Major Media did not unveil the PSU scandal

By Dick Miller

WE CONNECT DOTS: Did major media in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh originally ignore the investigation of child molester Jerry Sandusky? Urban newspapers have only recently shown more interest as the scandal spreads to higher-ups at Penn State University. Sandusky’s worked at the PSU athletic department for three decades.

More often major urban PA media lead coverage of big unfolding stories. In the Sandusky/PSU scandal this has not been the case. Three non-urban media sources exposed most of the startling details as the scandal began to unfold.

Sara Ganim, a 24-year-old crime reporter for the Harrisburg Patriot News, only graduated PSU’s journalism school two years before. Her revelations of the attorney general’s probe and detailed reporting of secret grand jury proceedings won her the coveted Pulitzer Prize. Ms. Ganim was originally handed the assignment because she works the crime beat. The grand jury heard testimony in Harrisburg.

More Ganim by-lines appeared as the story grew to include then Attorney General (and now Gov.) Tom Corbett’s lack of enthusiasm for pursuing Sandusky. When it became obvious the story was going to be front page for months or even years, no more experienced reporter was assigned point coverage.

Ganim was the original reporter of the unusual involvement of former Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Baldwin. First a PSU trustee, Baldwin served as the University’s in-house legal counsel. As legal counsel she drove two other PSU administrators to testify at the grand jury in Harrisburg. Both were later indicted for false testimony. While they testified Baldwin was allowed to set in the secret proceeding “representing Penn State,” according to Gamin.

Only one other journalist younger than her has ever captured a Pulitzer.

“ESPN The Magazine” carried a detailed account of PSU trustees on the weekend they fired football Coach Joe Paterno and long-time president Graham Spanier. According to the mag’s April 16 edition, Corbett, as a trustee by virtue of being governor, made a rare appearance at a meeting.

According to ESPN reporter Don Van Natta, Corbett argued for Paterno to be sacked even after he announced he would voluntarily quit at the end of the season. Corbett told fellow trustees “We have to think of the children.”

Governors seldom, if ever, attend PSU Trustee meetings despite their automatic appointment. Corbett landed in State College the night before the meeting, joined some trustees at a local bar, according to ESPN, and lobbied his position.

Now CNN has revealed the existence of decade-old emails that indicate Spanier did know early of Sandusky’s conduct but did not act. Allegedly in one email the former president even predicted such “humane” treatment (apparently) of Sandusky might come back to haunt PSU.

Gov. Corbett continues to deny that, as Attorney General, he “slow walked” the Sandusky investigation to reduce interference with his gubernatorial campaign. None of the big urban media have seriously questioned him on this issue, as of this writing.

A recent and rare story done by Post-Gazette reporters included a sidebar listing names, pictures and short bios of all the people associated with the scandal.

Despite full time reporters in Harrisburg, both the P-G and Tribune-Review have elected to go with non-bylined coverage by the Associated Press. Some of these stories may have been provided by Ganim or other reporters at the Patriot News. The Associated Press is a cooperative of sorts with member newspapers expected to contribute to each day’s edition of stories and pictures.

An AP story about the scandal actually appeared in the Youngstown Vindicator in greater length than the version published in the Tribune-Review.