A panel of reporters and analysts who brought the child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky into the national spotlight defended their coverage decisions during an open discussion at Penn State on Tuesday night.
“A Conversation About Covering Controversy” panel was held inside the Schwab Auditorium on the University Park campus, and was organized by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism.
Penn State alum and Patriot-News reporter Sara Ganim broke the story of the grand jury investigation in March, and told the audience that the magnitude of the story didn’t sink in until the Board of Trustees news conference, where the firing of Joe Paterno and resignation of Graham Spanier was announced.
“I just could not believe what was happening in that room,” said Ganim. “If some of us in the media are even losing a grasp on the situation, then this is really, really big.”
The New York Times Reporter Mike Viera defended the story predicting the end of Paterno’s career two days before he was terminated.
“It was never a witch hunt to get Joe Paterno, to bring down Joe Paterno,” said Viera.
Despite backlash from Penn State students, alumni and fans, ESPN correspondent Jeremy Schapp told members of the audience that the national spotlight deserved to be turned from Jerry Sandusky to Joe Paterno in the days after the charges were filed.
“Clearly, his hope was, ‘All right, I issued my statement, I’m done with it, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.’ That’s not good enough,” said Schaap.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan admitted that she was one of the harshest critics of the university, football program and the fan base, but said she’s backing her first response to the allegations and is calling for Penn State to voluntarily withdraw from a bowl game this year.
“It would be a great statement by this university, that this is such an overwhelming scandal that we get it, that this is no nonsense, and that while we’re sorry for the student athletes involved, this is no time to be celebrating football,” said Brennan.
