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ESPN: Guilty of Child Abuse by Omission?
Richard Stellar 12/01/2011 6:21 PM
If you're not Catholic, it's easy to distance yourself from the decades of abuse that Catholic priests and those figures of authority in the Catholic Church have heaped upon their young parishioners. The disgust that we all feel as humans is much more tolerable when we can disassociate ourselves as a group from those sick priests.
Hell, I'm not a Catholic. That doesn't happen in my religion.
However, when the innocence of youth is murdered by those in a secular world, then there's no alternative and no cultural or intellectual divide. We all must act and react instantly.
Unfortunately, ESPN chose the path of those whose athletic programs and “brand” identity trump the welfare of our children.
Pedophiles and pederasts are a cagey group. They often leverage a position that is part parent and part superhero to exercise a dynastic prerogative that preys on the will of those in their charge. It's murder in the first degree, as these deviants lie in wait and conspire to gain their sick gratification at the cost of the life of their victim. There is a more blatant way to state this, but I'll refrain from lowering myself to a street standard in this one case.
As we all seethe and question what went on in full view and knowledge of guys like Joe Paterno at Penn State, we may offer excuses for an old man's behavior. To me, there is no excuse. Had it been one of his kids that was being defiled by his assistant coach, I'm sure that today, the defiling would be at the hands of fellow inmates.
I guess though, if you talked to Paterno during the time of his awareness, he might have offered the opinion that it's not the duty of Penn State's athletic program to report child rape to police. After all, Penn State was pursuing a winning record and didn't want to tarnish their program.
ESPN might offer the same excuse. A very well-known lifestyle reporter shared a link to a website called Sports by Brooks that lays a foundation that should result in the incarceration of every ESPN executive and broadcaster that was aware of the latest alleged outbreak of terror at the hands of the associate head basketball coach of Syracuse. Hell, even Paterno notified the VP in charge of the Penn State campus police.
ESPN Senior Vice President & Director of News Vince Doria has issued this statement: ”From a professional standpoint, our role as a journalist is to seek out information and vet that information and when we’re satisfied with the credibility of that information to report it to the public. It’s what journalists do. It’s not necessarily the journalist’s role to go to the police with potential evidence that at the time we didn’t believe was strong enough to report ourselves.”
He is responding to an interview that ESPN conducted with Laurie Fine, wife of Bernie Fine, Syracuse's former head basketball coach for the men's team. In that interview, Laurie dropped a dime on her husband that should have resounded in the hallways of ESPN. Instead, her acknowledgement of her husband's sexual abuse of children that was recorded in 2003 resulted in ... nothing.
Fine's ravings totally blew the doors open on her husband's "issues.” ESPN could have been proactive and done what any parent would do to protect the integrity of not only their children but any child within their purview.
Children who are being courted by college sports programs put them in a position where gifts, praise and attention are lavished upon them. The coaches who give them the keys to vacant and well-furnished condos, access to perks and special treatment, and offer them adulation, set up a relationship that results in easy access to the trust of a child.
This is what they destroy: trust, innocence, and a child's belief in themselves as they grow into their sexuality. Destroying that trust is tantamount to murder in the 1st. For some reason, we feel that these people can be rehabilitated. I don't believe they can, and they must be eliminated from society.
ESPN is culpable in its omission of the facts as it knew them. Vince Doria's excuses should have a familiar ring as we wallow in the mire of professional and college sport's marginalization of their most important demographic: children. As we would spit on a person that walks by someone in need without offering any assistance, we also must shun and ostracize those who use children for their own sickness, without regard to the future of those children, and the lives that they snuff out.
Children are continually given the finger not only by the molesters but also by overpaid athletes whose disregard for their youngest and most impressionable fans are ruining professional basketball, baseball and football.
Paterno's obligation to report to the police can be debated for as long as you want. He screwed up. He ruined his legacy by not being proactive, and putting his sick assistant coach above those who he allegedly molested. There is no debate about ESPN's responsibility.
I'm not the only one calling for an investigation and criminal charges being levied against those at ESPN who are responsible. Please see Sports by Brooks website.
Have something close by to vomit into.
_________________ The Hawk wrote: There is not a damned thing wrong with people who are bull shitters.
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