Tuesday, July 5

"Undaunted" Refutes Narrative, Exposes Media Hypocrisy

Matthew Sandusky's book, Undaunted, refutes media narratives about coaches and PSU officials turning a blind eye to Sandusky's victimization children

By
Ray Blehar

In the wake of a ruling in the PSU v. PMA case, a May 6, 2016 report by NBC implied that six Penn State football coaches witnessed Jerry Sandusky abusing children.   

The report lacked any corroboration and was quickly dealt a death blow by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General who stated the allegations were unreliable and based on hearsay.

More interesting, however, is that a book written by one of the victims also refutes the NBC report.


Matthew Sandusky, in his book Undaunted explains how his adoptive father, Jerry, was able to utilize deception to convince onlookers that he was engaged in playful/harmless activities with his victims.   

On page 10, Matthew wrote:

“I know from my own experiences with Jerry that Penn State locker rooms had a coded security system where you had to punch in numbers before entering, and there was plenty of warning time to hide what you were doing before anyone came in….He had plenty of time…to assume more innocent postures with his victims when anyone entered the locker room.  At one point, he even asked an adult who entered to count for a pin hold for him on me, and the adult complied, seeing it all as innocent, or at least not suspecting enough to report anything.”


The NBC report also contained a reference to Matthew in which he claimed that investigators informed him that a coach witnessed a sex act between he and his adopted father in the PSU locker room in the early 1990s.    

Considerable evidence in the Sandusky scandal indicates that civil attorneys, and prosecutors  unduly influenced the testimony of witnesses.  

Fina switched the crime scene of the Victim 8 incident when he realized the physical properties of the locker room undermined his witness' testimony

It is certainly not a stretch to believe that OAG investigators may have fabricated the story in an attempt to use Matthew as part of their quest to convict PSU officials in the court of public opinion.

However, Undaunted strikes a serious blow to the false narrative of the football culture being to blame for enabling Jerry's crimes. 

On page 11, it states:

"Nor do I believe that "the culture of football" was to blame.  I believe it was Jerry Sandusky's grooming of...the community into believing he was a saint who was incapable of doing anything harmful to children that caused all of the blindness.  If we lay the responsibility on football and the desire to protect that program, then we take the focus away from the reality that sexual predators do not stand out to the people around them.  Offenders, in fact sometimes seem like godsends, like heroes."

And on page 12:

"I believe that the biggest scandal in college football history had little to do with college football or the people involved in it.  It had to do with Jerry Sandusky and the nature of "nice guy" sexual offenders.   In this, Jerry was a textbook case, but he was a textbook case in a course very few people have taken or understand."

Unlike most of the other individuals who received settlements from PSU, Matthew's opinion about the University's culpability appears to be far more educated and fair.  

On pages 14 and 15, he wrote:

"In theory, the possibility exists that someone in the administration suspected Jerry but was unconvinced that he was molesting boys so he did nothing about it.  But unless that person gets his day in court, I believe it is wise to give him the presumption of innocence.  Everyone knows from the example of the Catholic Church priest-child sex scandal that they did in fact vote to protect the reputation of the church over the safety of the child victims.  There is always a chance of that happening in any organization.  Yet I am not aware of any proof of it in this case."

The Real Conspiracy of Silence

Throughout the Sandusky scandal, former PA OAG officials, Louis Freeh, select members of the PSU Board of Trustees and Administration, and the entirety of the media feigned concern about the welfare of the victims and all for the purpose of convicting  Joe Paterno and PSU officials in the court of public opinion.

When PSU finally defended itself against some of the preposterous allegations made by claimants, various members of the libelous media herd criticized the University as being in denial and that it had't learned anything from the scandal.   

The fact of the matter was that President Barron was right -- and that you had to be living under a rock during the Sandusky trial to not realize the some of the allegations, especially from the 1971 claimant, were false.

And now that a Sandusky victim has come forward challenging the false narrative of PSU officials turning a blind eye to child abuse, where is the national media coverage?

Are they supporting THAT victim's story?  

No.  They're nowhere to be found.

The national media has chosen to ignore Matthew Sandusky's story -- even though he is one of the few individuals who received a settlement and used it to start a foundation to educate the public about child abuse and to assist victims.  

The media is again choosing to preserve the false narrative and sensationalism over writing a story that could actually help prevent child sexual abuse.


Calling the media hypocrites is accurate.  

Calling the media callous is even more appropriate.

A "conspiracy of silence" in the Sandusky scandal remains and it doesn't involve the three PSU officials charged with crimes. 

The real "conspiracy of silence" involves those who continue to wrongly blame Paterno and Penn State at the expense of Pennsylvania's children.

14 comments:

  1. The corrupt mainstream media may not recognize Matthew Sandusky's truth and courage put forth in his book, but a world of people who have suffered childhood abuse will. This is what really matters. And he is to be commended for using his settlement money to start a non-profit foundation for childhood sex abuse victims.

    Sadly, the lack of mainstream media coverage of his book proves unequivocally that providing information that serves the welfare of the public is not their purpose any longer. They are severely compromised and beholden to those that are feeding them these false narratives. The media false narrative seems to be the new tool of the criminal elite. And the general public, the little guys, all the rest of us, are still vulnerable and misinformed.

    And I really don't get it with independent "filmmakers" and "journalists" like John Ziegler. How can any reasonable, rationally thinking person doubt for one minute that the adoptive son of the most infamous pedophile of our time, Jerry Sandusky, was NOT molested by his sick pedophile father? I would think that most people would be incredulous upon learning that he wasn't.

