Absolutely outstanding reporting by Harrisburg Patriot News in PSU case

The ESPN story looks like a rewrite of the Patriot News article.

Did any news sources follow up on this? I mean, holy crap, what's reported in those articles alone should have set off alarm bells.

While I'm guessing they wouldn't have answered questions, did anyone ask Paterno, Curley, or the PSU's President what they knew and when they knew it?

Dis anyone ask if Sandusky was still welcome on campus and why?

 

They're all "rewrites" of the local story. That's how news works.

I'm sure no one involved in the investigation would have gone on the record if approached. Nor would the AD's office leak anything for fear of putting the prosecution at risk.

A little surprising maybe that no one else leaked anything to the local news once the investigation began. Three years ago.

 

I get that and wasn't trying to suggest otherwise.

But all three links were basically the same article. ESPN & USA Today didn't jump on this story, assign a reporter, or do a follow up. (Unless they did. That's what I'm asking.)

I'm sure they wouldn't have answered, but the questions still needed to be asked.

And, yeah, I'm surprised there weren't more leaks. You'd think law enforcement had to be disgusted by the accusations and the evidence. They also had to be concerned about Sandusky still having (even limited) access to children.

I get that hindsight is 20/20, but someone should have seen that this story had potential to really blow up.

 

They did.
http://www.timesonline.com/columnists/sports/mark_madden/madden-sandusky-a-state-secret/article_863d3c82-5e6f-11e0-9ae5-001a4bcf6878.html

 

I truly haven't been surprised to see Harrisburg step to the plate. I have no "skin in the game", so to speak, and I don't know anyone there, but every time I've been by the region and had a chance to pick up a Patriot News I have been very, very impressed.

Truly OUTSTANDING sports section. The tab presence really helps it. Looks like strong reporting, too.

 

At the time, the story was vague and the victim was singular even those aware of the 1998 dropped investigation didn't know how deep this ran at the time. Madden comes across as prescient, sure, but I clearly remember when this story came to light in March. The details were very sketchy, putting it lightly. Even his column is circumstantial as can be.

Yes, resources should have been poured into this story, obviously. But it didn't seem like a priority then because nothing was connected.

Regardless, here's another fantastic story by Ganim about the sister of one of the victims. She's a Penn State student dealing with her classmates making "Sanduskied" jokes: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/sister_of_sandusky_victim_talk.html

I'm not suggesting that the Patriot-News win the Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting. Clearly that's not the case; this was more event coverage. But as far as local coverage of a big, national story goes, how often do you see such an excellent effort? That's even with tons of media teams putting four or five reporters on the story.

They've done a fantastic job.

 

Harrisburg editor writes today in response to questions about why they didn't have it sooner. (Those questions are the height of Monday morning quarterbacking, but they do exist.) Pretty good timeline on a very confusing set of dates.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/11/penn_state_child_sex-abuse_sca.html

I didn't know Sara Ganim was such a recent hire, and that she had done much of the work on this case for another paper in the area.

 

I had no idea the story had been out there since the end of March.

You would think someone else would have picked it up.

Talk about vindication for the paper and the reporter!

 

I am just surprised that the link to March story did not hit SJ radar until now.

 

Luck played a big part in this one.

 

Sara was sniffing this out when she was still at the CDT, I believe. So she had a big-time head start. That's what good reporters do.

And speaking of the CDT, talk about playing way from behind.

 

CDT did a very poor job as did the Inquirer, Daily News and the Pittsburgh papers.