Wednesday, October 31

The Trustee Chronicles Part III - Lies and Contradictions

Voices of the Board of Trustees - Deceptions, Contradictions and Failure.                By Linda Berkland - SMSS FREEHdom Fighter

       For the past year, Penn State’s Board of Trustees has promised a new culture of openness and transparency.  As part of this new era, the Board has; allotted time at their meetings for public comments and questions, spoken openly to student groups and organizations and held several press conferences.  

Despite these initiatives (or perhaps because of them), a significant portion of the Penn State community continues to feel misled and deceived. What they have is a failure to communicate and a serious case of foot in mouth disease brought on by an inability to rationally justify decisions that are wholly unjustifiable. 

Serious questions have been raised by the people who are paying attention:
  1.  When did the board first learn of investigations into Jerry Sandusky
  2.  How did they fail to see the damaging impact of firing of Joe Paterno, 
  3.  Why and how was Louis Freeh hired to conduct his investigation, and 
  4.  Why was the Freeh report authorized as the basis for the NCAA Sanctions without a basic review of the legitimacy of the "evidence" and conclusions?
What was the Board thinking and what were they protecting? Why do these questions continue to be asked on a near daily basis as the board asserts that they have been answered time and again? This video supplies the obvious answer.  

Peetz and Frazier
This compilation of video clips from various press conferences, board meetings and public gatherings reveal the answers that have been given to questions surrounding the Freeh report. Consider these responses back to back from different members, and it becomes increasingly clear why many in the Penn State community still feel we lack believable answers to these very important questions a year after the investigation of Jerry Sandusky became public knowledge.  

If the board wishes to hold out any hope that the community will move forward, it will have to begin by giving real, honest answers, instead of self-serving responses that only serve to anger, obfuscate, and confuse. 
Editors note: Linda Berkland has assembled a stunning array of video clips of PSU BoT members attempting to explain the inexplicable. This video of statements from the leaders selected to protect the best interests of Penn State University is a stinging indictment in their own words and voices. One bad decision has led to another compounding the initial mistake of failing to stand behind a good and decent man who gave a life of service to the university. 
The leaders of this board, particularly John P. Surma, Karen Peetz, Ken Frazier, and Gov. Tom Corbett sought the expediency of sacrificing Joe Paterno and the football program in order to satisfy their own conflicted self-interests creating a conflict that will have no end until they acknowledge their failure and resign. Warning: viewing this video can cause significant discomfort and anger - please take the necessary precautions to protect your equipment from self inflicted damage.  





8 comments:

  1. Can't help but think about who they DON'T mention. Cynthia Baldwin and Wendell Courtney were not on their lips!

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  2. Oh My!! Ken Frazier's own words: "In hindsight, we would have done things differently." Aren't those virtually the same words Joe used, which made HIM a total pariah in the Sandusky mess??? The hypocrisy is astounding! This 'inner circle' of the BoT all need to be summarily fired!!

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  3. Please update this video to include Karen Peetz saying in January that the BOT was going to start doing alumni town halls like Erickson did, then in September Peetz denying she ever said such a thing

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    Replies
    1. Hoping to include that clip for a future video. I already have it edited and saved :)

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  4. Something that comes to mind when I watch your video and read this post is that Judge Freeh held a press conference to announce his findings BEFORE sharing them with the Board of Trustees. This raises the question in my mind of "what was the ultimate motive behind hiring him?" I can only come up with one: justifying the Board's actions surrounding the firing of Joe Paterno.

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  5. When is Karen and Rodney going to grow a backbone and stop being the "puppets" for John Surma and Ken Frazier?...Notice how Frazier gets VERY indignant when the reporter asks an important question?...The entire BOT are LIARS and they need to tenure their resignations NOW because the alumni are NOT going away!!!...*chantin* RESIGN BOT!!!...RESIGN BOT!!!...RESIGN BOT!!!...

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  6. CONCLUSIVE PROOF THAT KAREN PEETZ TOLD AN OUTRIGHT FALSEHOOD IN THE NOV/DEC PENN STATER

    Peetz in the Penn Stater (p. 41) “We’re not planning to make any statements about the guilt or innocence of any of the parties involved [in the Freeh Report].”
    Peetz in July, right after Freeh’s press conference http://www.npr.org/2012/07/13/156706851/paternos-legacy-marred-by-psu-sex-abuse-report
    “I think our reaction is that the clarity that’s come out of the report would show that 61 years of excellent service that Joe [Paterno] gave to the university is now marred.”
    Peetz’s colleague Ken Frazier, at the same time: http://live.psu.edu/story/60356
    “Frazier said the board failed to provide proper oversight, as trustees remained unaware of the allegations against Sandusky from when they were first reported in 1998 until 2011, though it acted decisively once information became public in November 2011. Administrative leaders — including at the time President Graham Spanier, Coach Joe Paterno, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and Senior Vice President Gary Schultz — failed to protect children when they had the opportunity and failed to provide adequate information to the board, he said.”
    Falsehoods told by Joe Paterno in 85 years: 0
    Falsehoods told by Karen Peetz in less than 1 year: 2
    “I think our reaction is that the clarity that’s come out of her Penn Stater interview, and her statement in a Q&A session that the Freeh Group was not hired to assign blame for Sandusky, would show that the Chairwoman of Penn State’s Board of Trustees has lost her integrity. And we have to step back and say, what does that mean?”

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  7. "Louis Freeh" and "diligence" seem to be contradictory terms.

    Thanks for this find; Dambly is now also a proven liar, noting that both Peetz and Frazier did exactly what he said the Board would not do.
    http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8378507/penn-state-board-trustees-does-not-plan-review-freeh-report

    "The four people spoken about most in the report, we're certainly not going to take a position on their guilt or innocence," trustee Mark Dambly later told reporters. "They'll go through their process ... We're going to allow that process to play out in the courts."

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