Last week thousands of police officers, civilians, friends and family gathered for a memorial service for murdered MIT campus police officer Sean Collier who was shot and killed by the Boston marathon bombers but whose tragic murder eventually led to their capture.
Collier's murder and the enormous outpouring of solidarity by police organizations from all over the country and from as far away as Canada, along with thousands of Boston police mourning this murdered MIT officer who was responding to a domestic disturbance call, dregs up how journalists all over the country led by ESPN journalists like Gene Wojciechowski, Jemele Hill, Johnette Howard, Jay Bilas and joined by Sean Gregory at Time magazine, disparaged Penn State campus police as not "real police" as the primary basis for their attacks and accusations against Joe Paterno in the Sandusky scandal.
The news media accused Paterno of everything from not reporting what McQueary had told him at all, to "not doing enough" because he "only" reported it to the head of Penn State Campus Police and Tim Curley, his immediate superior, and A.D.
That Penn State Campus Police weren't the "real " or legitimate police was at the heart of all of the original attacks against Paterno and was the self serving holier-than-thou and equally ignorant weapon used by journalists in all of the initial avalanche of criticism of Paterno, led by ESPN journalists, especially Jay Bilas and Stuart Scott on television and Gene Wojciechowski in print. Wojciechowski was especially strident in his attacks about going to Penn State campus police, which according to Wojciechowski, wasn't really going to the police at all.
This mantra was repeated ad infinitum by almost every journalist reporting on the Sandusky story: Paterno calling the head of Penn State campus police and his immediate superior, A.D. Tim Curley, was not, in the out of control, self-serving mob mentality of the news media at the time, reporting it at all.Campus police didn't count. Even Pennsylvania Superintendent of Police Frank Noonan, wanting to jump on the media bandwagon and get into the act said at the time Paterno "should have come to me instead". ( Would he have taken a call from the mother of Victim 2 who also went to Penn State campus police, or do you have to be a big shot like Paterno to get Frank Noonan to take your call? Or was it just that Noonan wanted free tickets?)
That Penn State campus police weren't the "real" or legitimate police was also the sole basis of the attacks by the editors of the Philadelphia Daily News who covered the front page with Paterno's picture and the words "Shame". That Paterno only reported what he was told to the head of campus police, and arranged for McQueary to meet with the head of campus police to tell his story in person was, in the self-serving, revenue generating mentality of the news media, "shameful". Never mind that William Lynn, a Philadelphia catholic priest sentenced to 6 years in prison for burning a list of 34 pedophile priests who had been molesting children for years and never reporting it on orders from Philadelphia Cardinal Bevilaqua never got the "shame" treatment from the Philadelphia Daily News. But Paterno reporting what he was told to campus police was, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, shameful. Putting the nationally known Paterno on the front page while the priest, William Lynn, a nobody whose name or face wouldn't sell a single newspaper didnt have anything to do with it, did it?
Given the tragedy of MIT officer Collier's murder in the line of duty and the outpouring of support from thousands of police officers from jurisdictions all over the country, maybe its time to realize the real shame belongs to Sean Gregory at Time, Jay Bilas, Gene Wojciechowski, almost every reporter at ESPN with the exception of Don Van Natta,and their producers, along with the editors at the Philadelphia Daily News, the reporters at Deadspin, Roland Martin at CNN, and every other person who disparaged Penn State campus police as not being "real police" and who used that as the basis for attacking Paterno.
Would any of these journalists now have the courage to write that campus police aren't real police? Would Gene Wojciechowski , Jemele Hill, Jay Bilas, Sean Gregory or Roland Martin have then guts to write it?
Maybe they'd like to tell the Penn State campus police detective who investigated Sandusky in 1998 who now works for Homeland Security that he wasn't a real detective. Maybe the evidence he presented to D.A. Ray Gricar wasn't real evidence which is why Gricar at the time declined to prosecute. Maybe the evidence campus police presented to former Pennsylvania Attorney General and now governor, Tom Corbett in 2001 wasn't real either which is why Corbett also declined to prosecute.
