The Lions' Pride

They are like TMZ with everything...they were TMZ with Tiger, OSU, Brett Farve retirement decisions, PSU, etc. In a few months something else will come along, and Tom Rinaldi will have his next assignment to cover ad nauseum.

Well said, and if people don't understand that Freeh is where he is today, thanks to raw politics, they're living in an alternate universe. We all want a full airing of the events *and* that would include the (in) actions of fat Tommy Corbett.

Some here might be too young to remember a time when ESPN was a sports channel, focused on sporting events, and when SportsCenter consisted of highlights and only highlights.

There was a distinct moment, ten years ago or so, when someone flipped the switched up there at ESPN. That moment, for me, happened when Dan Patrick went from funny Dan Patrick to "Gotcha" Dan Patrick. ESPN has gone downhill ever since.

ESPN has a lot of power, and they realize that. Revisit the final weeks of the 2002 season, and remember how Kirk Herbstreit used his position to influence the Heisman race with rather illogical arguments. There are countless examples since. Think that the US Government would have spent millions trying to prosecute Roger Clemens if it were not for ESPN's coverage?

ESPN long ago realized that they could boost ratings by not just covering the story, but by becoming the story and/or driving the story. ESPN cares about ratings and ratings only. If they can exploit what has happened in Central PA to drive their ratings, then they will. And, well, they have.

Far too many major "news" organizations are no longer in the business of reporting the news. Instead, most are now in the entertainment/gossip business, in which the most outrageous stories and claims, regardless of their accuracy, pull in steady ratings. For every Sara Ganim who reported the story, there are dozens or blowhards like the folks at ESPN who attempt to drive the story in order to gain ratings/clicks.

So, does ESPN have an agenda against Penn State? Sort of. They have an agenda for gossip and controversy, and PSU just happened to be an all-too-easy sitting duck right now.

I really do hope that hundreds of thousands of Penn Staters who have seen the media drive this story and realize how ridiculous much of it has been, are smart enough to realize that the same foolhardy approach is commonplace in media today, be it in coverage of something like the Deepwater Horizon spill or in political/election coverage. The "real" news is difficult to find these days, because, well, it doesn't deliver ratings and website clicks like entertainment and gossip do. Want to know what is happening w/ PSU and Sandusky? Ganim is a damn good source, not John Doe in a studio at ESPN reading the wire. Want to know what is happening in Afghanistan? Reporters who are entrenched are a FAR better source than some "expert" from XYZ Institute who has never stepped foot in Afghanistan.

http://www.ncaa.com/content/ncaa-letter-penn-state