I just read the CNN version of this story and it didn’t have this tone to it (about Paterno)
According to the CNN article - the emails haven’t been released yet - someone read portions to one of their reporters.
It's the tone I got from the CNN version - if you add what we already know.
Curley and Schultz had at least one meeting with McQueary (I think more, but I'm not going back to the Grand Jury Presentment, which spells out the meeting(s)). Based on what McQueary told them, Curley, Schultz, and Spanier discussed a three-pronged plan: (a) require Sandusky to get professional help; (b) alert The Second Mile; and (c) alert Child Welfare (the authorities).
But they didn't act on that plan. Curley appears to have been dispatched to get the blessing of Joe Paterno, or at the very least, to clue Joe Paterno into the decision before it was implemented. So Curley met with Paterno and emailed Spanier back:
"After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps," CNN quoted Curley as saying in an email. Curley indicated, according to the report, that he planned to talk with Sandusky and also contact The Second Mile, but not necessarily the child welfare office if Sandusky cooperated and got professional help."
In other words, Joe said no. Remember that these emails were carefully worded, calling Sandusky "the person" or "the target." I doubt Curley was going to write "Joe said he didn't like our plan and told us not to contact authorities.
Some Paterno apologists are suggesting Curley went to Paterno to ask what McQueary told him and upon hearing just 'inappropriate' horseplay, decided McQueary's story was so mixed up that the authorities didn't need to be contacted. They forget that Paterno testified he was told it involved a 55-year-old man and a young boy, in the showers, and that it was sexual and inappropriate, and he couldn't remember exactly what he was told.
After having decided to contact Child Welfare, you don't decide not to do so after hearing that JoePa was only told that it was sexual and inappropriate.
Just the portions released are pretty damning.