“We never
lost sight of what the true story was. Sara and the staff kept focused on what
was important.”
–Patriot News Publisher, John Kirkpatrick
By
Ray Blehar
On April 17,
2012, the Pulitzer committee announced that the Patriot News (P-N) was the Pulitzer Prize winner for local reporting for its coverage of the “explosive Penn
State sex scandal.” The citation read:
“Awarded to Sara Ganim and members of The Patriot-News
Staff, Harrisburg, Penn., for courageously revealing and adeptly covering
the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry
Sandusky.”
The fact
that the Pulitzer committee would refer to the scandal as the “Penn State sex
scandal” was a reflection of the biased coverage by the P-N. Had the paper of record
honestly reported the facts of the Sandusky matter, it would have revealed a
problem of much more significant scope that continues to endanger every child
in Pennsylvania.
In order to craft a
false narrative of a “Penn State sex scandal,” the P-N’s Pulitzer winning coverage avoided any in-depth coverage of
three significant issues in the child abuse investigation of Jerry Sandusky:
·
The
Pennsylvania statute regarding child abuse reporting;
·
The
practices and procedures for child abuse investigations; and,
·
The
roles and responsibilities child protective services.
By not
addressing these areas in its scandal coverage, the failures by the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), Office of Attorney
General (OAG) investigators, child welfare agents from the Department of Public
Welfare (DPW), Centre County Children and Youth Services (CYS), and individuals
from The Second Mile (TSM) charity, all of whom were responsible for protecting
the children from Sandusky, were not made known to the public.
P-N Publisher John Kirkpatrick’s statement that
the paper “never lost sight of the true story” was nonsense.
The true story was never written.
In late November 2011, the P-N (inadvertently?) revealed that Sara Ganim had obtained the 1998 University Park police report early in 2011. Evidence revealed she used it to break the story of the Sandusky grand jury investigation.
When Ganim's reporting is viewed through the lens of her having knowledge of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, it becomes clear that she reported known falsehoods, obfuscated facts, and biased her reports to excuse the failings of the Department of Public Welfare (DPW). In addition, P-N editor David Newhouse also avoided any mention of the 1998 police report when he described how Ganim "broke" the story. Three of the paper's Pulitzer submissions contained falsehoods and/or inaccuracies related to the 1998 report.
The P-N submitted ten works to the Pulitzer
committee for the judging of its coverage.
Each work varied in terms of accuracy and expertise; however, most of
the columns contained errors that were obvious to anyone familiar with the
details of the case. Each of those
stories should have been corrected and, in some cases, front page corrections
should have been run. However, as history
reveals, the P-N has not corrected the
vast majority of errors that plagued its articles.
The
Pulitzer jurors ,
due to their geographic dispersion, likely worked from their understanding of
the scandal based on national headlines, thus would not recognize many of the
inaccuracies in the stories.
A summary
of each Pulitzer nominated story follows.
Please note that some of the errors cited in these stories are errors
which the Pulitzer committee could have found if they had done a minimum of fact-checking.
A brief summary of errors, omissions, and biases for each story follow.
Two errors regarding the date the Sandusky investigation began.
Error about when Aaron
Fisher’s abuse began.
Error regarding who reported Fisher's incident to Clinton County CYS.
Omission of failures to follow interview procedures
by police and child welfare.
Failures to call out the phony retirement of Jerry Sandusky from The
Second Mile (TSM)
Failure to identify suspected abuse during TSM programs.
Lack of clarity regarding inflation of number of children served by the charity.
Dawn
Daniels, the mother of Aaron Fisher, lashed out at Central Mountain High School
more than she did PSU - headline was misleading.
Failure to identify child abuse reporting statute requirements.
Failure
to identify failures of CMHS officials to protect children and ensure school
safety.
Fabricated a “reporting chain” at PSU regarding the 2001
incident.
Published known falsehood of McQueary reporting an “anal rape.”
Failure to differentiate child abuse reporting requirements between PSU and TSM.
Incorrect
date on the AG’s supervision of the case.
Incorrect
time frame of recovery of the 1998 police
report.
Failure
to prioritize investigative missteps.
Exaggerated
role of Frank Noonan and additional investigators in finding victims.
Very little coverage about the TSM official - headline was misleading.
Article mostly focused on lack of transparency in management of
TSM.
Did not make clear that Sandusky’s official retirement was a
ruse.
Did not report that the charity permitted Sandusky to access
children after his abuse finding.
Focused
on insignificant relationships between PSU and TSM.
Excluded
major business relationships between TSM Board and PSU.
Excluded
naming many PSU BOT members who donated to the charity.
Wrote
false narrative that PSU built its brand through TSM (opposite was true).
Repeated false story of
2004 kitchen table meeting of Paterno and PSU officials.
Claimed that Paterno “commanded a generous salary” when he was a
very modestly paid coach compared to other major college football coaches.
Did
not fully report all of the versions of Mike McQueary’s story.
No
mention of how the child abuse reporting statute applied to individuals involved.
No
mention of child abuse reporting statute.
No
mention of requirements for a perjury conviction.
No
mention of expunging unfounded abuse reports.
Sherry Chisenhall, editor and vice president, news, The Wichita Eagle (Chair)Nicole Carroll, vice president, news
and executive editor, The Arizona Republic, Kevin Dale, news director, The Denver Post, Jane Hirt, managing editor, Chicago Tribune, John Winn Miller,
publisher, The Concord (NH) Monitor, Debra Adams Simmons, editor, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland,
OH, William Snyder*, professor
and chair, photojournalism, Rochester Institute of Technology
