Sometimes it seems that the news of the day is more comprised of the reporters preconceived talking points than reality. This moring, I heard a newscast that seemed to fit right in with this paradigm.
The first story was about the former assistant coach at Penn State who is alleged to have molested young boys. The reporter breathlessly announced that there were many more men who have come forward to say that they were molested as youths by this guy. After a bit more talking, the reporter announced that what has actually happened is that the lawyer for some of those previously claiming abuse now says that others who may have been abused have contacted him about possibly representing them. So, we have no names or identities, no statements about what happened, no way to verify if the lawyer is reporting the conversations correctly and nor even the most minimal proof that there are more who were abused. Still, the possibly baseless story fits in with the current talking points that the assistant coach was a monster about whom Penn State did nothing. I am not saying that the guy is innocent -- that seems unlikely. I do think that the press has to refrain from going overboard to hammer the accused; there needs to be a factual basis for reporting. After all, remember the press reports about the Duke Lacrosse team and the supposed rape there. The lives of three college students were destroyed in the press and in the politically correct response on the campus. Then, it turned out they were innocent.
In contrast to the Penn State story is the coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. There have been multiple reports of rapes at protest sites around the country, but these sex crimes have been buried by the press. Rape, murder, rioting, mayhem and vandalism have been hardly covered in the media. Instead, this group gets the friendly political treatment from most of the reporters. Indeed, if you could see some of the local New York City coverage, you would think that the reporters were campaign workers for the group.
So, at Penn State we get news without facts and for Occupy Wall Street we get news despite the facts. I wonder how they would cover an Occupy Penn State movement?
2 comments:
Hi Jeff, I think what has happened to Joe Paterno is disgusting. For all his years of devotion to Penn State and its students, he receives the thank you of being tried and convicted in the press for another's crime. I cannot believe that he knew what was supposedly happening and purposefully obstructed justice. It is easy to judge someone after the fact. Roz
While I agree somewhat with Roz it is pretty clear that Penn State did waht the Bishops did in the Catholic Church and covered everything up. Paterno clearly was told what the assistant saw and that is enough for me to have done more than he did. I am pissed that the NCAA has not given Penn State the death penalty already. The season should be over and no bowl game. Trust me as the facts come out this will be uglier than any of us can imagine. This is the PSU version of the Church cover up.
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