Distance Learning- Penn State scandal: What is the real problem?

So after following media reports and social media comments made by many enraged people about the Sandusky’s sexual molestation case, I can’t help but wonder how come the media is not asking the real question: how did Sandusky get away with at least 8 sexual assaults on young boys throughout at least 15 years?

Our media and the public are instead discussing the reasons why football coach Joe Paterno should be fired or not? Paterno is merely one of at least 6 men that had knowledge of Sandusky molesting young boys, and according to the Grand Jury’s investigation: the mothers, janitors and other people working in the school campus had reported such abuse to the police, but Sandusky was never charged or fired from Penn State.

I believe the media is not doing enough to dig into the problem because investigative work and good journalism simply does not sell; instead the public is interested about the iconic football coach being fired from Penn State for not reporting something that should had also been reported by at least 5 other people. We, as a society, like to idolize people for their talents, but then love to break them down when they make a mistake. Now I am not trying to excuse Paterno, but I do think that the media and the rest of the nation are using him as a scapegoat because he is the “face” of Penn State and people like to see powerful people fall. Due to this pressure and media heat, the board at Penn State made the decision to fire Paterno, but they never considered what the victims wanted. Even the victim’s attorney thinks that Penn State made a mistake by not consulting the victims and their families about the whole situation:

http://www.thepostgame.com/commentary/201111/alleged-victims-lawyer-board-made-wrong-call-firing-paterno

This scandal was originated by the deviance of one person, and covered by the power of the Penn State university officials. And although the media has aided for this scandal to come to light, it has also aided to divert the focus on a superficial story.

As responsible citizens, we need to think about the real problem in this scandal and try to dig into finding all the facts about this unfortunate situation. Social media is a great tool for sport management professionals to find the public opinion about sports and other topics in society; however, social media is also dangerous due to the fact that many people post things that are often misleading and sometimes completely false.

M Herrera- KIN 477