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Ron Bracken: Climate of secrecy led to crumbling of Camelot
CentreDaily.com (State College, PA) ^ | Nov. 11, 2011 | Ron Bracken

Posted on 11/11/2011 8:45:31 PM PST by Colofornian

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From the column: ...no one would have, could have, ever foreseen that his demise would be the result of a terrible lack of judgment involving a sordid crime against children. That was unthinkable from a man who by all accounts cherished family and children. But in the end, not being morally outraged at the alleged misconduct of Jerry Sandusky, once one of his most valued and trusted assistants, caused Paterno’s career to crumble like an ancient building in an earthquake.

From the article: He may not have known what happened prior to 1998 when the first incident involving Sandusky and a child are reported to have occurred but from that moment on he should have been on high alert to the possibility of it happening again.

See...Paterno defenders...even the former sports editor in State College finds it hard to believe that Paterno didn't know about the 1998 pedophile activities of his assistant coach.

From the column: you have to understand the culture that has prevailed for at least as long as Paterno was in charge of the football program. It was, right up until he was removed from his position Wednesday night, a climate of Kremlin-like secrecy, of tightly-controlled access, of rule by dynamic terror. It was understood that if you wanted to be around his program in a professional aspect, you did so at his pleasure and by his rules. And that kind of climate is a petri dish for what happened in what must now be called the Sandusky Scandal.

1 posted on 11/11/2011 8:45:32 PM PST by Colofornian
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To: Colofornian

PSU will not live this down in my lifetime. It is a catastrophe not ever imagined in Academia. The story is disgusting and the blind eye is criminal.


2 posted on 11/11/2011 8:54:12 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: eyedigress

Misplaced loyalty was more important than protecting the innocent children.


3 posted on 11/11/2011 9:07:32 PM PST by charlie72
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To: Colofornian

Yes, those supporting Paterno are just in denial.


4 posted on 11/11/2011 9:09:40 PM PST by mrsloungitude ( USMC Mom)
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To: Colofornian
One of the comments from the cited source is:

I didn't think it was possible, but Penn State has been able to make Michael Vick look like a choir boy...

5 posted on 11/11/2011 9:12:04 PM PST by re_nortex (DP...that's what I like about Texas.)
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To: charlie72
Misplaced loyalty was more important than protecting the innocent children.

"My honor is my loyalty."

Didn't work before and doesn't work now.

6 posted on 11/11/2011 9:20:33 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: charlie72

I guess you could call it that. If I saw a man of authority raping a small boy I don’t think my career would come to mind. GOD is very dis-pleased and it now shows the destruction of an entire university.


7 posted on 11/11/2011 9:21:23 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: Colofornian

HOW?

With all the problems in the world...5000 people rioted...over a football coach getting fired.....that kind of thinking is how it happened


8 posted on 11/11/2011 9:25:18 PM PST by skaterboy (Hate=Love....Love=Hate)
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To: eyedigress
PSU will not live this down in my lifetime. It is a catastrophe not ever imagined in Academia. The story is disgusting and the blind eye is criminal.

I hope you're right. We've seen a President's sexual entertainment in the Oval office swept under the carpet by the MSM. Of course, they had a reason to; that particular President was carrying their ideological water for them.

Penn State shouldn't expect the same treatment, unless the ideological angle comes into play.

If this scandal must go into the memory hole to protect the gay agenda, into the memory hole it will go. Or, at least, the MSM will try to put it there.

The media's attempts to cover for Clinton worked, to a point, but at a huge cost to the media itself. They lost a substantial chunk of their prestige, and of their audience, as a result of it.

I wonder if there are people somewhere, this very night, calculating the potential costs of such an effort taken again in this case. They surely know that their ability to sweep the mess off stage is much less than it was 15 years ago. They also have, or will have, heavy pressures on them from the "gay axis." The risk is, of course, that they do a Clinton-style rescue mission, with a full-court press to legitimize sodomy of children, to claim that it's "the new normal" ... and the effort fails. Not only do they waste all those resources trying to push the rope, but they lose another big chunk of audience, credibility, and prestige.

I know that sounds bizarre, but I thought the whole Lewinsky thing was utterly bizarre, and the fact that Clinton survived it completely shifted my view of the reality of America as a society. We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Will they try it? It seems, by all that is Holy, that they cannot. They must not. They won't be able to keep the larger story bottled up.

But if they can't, and if this goes beyond the isolated cases of Sandusky and Victims 1 through 9 (or whatever the upper bound is now)... if it comes out that Sandusky was passing these children around in return for some sort of compensation, it could alter the gay agenda in America. That will release powerful emotions among an element of the population that has become accustomed to getting its way no matter how outrageous its demands.

And this going into a Presidential election season. Obama is counting on support from homosexuals; they're one of his core constituencies. They will make demands on him with regard to this case and to fallout from it.

9 posted on 11/11/2011 9:26:22 PM PST by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Steely Tom

I understand the media reference but God has a special place for children. PSU could care less apparently. They will care now.


10 posted on 11/11/2011 9:31:16 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: Steely Tom

BTW, Obama will stay so far away from this his mouth will dry up.


11 posted on 11/11/2011 9:33:30 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: eyedigress
My son is 15 and said he wouldn't go to Penn State even on a full ride now. As he opined, "A lifetime of stale jokes about getting a degree from 'Pedd State' is nothing to look forward to."

Oh, did I mention? His mother and uncle are alumni.

12 posted on 11/11/2011 9:34:17 PM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: eyedigress
BTW, Obama will stay so far away from this his mouth will dry up.

Au contraire, he ran his mouth about it today.

13 posted on 11/11/2011 9:36:22 PM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: buccaneer81

I really do feel sorry for the students and especially the seniors having a great season. This is a magnitude of liability never seen in history. This school is bankrupt.


14 posted on 11/11/2011 9:36:54 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: eyedigress
I really do feel sorry for the students and especially the seniors having a great season.

I agree.

It will be interesting to see the rate of transfers from PSU next spring and the number of applications for admission next fall. I think a lot of high school kids, especially out of staters, just tossed the Penn State package in the trash.

15 posted on 11/11/2011 9:40:55 PM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: buccaneer81

Are you still in Ohio


16 posted on 11/11/2011 9:41:33 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: eyedigress
Are you still in Ohio

Yes, Columbus suburbs.

17 posted on 11/11/2011 9:42:59 PM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: buccaneer81

Just tell them to get far enough away for freedom and close enough for help. Ohio has a plethora of good schools.


18 posted on 11/11/2011 9:44:59 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: eyedigress

He’s actually interested in Miami of Ohio and the University of Cincinnati. Both are good in-state choices that are two hours away.


19 posted on 11/11/2011 9:47:08 PM PST by buccaneer81 (ECOMCON)
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To: eyedigress
BTW, Obama will stay so far away from this his mouth will dry up.

He would like to, but I wonder if he can.

Homosexuals tend to be pretty much perfectly bipolar about politicians, as I see it. They decide whether you're for them or against them, and if your against them you are excoriated and threatened in the most flamboyant ways they can concoct.

If Obama wants to stay in their "good graces" (what an obscenity to use that term in this context) he's going to have to help them out with this, particularly if it metasticizes and we discover that powerful homosexuals used Sandusky's charity boy-toy factory as portable R&R. The backlash from straight America will be fearsome in that case, and Obama's going to be behind the eight ball with the homosexuals.

I'll tell you something, and I hate to say it. Many problems will be solved if Sandusky is taken out of the picture. Problems of people who don't like to have problems.

20 posted on 11/11/2011 9:47:15 PM PST by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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