The Lions' Pride

Frankly I'm not finding too much to complain about. They promoted and provided a forum for,the Paterno's and are continuing to get their message out. I thought Ley was fair but steered the conversation in an unfavorable direction. I think the piece Ley is running on SC is very fair.

All in all they haven't been great but it could be a lot worse ...

This is on the front page of ESPN. I haven't had time to read it (damn exam coming up)

Spot on. The forum was definitely provided for the "other side of the story." Ley was decent but at times seemed to have a slight bit of an argumentative tone to his questions. Overall though it was handled okay by ESPN which is a huge step up from their past handling.

Also, the follow-up piece on SportsCenter was reasonable. One nitpick: They used the headline "Freeh response to self-serving Paterno report" or something like that. It implied that Freeh was responding to a report that ESPN deems "self-serving" as opposed to the idea that the "self-serving" theme was coming from Freeh, whose picture should be next to "self-serving" in the dictionary.

I just heard an idiot on ESPN radio talking about how it's going to be a circus and will only hurt the victims of JS. People don't get it. People want to "just move on" without realizing how a rush to judgment affects all students.

Saw most of it on OTL. Agree with the sentiment that it allowed another view point to be aired which in itself is positive. Some people are not capable of looking at another perspective however - not in their "meat-head" nature. There are many that went on record trying to one-up each other bad-mouthing Penn State, who will simply never walk that stuff back. It would mean admitting that they rushed to judgment. All the: "..They just don't get it" drama queens fit that demographic.

That was a decent article by Van Natta. Seemed to be open minded. If I recall correctly, he was a pretty big advocate of the Freeh report when it was released.

ESPN showed Freeh's statement today but did not show Soller's reply at all.

I've never met a single person who listens to one word that steven a smith says

Quite honestly, I think its been overall horrible. I agree that at least guys like SVP, Mike and Mike, and Stephen A Smith are at least allowing Jay to speak...unlike others like Cowturd. But keeping things in perspective, for the self proclaimed "leader in sports", the lack of fact checking and constant proclamation of wrongs is horrendous. I understand that these people are paid to create an environment that promotes discussion....but these people have so many facts wrong that I can't believe they are allowed to continue saying these things. I have no problem with a guy like Golic saying he "can't believe Joe didn't know of 1998...that information leaks all the time during investigations." That's a fair opinion, I'll accept that. But in general, all their rebuttals are filled with complete inaccuracies...and Colin Cowherd is the poster child. And when a caller or guest challenges him, he just cuts them off and goes off on something completely irrelevant. This is not journalism, its blasphemy. It doesn't matter what side of the argument you are on, its a disservice to the public.

Another aspect that kept coming up yesterday from various outlets (including Freeh) is that the Paterno Report is "self-serving" or "biased" (again, colin cowturd beat this drum as well). Well no shit. How can it not be? That doesn't change the content in the report or the sources it comes from. What do you expect from someone who is being accused of such moral failures. How are they supposed to defend themselves? The arguments being made against this report are just appalling in my opinion. Its like these people are searching for excuses not to believe the content, when on the contrary, when the Freeh report was issues they were more than happy to make leaps and assumptions on the content. Great example....many media outlets have debunked the Paterno Report because Thornburg was the governor of Pennsylvania and shared the spotlight with Penn State during its triumphs. Yet they completely ignore Freeh's connections to MBNA and The Second Mile...or his failures in 1996 Atlanta! This I just don't understand. It's poor journalism and should be called out for what it is. Of course, the common response to this is that I'm from PSU so I'm biased and am viewing the situation through Paterno Glasses. Well, I'm sorry for caring so much and taking the time to look into every piece of information available to me...unlike you....who glances over material.

No offense meant, but you just gave the dog a bone. Colin himself says that his show feeds off controversy, that not having strong opinions is boring, that having people listen and respond vehemently is what pays the bills. The only thing that ESPN saw in your note was another listener = better ratings = better ad revenue = Colin is doing his job

I agree, but you can't just continue to state things as fact when they are completely wrong. It's one thing to invoke emotion or create arguments...its another to continue to state things that are just boldly not true. It's a complete loss of credibility....why pay him what they do when they can get anyone to do the same for much less.