Most of the journalists who attacked Paterno for "only" going to Penn State campus police (none of whom ever wrote a single article attacking the church for the systematic child abuse in their midsts, or any other acts of child abuse by anyone) acted like this was a police agency made up of rent-a-cops, retired or off duty officers moonlighting for extra money, or security officers provided by some security firm instead of exactly what they are -- real police officers who trained at the police academy like any other police officers and have the same color of authority in their jurisdiction as any police officer anywhere in the country.
No one today in the news media, not Sean Gregory at Time or Roland Martin at CNN, or Jay Bilas or Gene Wojciechowski, or anyone else in the news media would dare say campus police weren't real police. They know what would happen to them if they did. No one would say that the campus police officers at the University of Central Florida, responding to a 911 call that someone had pointed a gun at another student in a dorm and who arrived with guns drawn were not real police officers. And no one now is saying the Penn State Campus Police detective who investigated Sandusky and who is now at Homeland Security was not a real police detective. Except maybe Gene Wojciechowski , Johnette Howard, Jemele Hill , Jay Bilas, Stuart Scott, Sean Gregory, Roland Martin and every other member of the news media who said Penn State campus police weren't the real police.(There are some who find fault with the fact that Gary Schultz, in a dual role was the head of campus police. They universally ignore the fact that this was the result of decisons made by the Penn State board of governors, university president and sanctioned by the Board of Trustees and had been in place for decades. Captain Tom Harmon, Chief of Penn State campus police reported to Schultz, and as far as anyone knows, with no complaints. Whatever validity, if any, there might be to the argument that Schultz wasn't qualified to be head of campus police, that was a decison made by those responsible for governance at Penn State and had nothing to do with Paterno. And nothing to do with media trashing of campus police).
This self-serving and pervasive lack of journalistic standards and principles,mostly the result of incompetence, ignorance, cowardice and ineptitude from the top down and led by journalists and executives who are more interested in generating revenue than the truth, is the biggest reason the most recent studies show at least 70% of the American public no longer trust the news media or find them credible.
Whether it was the media's swallowing of Louis Freeh's smearing of Richard Jewell as the Olympic bomber in 1996 or the lock step herd mentality that reported on the certainty of Sadaam's WMD without demanding any proof and which drove the country to war, this lack of any journalistic standards or professionalism has been going on for least 20 years. And the country has been the worse for it.
This self-serving and pervasive lack of journalistic standards and principles,mostly the result of incompetence, ignorance, cowardice and ineptitude from the top down and led by journalists and executives who are more interested in generating revenue than the truth, is the biggest reason the most recent studies show at least 70% of the American public no longer trust the news media or find them credible.
Whether it was the media's swallowing of Louis Freeh's smearing of Richard Jewell as the Olympic bomber in 1996 or the lock step herd mentality that reported on the certainty of Sadaam's WMD without demanding any proof and which drove the country to war, this lack of any journalistic standards or professionalism has been going on for least 20 years. And the country has been the worse for it.
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20 comments:
The DA's name was Ray Gricar (not Vicar).
In fact, campus police have jurisdiction on college campuses and should be the first call. They are a real police force with every power that a municipal police force polices. The Penn State Campus Police Department has 48 armed officers.
And, if I remember correctly. Every summer, hundreds of officers from around PA the State bordering, come to.PSU yearly for training by PSUPD. Hmm
JT HRIM 01
Wow! How incredibly heartless and insulting to the memory of the MIT policeman to hijack the story of his death to try to wash away the sins of Penn State and to justify the "Amen Corner" in "Happy Valley!" You demean Officer Collier's life and minimize his death in your efforts to defend your fallen idol and the sweat factory that is Penn State football. Shame on you!!
Penn state football is a sweat factory cuz the players actually work hard on the field and off...ranked highest in the nation for graduation rates among all student athletes unlike those retards in the sec and the acc...can't deny the facts!!!
Everyone in America, except for a handful of Penn State football diehards, believes that Paterno, Curley, Schultz and Spanier participated in a conspiracy to cover up child rape. The prosecutors certainly share this belief. That's why Curley et al were indicted (you conveniently failed to mention that pesky "indictment" thing). Now, you defend one member of the alleged cover-up, Paterno, by stating that he didn't cover up because he "reported" the child rape to his fellow conspirators. This is like Haldeman and Erhlichman saying, "We didn't cover up. We reported the break-in to our boss, Nixon." Why are you surprised that the media (and almost all other sentient mammals on the planet) find this "defense" laughable?
