations were?


65 posted on 11/10/2011 12:41:37 PM PST by New Jersey Realist (America: home of the free because of the brave)
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To: dfwgator

That’s called excuse mongering. Who knew something horrible was happening and did nothing of consequence about it. On the off chance somebody was threatening him that’s MORE reason to step forward, if people capable of that were involved they could do more harm to him if he was silent, at least if he’s open they’re on the run.


66 posted on 11/10/2011 12:49:13 PM PST by discostu (How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today)
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To: wideawake

Then morally castigate him in public till the day he dies. I have no problem with that. He’s lost his job, he’s disgraced for life, he’ll die tarnished.

But that failure to act in a timely manner doesn’t mean he was the head of a coverup like people here want to claim. The 1998 incident - that was reported by #2’s mother, who didn’t witness the activity but was ticked that her kid was taking showers with the coach. She went to the police, the police dropped the investigation.

If you were Paterno, what would you do? What was he supposed to do? ‘Sorry buddy, you were accused. I know no charges were even filed but you were accused. You’re gone.’ What if it was a relative, a friend, or a co-worker? How would you react to accusations that went nowhere? Even so Sandusky was gone by ‘99.

In the 2002 incident in which no charges were filed, Paterno had not authority over him. He could have told McQueary to go away and shut up, but Paterno reported it. That doesn’t seem a smart thing to do if you are the head of a coverup. Joe gave them the perfect out to get rid of the Sandusky for good, as he obviously didn’t care if Sandusky was tossed out, because otherwise Paterno would have told McQueary to not even report it. Again the charges were dropped.

Should Joe have pursued it further? Yes he should have. But why is everyone continuing to ignore that the school But Curley, Schultz, Waddell, these guys had the inside info on what was really going on, stuff that was completely outside Joe’s circle. Things like someone else saw Sandusky with kid #2 long before McQueary did. Somehow Joe not following up is as bad as squelching an investigation TWICE with the same kid?

Not in my world buddy.


67 posted on 11/10/2011 12:54:45 PM PST by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead.)
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To: laconic

One does wonder how many members of the press (local or national) heard about this stuff long before now and let it slide instead of running with it. I have absolutely no problem with roasting Paterno and the Penn State administration and athletic department for this, but if this was an open secret around them, I find it hard to believe that nobody in the press picked it up from them.


68 posted on 11/10/2011 1:03:48 PM PST by RichInOC (Sarah Palin is at war with the left. Most Freepers are just playing the video game.)
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To: Free Vulcan
He could have told McQueary to go away and shut up

Which would have been a crime.

but Paterno reported it.

He had no choice but to report it - or else he would have made himself criminally liable. He had a choice of going to the university or going to the police, however.

That doesn’t seem a smart thing to do if you are the head of a coverup.

It's the only smart thing to do in this coverup.

To cover it up, by definition, it needs to be kept in-house.

He did just enough to satisfy McQueary and keep McQueary from feeling the need to report it elsewhere.

He did just enough to satisfy his legal obligation of reporting.

And he made sure he reported it to an insider.

That is a classic example of a coverup.

69 posted on 11/10/2011 1:04:42 PM PST by wideawake
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To: New Jersey Realist
I used to like Paterno. Wonder what his political affiliations were?

He's a RINO who said he proudly voted for Obama in 2008.

70 posted on 11/10/2011 1:08:06 PM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: buccaneer81

Not that it has any bearing on the main issue, but are you sure Joe Paterno voted for Obama? I know his son, Jay, is a big promotor of Obama (and a total incompetent) but I wasn’t aware that Joe is an Obama fan.


71 posted on 11/10/2011 1:15:27 PM PST by NittanyLion
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To: wideawake

You make many assumptions as to Paterno’s character that flies in the face of how he has lived over the years.

He was operating on hearsay, sent the witness to authorities in charge of the campus and notified them he was sending him, providing his credibility to the story.

In hindsight, he has admitted that with the knowledge has has now, he should have done more. McQueary was not specific with him, just told him he felt the actions were ‘inappopriate’.

He was not aware of other incidents as most of Central PA were not either, just look at the awards, etc. bestowed on Sandusky since then.

What is alleged to have happened was awful, horrible and Sandusky needs to be held in account.

Many people are making assumptions about what people knew and when. Let the facts come out before condemning all.


72 posted on 11/10/2011 1:16:32 PM PST by Maryland Man
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To: wideawake

If you can prove that Joe and AD Tim Curley conspired it that way, then I’d say you have something. If Joe passed it up the chain to wash his hands without knowing for sure what Curley would do, that’s not for sure the standup thing to do but doesn’t imply a deliberate coverup that Paterno was part of. It needs to be investigated further to figure out exactly how things played out and the motives involved.

Curley and the other higher ups though had many chances to flush Sandusky that Paterno never knew about and did nothing. Unless there was conspiracy, their sins were far worse than Paterno’s.


73 posted on 11/10/2011 1:23:15 PM PST by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead.)
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To: NittanyLion
Paterno Campaign Contributions
74 posted on 11/10/2011 1:39:52 PM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: buccaneer81

I suspect that there are two different Joseph Paternos on that list. The Sestak, Obama and Scott paterno donations were made by Joseph Jay Paterno, who is head coach Paterno’s son. The head coach is Joseph V Paterno, and those other entries include the middle initial.


75 posted on 11/10/2011 1:46:03 PM PST by NittanyLion
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To: reformjoy
Someone should tell this dipshit John Ziegler to read the grand jury transcript here...

http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/uploadedFiles/Press/Sandusky-Grand-Jury-Presentment.pdf

God forbid this moron does any legwork before he writes his article..the hallmark of any crappy 'journalist' in today's age...

76 posted on 11/10/2011 1:49:15 PM PST by Fedupwithit ("Live free or Die: Death is not the worst of evils" - Gen. John Stark)
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To: wideawake

You’re a lunatic.


77 posted on 11/10/2011 1:52:21 PM PST by tomkat (para bellum)
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To: WayneS

Yours is a comment worthy of being posted twice, even if in error. Spot On!!


78 posted on 11/10/2011 1:56:04 PM PST by xkaydet65 (IACTA ALEA EST!!!')
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To: reformjoy

“a University he almost literally built”

A house built upon a rotted foundation.

“We need a University the Football Team can be proud of” on display.

A University is where people go to get educated.

Apparently in some places it is more important that they play football there.

What a bunch of low rent pedophile enabling mouth breathers.


79 posted on 11/10/2011 1:57:46 PM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: Maryland Man
You make many assumptions as to Paterno’s character that flies in the face of how he has lived over the years.

Much has been made of Paterno's character.

All we really know about him is that the driving obsession of his life is coaching football - that he has eaten, breathed and slept college football for more than 60 years and that he will do anything in his power to keep coaching college football - including coaching 20 years longer than would be reasonable.

We also know that he is absolutely meticulous about following the rules of the NCAA to the letter, to ensure that his long-term football planning is unimpeded.

We know that he put his desire to coach above the best interests of his program, we also know that he is an extremely brusque and aggressive individual.

We know that he is lionized for the high graduation rate of his players - which should be a given, not cause for admiration.

We also know that he has known Jerry Sandusky personally for almost 50 years, that he spent most of his day, almost every day, with Jerry Sandusky for 30 of those years and that he could not have been unaware until 2002 of Sandusky's behavior.

He would have known that Sandusky was being investigated by the police in 1998.

80 posted on 11/10/2011 2:02:08 PM PST by wideawake
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