A scandal with a different turn

The whole time following this horrible situation, one where a man in power who prides himself on his legacy and morals is having his empire collapse, I’m constantly reminded of the Catholic Church. The details of this case are not unfamiliar. Joe Paterno is an old leader, who also happens to be a Catholic, and has been elevated to almost a papal status in State College. There was news of sexual assault, and the reaction wasn’t to save the children and go to the authorities, it was to save the reputation of the establishment.

In the cases of priests being protected, extradited, and kept free from criminal charges, it reminds you of how Sandusky was allowed to leave his post free from shame, and continue his work within the community while continuing to rape children.

Things have gone differently for Penn State now that the news has come out, but why is that the case? Obviously, religion operates on a different plane than sport does, but perhaps it’s the amount of media coverage that can instantly spring up around a football team.

Honestly, it’s amazing this didn’t become huge news sooner, as it’s been three years since the original grand jury testimony. With so many eyes and phones and twitter accounts surrounding State College this week, it makes perfect sense that the story would spread in many layers and opinions throughout the world. In the past, we would rely on public displays of opinion, such as protesting and polling.

Based on what we saw from State College, we would think that the public opinion was against the firing of Joe Paterno, but based on Twitter opinion and public comments on other social networking sites, the opinion can be estimated as about 60/40 in favor of the firing.

This is a new way for us to gauge what the public thinks without relying o the media to go out and get the figures. We are instantly told what America thinks.

Thanks to social media, the news could not hide, and thus became a huge story that could no longer be swept under the rug and people could not escape without criminal prosecution. It’s a departure to how things used to run, and the old coach “JoePa” was not prepared to deal with the consequences of his misdeed.

-Tyler Hendrickson, KIN 577