All of the reports we have read concerning the scandal surrounding the alleged sexual predator Defense Coach Jerry Sandusky focus on Joe Paterno and the Penn State officials and ignore the biggest question of all: When did word first reach the criminal justice authorities and what did they do about it?
Given that reports suggest there may have been up to twenty-victims over a period stretching for almost a decade and their family members decry the lack of action, should we not suspect that there may have been a massive cover up by police and prosecutors to protect the reputations of Penn State football and the University?
We suspect that “Joe Pa” has not told it all yet. In fact, he may ‘take a bullet’ for the institution.
But it is time for journalists to stop taking the easy shots and start probing the sensitive and difficult questions: Who knew about Sandusky’s alleged crimes against youths, what did they do about it, and how high up did it reach?
Did it go all the way to the state’s attorney general who happened to have been Governor Tom Corbett? Nothing would surprise us. We know how hard it is to buck an establishment.
POST SCRIPT: Now we learn the following from an AP dispatch: “[Governor Tom] Corbett plans to attend Friday’s meeting of the Penn State Board of Trustees – he and three of his Cabinet secretaries are ex-officio members – and could break his public silence about the investigation that he initiated and oversaw as attorney general before he became governor in January, press secretary Kevin Harley said.” Should a potential subject of an investigation be present at such a meeting? Is Corbett trying to squelch candid discussion among the board members?
