I am heading to Harrisburg on Monday to start the Curley/Schultz/Spanier trials. Enough.
Also, are "tens of thousands of alumni" pushing for a new trial for jerry?
SportsIllustrated goes deep: "Four years later, reflections on covering the Jerry Sandusky trial"
- Thread starter ChiTownLion
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I am heading to Harrisburg on Monday to start the Curley/Schultz/Spanier trials. Enough.
Also, are "tens of thousands of alumni" pushing for a new trial for jerry?
Article simply makes no sense. People cheered when JS was convicted, yet, tens of thousands pushing for a new trail? The stadium is downtown? Joe died before we could verify he knew? Joe died before he could be punished?
Not a word about all of the Freeh report lies. Not a word about no trial after four years, FOUR YEARS?
This is truly a weird article. The first bit of weirdness is the title, which begins with "Four years later, reflections on . . . ." That by itself is a study in the author's over-inflated sense of importance. You see that kind of article from a former chief of staff reflecting on a presidential term, or Woodward and Bernstein remembering the events that led to Watergate.
Moving past the title, the article reads more like a work of creative writing than journalism. I laughed and shook my head at the part about the people of Centre County living in fear that they would lose the "little affluence and stability they had . . . ." It was somehow obnoxious, condescending, uninformed, and bullshit simultaneously. Was anybody idiotic enough to think that Penn State or the Centre County economy were going to collapse because of Jerry Sandusky and the associated controversy (well, other than perhaps the author of this article and various dolts in the world of "sports journalism")?
Another false premise which is subscribed to widely (including by many PSU football fans) is that Paterno put Penn State on the map by himself and its academic reputation followed from his accomplishments. This is a nice narrative, but completely ridiculous. How do we know if the academic programs at Penn State would be the same, better, or worse if Joe Paterno never took over the football team? To the extent that some PSU football fans believe he was responsible for everything, it unfortunately plays into the narrative that these hacks can't let go of - that Joe created the school by himself and was a demigod. The truth is that Penn State University was admitted to the AAU about a decade before Paterno became the coach of the football team. While we don't have the counterfactual world of a non-Paterno led football program to compare with, it seems likely that Penn State's academic trajectory would have been pretty much the same either way. There are plenty of schools that never had much of a football program and this didn't affect anything academically (because it can't, really).
And the worst part of the article - no mention of the Second Mile or Tom Corbett (and what later became of his political career). You'd think a journalist would work those things into the story, even if they are just writing about "reflections" on the trial.
And who is Colleen Curry? I've never heard of her.
Also, the timing of the article is just weird. This story is no longer on the radar nationally, but all of sudden SI prints (essentially) a propaganda piece. WEIRD.
Moving past the title, the article reads more like a work of creative writing than journalism. I laughed and shook my head at the part about the people of Centre County living in fear that they would lose the "little affluence and stability they had . . . ." It was somehow obnoxious, condescending, uninformed, and bullshit simultaneously. Was anybody idiotic enough to think that Penn State or the Centre County economy were going to collapse because of Jerry Sandusky and the associated controversy (well, other than perhaps the author of this article and various dolts in the world of "sports journalism")?
Another false premise which is subscribed to widely (including by many PSU football fans) is that Paterno put Penn State on the map by himself and its academic reputation followed from his accomplishments. This is a nice narrative, but completely ridiculous. How do we know if the academic programs at Penn State would be the same, better, or worse if Joe Paterno never took over the football team? To the extent that some PSU football fans believe he was responsible for everything, it unfortunately plays into the narrative that these hacks can't let go of - that Joe created the school by himself and was a demigod. The truth is that Penn State University was admitted to the AAU about a decade before Paterno became the coach of the football team. While we don't have the counterfactual world of a non-Paterno led football program to compare with, it seems likely that Penn State's academic trajectory would have been pretty much the same either way. There are plenty of schools that never had much of a football program and this didn't affect anything academically (because it can't, really).
And the worst part of the article - no mention of the Second Mile or Tom Corbett (and what later became of his political career). You'd think a journalist would work those things into the story, even if they are just writing about "reflections" on the trial.
And who is Colleen Curry? I've never heard of her.
Also, the timing of the article is just weird. This story is no longer on the radar nationally, but all of sudden SI prints (essentially) a propaganda piece. WEIRD.
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Agreed with the timing of the article. When is the 4 year anniversary a benchmark timeline for anything? Maybe a 1 year, or 5 year, or 10 year - but 4 years? Very strange. It also suggest that SI - like other major magazines - has been severely marginalized by the growth of the Internet and they will publish any bit of sawdust filler in order to remain even remotely viable.
Bama, I don't think the media will jump on the free Jerry bus. However, if four years later the media knew that tens of thousands were pushing for a new trial, I know they would be more responsible. They will find out why and hopefully someone would report on that. I know that their boss would think twice about having anything inaccurate published in the story. Because it looks like PSU admits to being Pedophile enablers, the media will continue to pour it on knowing there is no consequence.
If Sports Illustrated thought that there would be a backlash, I doubt the story gets published.
Meanwhile the whole country remains convinced PSU looked the other way.
I haven't read the article linked, but is the title of the article the same as it says in the thread title? Because if so, the article about seven months early for a four year reflection of the trial, right?