    Ray, some quick questions about the Auditor General's inquiry into Corbett's 3 million dollar grant to Second Mile: Do you know if any progress has been made in finding out why the grant was approved AFTER Sandusky was suspected/sentenced? And does that grant approval process have to go through channels at PSU? If so, wouldn't this individual or individuals that were part of this dubious grant approval be considered at least a person(s) of interest? It seems to me that this would indicate someone was willing to keep the money flowing to Sandusky's pedophile Ranch.

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    Replies
    1. Truthseeker,
      Thanks for your comments.

      I have not heard about the progress of the Auditor General's investigation into the grant. However, Penn State was not involved in the grant.

      Also, Second Mile approached the Centre County Board of Commissioners in January 2011 in quest of a grant. IIRC, a grant of $3 million was approved -- but like PA's grant, eventually rescinded.

      As for people who don't believe Matt Sandusky -- well, everyone has a right to their own opinion. That's what makes America a great country. Some of those people also believe Jerry is completely innocent.

      I disagree with them, but there's likely no way I or anyone else could argue to change their opinions. The only way they will change is if Jerry confesses to abusing Matt and other children.

      Delete
  2. If I'm not mistaken, Matt went after and received a settlement from the university. If he doesn't think anyone at PSU was complicit in Jerry's crimes, what cause would he have in asking for a settlement?

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    1. Good question.

      Is Matt's charity raising money? Does Matt get paid by the charity? How do his charity's finances rate in terms of the percentage of funds that go to charity work and not overhead and fundraising?

      Delete
    2. All this suspicion over this man's motive to write a book and start a non-profit organization to help survivors of childhood sexual abuse--the suspicion seems misplaced. Why aren't you asking for the same kind of scrutiny of The Second Mile and Arrow Ministries? Why haven't our silenced politicians and our compromised media aggressively asked for financial scrutiny of The Second Mile and their connections to Arrow Ministries? I don't believe Matt Sandusky has hired quantities of shredder trucks yet, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

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    3. Philip Carey, Ray has already exhaustively researched and explained the PA corruption network's false assignment of culpability to the wrong ones at PSU. Just because the "wellspring" was opened by this corrupt network at PSU for the victims doesn't mean that Joe Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Shultz were responsible for Jerry Sandusky's crimes. This has already been proven in a court of law. Now there are corrupt administrators and especially corrupt board members at PSU that actually ARE responsible for covering up Sandusky's pedophile victim factory. They paid Louis the Liar Freeh to frame the wrong ones at PSU. Doesn't it speak volumes that Spanier, and the PSU 3 have been exonerated in a court of law? So now a real investigation is needed to uncover the true perps at PSU and their entanglement with Jerry's Second Mile.

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    4. Philip,
      Thank you for your comment and question.

      Matthew Sandusky's wife convinced him to take a settlement from PSU. He did not want to do it for the very reason that he felt people would question his motives.

      As Truthseeker notes, he used the settlement money to start a charity, Peaceful Hearts, that provides survivor services.

      If you wish to donate, there is a button at the lower right of the blog.

      Delete
    5. Tim,
      Matthew is unpaid by the charity unless it reaches a certain level of donations. The maximum he can receive is $30,000 per year.

      The charity's first IRS 990 form in not publicly available, however, the charity appears to have 4 or 5 board members (who are typically unpaid).

      If you go to donate to the charity, you will see that 4 of the 5 levels of donations go directly for survivor services. The 5th is to promote awareness.

      By all appearances, it is a low overhead, service focused charity.

      I'll see if I can get an advance copy of the IRS 990.

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    6. Truthseeker,
      We are going to get to the bottom of The Second Mile and its ties to the PA Corruption Network.

      Delete
    7. Truth: I'm just trying to make sense out of Matt's behavior. There is a lot of inconsistencies in several of these victim stories. Once Matt took a settlement from the university, he was officially blaming them for his abuse (in my opinion). To then deny their complicity is problematic to say the least.

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    8. Philip,
      He didn't take the settlement to blame PSU. In fact, there are other victims who took settlements who do not blame PSU.

      The fact of the matter is that Penn State paid the settlements without acknowledging culpability. As such, the payment of a settlement has NO MEANING in terms of culpability.

      As I wrote in an earlier blog, this was a bargaining process set up by a few people at PSU to keep those individuals from getting sued individually.

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    9. Thanks Ray, for explaining this. I posted that last reply before I saw your responses. I do see his approach however I find it inherently dishonest to acquire funding using this tactic not to mention the pilfering of university assets that result. Those funds were meant for furthering the educational assets of Pennsylvania's young people. Matt needs to find a way to make this right if he is truly sincere.

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    10. Philip,
      Matt is making this right with his charity. He is doing much more for victims that Penn State and/or anyone in the media has done -- and they've given it quite a bit of lip service.

      Matt has put actions BEFORE words.

      Delete
  3. Philip Carey - We don't know exactly what Matt told PSU to get a settlement, and may never know unless his deposition is among those the judge is releasing. Maybe he told a different story to PSU than the one in his book.

    It doesn't appear the claims were vetted much, if at all. PSU seemed very eager to pay settlements with the insurance company's money, and now are finding that the judge is not buying it.

    The fact that his charity board has two psychologists, one celebrity who is training to be a psychologist plus Matt indicates that his charity embraces the facts of child abuse, not the fictions of Freeh and the PA Attorney General.

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