Two Shining Lights Amid The Squalor

For most folks in Central Pennsylvania, this has been a tough few weeks.  This is especially true of those associated with Penn State University and fans of Penn State football.  People we know and respect have been shown to have feet of clay.  But, it seems to me that, in most unsavory scandals, there are a few persons or organizations that make tremendous contributions and cover themselves with glory.  One example is the Watergate scandal, where the Washington Post, and specifically journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, made many of the critical discoveries.  I’ve noticed the same thing with the Jerry Sandusky Penn State scandal.  I would like to shine the light on two exemplars amidst the squalor.

It is now clear that our Governor, Tom Corbett, has served us well under trying circumstances over the past several years.  The Sandusky investigation was turned over to the Attorney General’s office due to the Centre County District Attorney having a conflict of interest.  By all accounts, General Corbett and his staff did a fine job of investigating the scandal.  Equally important, there were no leaks of any significance during the investigation.  Once General Corbett became Governor Corbett, the work was turned over to our current AG, Linda Kelly.

Surely the past year or so must have been excruciating for General and then Governor Corbett.  He clearly knew that the investigation was likely to rock the Penn State football program and the University, and perhaps end the career of arguably the most powerful and revered man in the Commonwealth, Joe Paterno.  He must have wondered why Penn State was doing nothing to reduce the impact of this cancer within its vital organs.  All of this was no doubt running through his mind while he was running a high profile campaign for chief executive of the state.  He couldn’t speak about this with anyone other those directly involved in the investigation.  I don’t know how he was able to pull it off.

Since Sandusky has been indicted and Gov. Corbett has been able to speak a bit more freely, he has set exactly the right tone as an ex-officio member of Penn State’s Board of Trustees.  He correctly points out that we need to focus not on a football coach or a university, but on the defenseless children who were violated and how little was done to protect them.  Some, probably including Coach Paterno, may have barely fulfilled their legal duty, but they certainly failed these children morally.

I am perhaps the ideal person to praise our Attorney General and now Governor for his incredibly competent, moral and ethical behavior.  I’m a registered Democrat who voted for his opponent in the gubernatorial race.  I have significant differences with the Governor in some policy areas, such as his administration’s environmental policy and the decision not to impose a severance tax on Marcellus Shale gas.  But, I have never doubted Mr. Corbett’s competence and ethics, and I was not disappointed here.  All of us, Democrats, Republicans and independents, should praise Governor Corbett for his exemplary performance in handling the Sandusky scandal.

The other organization that should be singled out for praise is the Harrisburg Patriot-News.  The P-N took the lead in investigating the Sandusky scandal months ago.  They seemed to realize early on the grave consequences this might have for Penn State, its football program and Coach Joe Paterno.  The capstone was the P-N’s brave editorial on the front page of the newspaper last week calling for Paterno and Pres. Graham Spanier to leave or be fired.  The decision to express the paper’s editorial opinion in so public a way was criticized by many.  But, subsequent events and the abrupt change in public opinion have shown that the P-N got it exactly right.

There is little doubt that the full nature of this scandal would never have come out except for the tireless investigative reporting of the P-N.  In the past week, I’ve heard several national news outlets mention that the P-N has taken the lead in reporting this story.  How often does a mid-size regional newspaper get mentioned prominently in the New York Times and on National Public Radio?

Newspapers like the P-N seem to be under fire from all sides these days.  Their revenue sources are in decline, due to the rise of alternative media outlets.  Classified ads, once the backbone of a newspaper’s revenue, are now in decline in the wake of free alternatives like Craig’s List.  Lots of younger folks get all of their news from broadcast TV or cable.  Ideologues rant on talk radio about how the newspapers put their own spin on the news, rather than reporting it.  Many have said that newspapers have become the buggy whips of this new millennium, rendered irrelevant by new technology.  The P-N’s outstanding reporting and editorial response to the Sandusky scandal show that reports of the death of the regional newspaper are greatly exaggerated.  We still desperately need these independent voices to keep our politicians and public figures honest.

Here’s a figurative toast to two outstanding voices amid the squalor of the Sandusky Penn State scandal, Gov. Tom Corbett and the Harrisburg Patriot-News.