Lots of people are jumping on Mike McQueary’s case about witnessing a sordid scene in the shower next to the locker room but not doing anything about it, either at the time or at some point during the following nine years. After having read a variety of opinions, I have mixed feelings myself. McQueary’s stock has been devalued by this Turkey, but not as much as it has by some others. [Read more…]
Paterno’s Tuesday Press Conference
Penn State media relations people have requested that questions for Joe tomorrow be restricted to the Nebraska game and Senior Day. Seems like that leaves out something pretty big. Wait, I’m thinking…
Anyhow, you can read the request verbatim at Blog, Sweat & Tears. Read it and come back, because I don’t necessarily agree with all that the author says.
Will the reporters avoid mentioning the elephant in the room?
Will the reporters avoid mentioning the elephant in the room? Not hardly. It’s going to happen and it’s going to be very interesting to see how Paterno sidesteps the questions. Will he tell reporters that he can’t answer any questions about it because it is an active court case about which he’s not permitted to speak? That would probably be a lie, because the questions would not be about Curley, or Schmidt, or Sandusky, but about Joe, and he’s not a defendant. Besides, no one tells Joe what to talk about. He decides that. However, one source has stated that Paterno will be a witness for the prosecution, so he could probably get away with stonewalling it and blaming it on the lawyers. Or will Joe just say, “You all got a memo telling you what you could ask about, and if you don’t play by the rules, you’re outta here!” There’ll probably be University police there for handling intransigent reporters. Finally, will he just walk out, declaring the press conference over?
The University would love to sanitize and filter any information pertinent to the Sandusky case through its media relations office. Control of outbound information is of paramount importance to paranoid, power grabbing university administrators. The ivory tower doesn’t like stuff getting out that isn’t approved by the ivory tower. The stuff that does go out, that they want to go out, is generally watered down or released for a specific purpose. At the university with which I was associated, for example, it was typically very difficult for the local newspaper to get certain financial records, even though the “sunshine law” says they have to fulfill such requests. However, when a certain powerful administrator — who just happened to be the Vice President of Finance and Business Affairs — wanted to get the president fired, suddenly, the local newspaper was given free reign over the president’s expense account records and anything related to them. That was the president about whom you might have read my previous mention, the one who made the mistake of paying an out of town hooker with a University credit card. Once the newspaper got hold of that information it was a hasty exit for that ex-president. In Penn State’s case, they can try to suppress information about this sordid episode, but Showergate is just too big a story for media not to use every tool the law provides to scratch and claw for their information.
So, I believe that while Paterno might succeed in restricting tomorrow’s questions to football itself, the Nebraska game, and the players, he won’t get away with that forever. That’s the great thing about the country that we live in. We still have freedom of the press. Remember that it was the press that brought down the mighty Nixon. They’re salivating over this one.
Curley, Schultz Arraigned
This post is based on tweets from the courtroom. ?????? ??? ???? ????
Penn State’s athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president of financial and business affairs Gary Schultz were arraigned today in Harrisburg, each on charges of perjury, a third degree felony, and failure to report, a summary offense. They both posted unsecured bail of $75,000 but had to surrender their passports.
The defendants’ attorneys took turns speaking of the integrity and innocence of their clients. Curley’s attorney said that the mandatory reporting law didn’t apply to Curley, that perjury was the charge of last resort when prosecutors couldn’t prove anything else, that it was unconscionable to level charges at a man of integrity, and that he was willing to go toe-to-toe in court. Meanwhile, Schultz’s attorney said that these men were the best of men, that they had themselves investigated misconduct, that the reporting law didn’t apply to Schultz but he reported anyway, and that Schultz’s statements to the grand jury were the truth and matched those made by Paterno.
It will probably be quite some time before the trial takes place, both for these men and for Sandusky himself. ??? ??????? During that time, it is likely that those who suffer the most anguish and humiliation will not be the defendants, but the alleged victims of Sandusky’s molestation. They will be besieged by reporters, investigators, and photographers, which makes an already intolerably bad situation even worse. ????? ?????
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