Accusations of sexual misconduct in decades past. Presumptions of guilt without a hearing. No, this is not about Herman Cain. I like Cain, but have no clue about the claims made against him. But I know a little about what is happening to Joe Paterno at Penn State.
In the aftermath of accusations of pedophilia against his former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, Paterno has been summarily fired without a hearing. In 2002, Paterno went to his superiors after being informed of some type of abuse, and asked them to investigate the matter, the severity of which he was seemingly unaware. In Pennsylvania, that is his legal requirement, and he fulfilled it. Yet it is Paterno, not the accused, who is getting most of the attention in this scandal, because he is one of the most famous and respected men in the nation. This is not about proportional guilt, but rather about collecting a scalp.
I know a little about proportional guilt. Ten years ago, I launched a website, www.healththechurch.com, to investigate the scandals in the Catholic Church. During that scandal, rather than focusing on the men who actually committed the abusive crimes, the media trained most of its investigative resources on the church hierarchy. Cardinals are much more famous than priests, and make for bigger headlines, and the bigger they come the harder they fall, as the saying goes. The media’s intent was not simply to shine the light of truth, but to make those who “should have known” the primary scapegoats.
Certainly, some bishops transferred accused clerics rather than reporting them, and deserved their calumny and infamy. In other circumstances, the hierarchy was blindsided by the scandal, and were unaware of the extent of child abuse in their church. The reason is a simple one: criminals know their activity is illegal, and they hide it assiduously. That is how criminals behave. Sandusky was no different, I am certain.
Instead, the media focused primarily on the presumed coverup. It is no coincidence that the bishops are seen as conservative, though the Church has consistently come down in favor of unions, immigration, and enhanced social services. The scandal made a previously untouchable moral bastion vulnerable to attack, and the media happily obliged, undermining what they perceived as a countervailing force to their liberal values. This while offering scant details about even the worst of the individual perpetrators. As noted, the abusers were generally unknown, so why waste ink on them when bigger targets were available? Indeed, the hazy coverage of individual priests had the additional benefit of allowing the media to paint all Catholic clergy with a broad brush, insinuating most priests were pedophiles and most pedophiles were priests. In fact, my research showed that less than one per cent of priests were chronic child abusers, and that priests accounted for less than one out of a thousand cases of abuse nationally. But who cares about facts when politics is involved?
To review, famous people learned that someone they trusted was secretly abusive, unaware of vital details. The same happened to Paterno. Like the bishops, Paterno was until this week untouchable, a great coach and a generous and decent man who educated his student-athletes and built up the Penn State family, donating a library, etc. Paterno is also considered to be conservative, his son running for Congress as a Republican. This bothered the media, but they had no ammunition to attack him. Now, his former assistant is accused of barbarism, and where does the media focus? Not on the assistant, but on his famous, beloved and conservative boss. This coverage is not about justice for the victims, which could be achieved by vigorously investigating the accusations, and instructing adults and children on how to recognize and prevent child abuse. But that doesn’t sell papers, or settle scores. This is about collecting the biggest possible scalp. It is also payback, after 40 years of hearing the conservative JoePa lauded as a great man. This is a chance to destroy a good man through guilt by association by painting with a broad brush, despite that good man having done his legal duty. Due to this media coverage, the Board of Trustees was in panic mode, and refused to even hear Paterno’s side of the story, after an impeccable 60 year career at the school, which is an absolute abrogation of any known HR policy. I’ve seen this movie before and it’s a tragedy, because the real lessons about protecting children are being ignored while the media pursues its own agenda.