By
Ray Blehar
I considered the
review of The Patriot News’ (P-N)
coverage of the Sandusky scandal to be a rather low priority in terms of
importance in reviewing this case.
However, once I began reviewing its coverage, I realized that that the P-N was covering up information
critical to understanding what really happened in the Sandusky scandal. In a few instances, I found that the P-N deleted a considerable amount of information that was potentially damaging to Governor Corbett and The Second
Mile (TSM) in its free on-line coverage.
While I am not certain when the P-N began deleting information, I suspect that it was some time after Kathleen Kane won the election as Attorney General and had made good on her promise to investigate the Sandusky investigation.
While I am not certain when the P-N began deleting information, I suspect that it was some time after Kathleen Kane won the election as Attorney General and had made good on her promise to investigate the Sandusky investigation.
A blogpost I authored on August 21, 2012, titled “Mother of Victim 6: “This whole thing stinks so much more than we all know,” contained a link to a January 8, 2012 P_N column that published the mother’s quote and a lot of other information that
raised questions about the Sandusky investigation. When I clicked on the link a few months ago, I
saw that the information I was seeking was missing. I was able to track down a cached
version[1] of the
original article as well as find it copied on a blog. Nearly 1,000 words were removed from the
article that revealed evidence of foot-dragging on prosecuting and investigative missteps in the Sandusky
case.
Similarly, Eileen
Morgan asked me to find a quote made by TSM's Katherine
Genovese, who revealed: “We’ve had to tell him to back off
certain kids before.” This quote was originally reported by the P-N on August 12, 2012, but was removed from an updated
version of the column. I was able to
locate the full quote in an August 14, 2012 article by the Non Profit Quarterly as well as on about a half dozen
blogs. I later found the full article on
a Yahoo blog and discovered 1,400 words were removed that were related to
potential wrong-doing by the charity and the charity's ties to Governor Corbett.
While I
didn’t review every article written on the scandal, I reviewed their Pulitzer
winning articles and other articles related to the Department of Public Welfare, Centre County Children and Youth Services, the 2008-2011 investigation, TSM, and the Sandusky trial. This analysis spans approximately 150 pages and contains 30,000 words. In other words, it is meticulously detailed and contains references that prove the P-N's coverage obfuscated critical facts, was
overly biased, was incomplete (omitted critical information), contained
falsehoods and at least one outright fabrication.
To be fair,
I assessed the quality and accuracy of the writing based on the sources which
were at the disposal of the authors at the time the article was written. These errors should have been
corrected by the editors before the article went to press. It is also notable that when information surfaced that proved information in their past columns to be erroneous, the P-N did not make corrections.
This review
was very similar to other reviews I have conducted regarding the Sandusky
case. The more I looked, the more I found. And what I found was that the P-N used its power of omission (among other techniques) to promote a false narrative of a "Penn State sex scandal."
[1]http://www.policeprostitutionandpolitics.com/pdfs_all/CHILD%20MOLESTATION%20PORNOGRAPHY%20TEACHERS%20ETC/Sports%20figures/Jerry%20Sandusky%20all/Jerry%20Sandusky's%20book,%20'Touched,'%20helped%20police%20investigation%20into%20alleged%20sex%20crimes%20%7C%20PennLive.com.pdf
Too bad you weren't hired by PSU to do what was the Freeh Report. You've done far more work than he ripped the university of
ReplyDeleteWhat we have is a Separate Reality. Tell a lie often enough, and people start believing it. Mental inception. Plant an idea in the minds of people open to suggestion, and repeat it until it becomes reality.
ReplyDeleteThe lies of victims 9 and 10 (lunch with Paterno and abuse during preseason practice) were BIG lies intended to implicate Paterno and PSU in aiding Sandusky. Fina's Janitor Hoax was embellished by Freeh as the most horrific crime committed at PSU and was unreported because the janitors feared Paterno would fire them. Not even John Ziegler has a clue as to what is going on here.
Then there is McQueary. There had to be a wall of deception to keep Paterno from knowing about his gambling problem, which could have destroyed the program and MM's career. Staff, players, and even Jay Paterno seemed to have known and covered it up. We still don't know why he associated three random slapping sounds with sex. This is a conditioned response. What kind of sexual activities was he involved in??
The Patriot news has put the questioning of "victim's" veracity off limits. They can lie all they want and be called "heros" for comming forth to lie!
Well, the Patriot News decided it was time to question the veracity of at least one victim when Kathleen Kane announced that two boys were abused as a result of the inexcusable delays in arresting Sandusky.
DeleteFina, in CYA mode, said the victim's story wasn't credible and that's why he was not part of the trial. The Patriot News lined up behind Fina.
Kane later made a statement that the boy in question had been found in the spring of 2013.....from a list of children's names found in Sandusky's home...that the police never followed up on.
Of course, the P-N also lied about their being no evidence on the public record that Victim 9 was abused in 2009. It was in their own trial coverage.
Victim 9 may well have been abused in some way, but it was not on the PSU campus, as multiple people have testified that Sandusky was never seen with a child on campus after 2001. The level of the abuse did not seem to deter V9 from sleeping over at the Sandusky's multiple times of his own free will. 16 year old boys usually don't allow people to abuse them.
DeleteI note that Aaron Fisher's stepfather was charged with 103 counts of sexual abuse of his children, but this account is strangely missing in his book. Aaron's friends stated that he wet the bed on sleep-overs long before he met Sandusky, in conflict with what he stated in his book. Aaron also lied to State Police about the details of an automobile accident which left several of his friends seriously injured.
Will the truth of this fiasco ever be revealed? Only the shadow knows!