Undo Process

[howeird]

Two issues are sharing the front pages at the moment, both of them examples of the media feeding the public's lust for punishing the accused before they have all the facts, way before anyone has been proved guilty of anything.

Herman Cain is being bombarded with accusations of sexual harassment, none of which (IMHO) have the ring of truth, and two of the "victims" having taken a cash settlement from his employer (not from him, not from his lawyers, not as a court settlement).

Joe Paterno and his boss were fired for something they allegedly failed to do about 10 years ago. The accusations that someone on his staff did some horrible things does sound plausible to me, but again, we don't have anything even approaching the full story, and neither did the board of directors which fired them. And none of the board members who were on the board at the time of the alleged nastiness have stepped down or been removed, which strikes me as hypocritical.

They may all be guilty. They may not. We have a justice system in place which assumes they are not guilty until proven otherwise. . 'nuff said.

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I have to agree with you about Herman McCain, for a twisted reason: there's nothing I'd like better than to see a mangy idiot like him win the nomination. No way he'd win the election, but it might be a close race for second place against the lunatic fringe.

I've always thought the standard of conduct for political candidates was not "proven guilty in a court of law" but, rather, avoiding the appearance of impropriety. Has Hermie met that standard, in your opinion?

[howeird]

Has Hermie met that standard, in your opinion?
So far, yes. Unlike John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, Mark Souda, Larry Craig, James E. McGreevey, Bob Packwood, and my favorite Mark Sanford, the news media has failed to come up with any evidence at all that the women accusing Godfather Cain are anything except gold diggers and copycats. And their accusations are trivial - they all say he took "no" for an answer, and there was no sexual contact at all. The only wrinkle is he was married at the time (and still is, after 43 years).

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

OK. Separate question: on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate his incompetence to be president, with one being drooling idiot, and 10 being evil mastermind intent on destroying the people of Earth for his space alien overlords? (I learned how to ask questions like that watching Joe McCarthy.)

[howeird]

On a scale of Obama to JFK, he's about a Reagan.

Joe P.

[anyastacie.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I keep wanting to point out that it's unclear how much Paterno knew about the scandal and that he also did report it to his superiors - which is what he was supposed to do. He probably assumed that they had looked into it, found nothing to prove the accusations true, and assumed that the story was somehow incorrect, that someone had seen something wrong. We don't know that this is what happened, but we also don't know that it's not. I understand that Penn State was trying to take appropriate action, and I can definitely see how they came to this conclusion, but I think that they reached the solution by rushing to get this settled. It's nice to see people who think that he was treated incorrectly.

Re: Joe P.

[howeird]

Other than calling the police on the alleged molester, the action the board took does nothing to protect the children.

Re: Joe P.

[anyastacie.livejournal.com]

Protect the children from Sanduski, the molester? Seeing as Sanduski had already left the program by the time any accusations came to light in 2002, I would imagine not. Besides, according to Joe Paterno's statements, he was told solely that there was an incident in the locker room involving Sanduski, but he didn't know the details. He reported it to his superiors but, unless Paterno was lying in his statement, he had no idea that he was even dealing with a case of child molestation. Which meant his superiors didn't know, either.

If you're referring to what the board did after the entire thing came to light, what do you expect thm to do? Bar children from the games? All they can do IS turn him in and try to hold anyone involved accountable - which is why they've fired Joe Paterno, even though his level of accountability is still being questioned.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Cain's denials are far less believable in light of last night's display of his overwhelming respect for women.

Paterno went from "football with integrity" to "football before integrity" overnight. As soon as he discovered that his lack of follow-through let the abuse continue he should have resigned. Instead he focused on Saturday's game and took the nation's attention away from the victims.

And, yes, it's likely more heads at Penn State need to roll as more of the story comes out.

[howeird]

I missed last night's Cain events. I wonder if being married for 43 years indicates some amount of respect for women? Probably.

The facts about what Paterno did or failed to do are not in yet. From what I have heard so far, the atrocities were outside the football program.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Being married for 43 years could just indicate some amount of ownership over a woman. Not all long marriages are good or respectful marriages. Just sayin'.

There's a grand jury report out detailing the mountains of evidence in the Sandusky case and the cover-up that school administrators are accused of.

Paterno admitted that McQueary (who Paterno had a multi-year relationship with as a player and then as a graduate assistant in the football program, and was later hired as an assistant coach) had reported an incident involving Sandusky and a minor in the Penn State showers.

McQueary should have reported this to the Penn State University Police himself (and should be disciplined for not doing so), but he told his boss. Maybe he didn't believe that he would be taken seriously (Sandusky's history with the university, the football program and his close relationship with Paterno might make it a hard sell for a grad assistant).

Paterno could have gone to the university police chief and said "There's been an allegation, I want this investigated" and it would have happened. You are talking the most-respected person on campus. But he admitted he didn't, he just kicked it up another level, to the guys indicted in the cover-up case.

You can't say this isn't about football, or that it isn't about Penn State. It's bigger than Penn State football, but Penn State football is part of it. Sandusky's role in Penn State football gave him the bully pulpit to start the charity that gave him access to at-risk schoolboys. Sandusky's role in Penn State football gave him continuing access to Penn State facilities where the 2002 incident (and reportedly others) that got McQueary, Paterno and Penn State administration in hot water occurred. And, until this case broke, Sandusky's role in Penn State football put him in the lead for the coach position on Paterno's retirement.