We need to DEMAND the ouster of those irresponsible journalists..... I'll start it.....espn ... Act now apologize and fire those hobos today!!
Well said.
Exactly! (Thought it's Ray Gricar, not Vicar) Thanks for posting this!!
Fu
If there was a coverup, why were so many people notified? Is that how a normal person tries to cover something up? And when does an indictment mean someone is guilty of a crime? Last I heard, it was innocent until proven guilty. The fact is, the media was so angered by Sandusky's crimes and didnt take the time to learn all the facts. They took down the one man who did the right thing his entire life because of lies and calculated attacks by the state of PA AG office. For those who still insist Paterno is guilty of anything, even morality issues, dont know the facts of the case and are still working on the 'facts' of Louis Freeh. Get educated on the matter.
This is an incredibly stupid essay. Issue was never with actual Penn State police, but with Schultz's "oversight" of said police. Schultz was neither a cop nor an investigator, and he failed to turn over what he was told to any cops or investigators. This writer's a complete moron.
"You demean Officer Collier's life and minimize his death in your efforts to defend your fallen idol and the sweat factory that is Penn State football. Shame on you!!"
As I pointed out repeatedly in the article the shame all belongs to people like you and your perverse ideas of morality. It is you who demeans the memory of Officer Collier because you demean and trivialize everthing he stood for snd believed in which is justice in the name of trying to make yourself look moral. You wear the shame well.
"This is an incredibly stupid essay. Issue was never with actual Penn State police, but with Schultz's "oversight" of said police."
This is an incredibly stupid comment by a complete moron who is totally ignorant of the fact or anything that occurred. If it was all about Schultz not doing his job Paterno would have never been criticized for going to campus police, Suprerintendent of Police in Pennsylvania, Frank Noonan never would have said Paterno should have come to him instead and no one would have been writing about campus police at all. You are clearly an idiot who not only has no possession of the facts, never read of a word of the media reports at the time and doesnt have an iota of common sense or logic either. And if you dont like how Penn State set up their structure of campus police with Schultz in charge, then say that. The structure that was in place for decades had nothing to do with reporting anything. Get it now? or are you still befuddled?
"Everyone in America, except for a handful of Penn State football diehards, believes that Paterno, Curley, Schultz and Spanier participated in a conspiracy to cover up child rape."
The fact that you think you know what everyone in America thinks says enough about your capacity to reason and is probably why you want to remain anonymous. Not everyone is a trained seal who swallows whatever authority figures throw at them and believes what they are told to believe instead of finding out for themselves. Ask Galileo.
Whoa. You're not even skilled at deflecting attention from your original point. Your whole idiotic premise was about attacks on campus police as illegitimate. But you clearly can't follow the logic. Yes, Joe Paterno told an administrator who oversees the campus police, and he does deserves credit for that. But that administrator never made actual police officers and investigators aware of the incident. That's a fact, and that matters when it comes to assessing Penn State's culpability as a whole. You're too dumb to see it.
What do you expect?
Sportswriters aren't real journalists.
Why do you truncate and change the Siclair Lewis quote in your sidebar? It makes less sense when truncated and becomes crystal clear in full, because what he predicted is already happening, to wit:
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
Common Sense, Mr. Paine would dictate that such disingenuous edits are verboten.
"Yes, Joe Paterno told an administrator who oversees the campus police..."
This is a primary point that many people are trying to make, but get dismissed as cult members when they do. How could you say Joe Paterno was part of the cover up when he reported it to his boss, and the boss of the campus police? Yes, they failed at their job and they will be punished. Yes, the University will take some blame because of their inaction, but saying Paterno was a member of this coverup is insincere. Personally, I don't think he did enough, but there is a huge difference between not doing enough, and knowingly sweeping something under the rug.
I agree it's not proven beyond a reasonable doubt Paterno was part of a cover-up, though it does seem clear that PSU officials knew Sandusky was more than just horsing around. But that's not what this idiotic essay was about. This piece of stupidity focused on whether "the media" thinks campus police are real police—a point that isn't even relevant to the issue at all.
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