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Radio PA Roundtable – February 20-22, 2015

On this week’s Radio PA Roundtable, a special interview with Jay Paterno, author of the book “Paterno Legacy: Enduring Lessons from the Life and Death of My Father.”

Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting, commentary and analysis on the top news stories of the week.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

Christman Blog: The JoePa Legacy Question

Today marks one year since the death of Joe Paterno. At any other time in his tenure at Penn State, Paterno’s death and the subsequent anniversaries would be cause for overwhelming demonstrations of love, grief and a remembrance of Penn State football glory.

January of 2012, however, was like no other time in the history of Penn State University. Former Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky was in a prison cell awaiting trial on unspeakable crimes; Paterno had been unceremoniously fired two months prior; and school trustees and other officials were scrambling to save any scrap of their former reputations. It was against this backdrop that Joseph Vincent Paterno slipped away in a hospital room on January 22, 2012.

It will be argued for decades whether or not Paterno received a fair shake in the days after Sandusky was charged, and then in the subsequent Freeh Report which named him – along with Graham Spanier, Tim Curley & Gary Schultz – as a prime culprit in an alleged conspiracy to sweep the Sandusky matter under the rug. The three surviving members of that quartet have yet to see their day in court. For Joe Paterno, no such day will come.

The Freeh Report included email chains between Spanier, Curley and Schultz, but no such emails from Paterno were found among the evidence laid out by the former FBI Director and his team. That’s because Joe didn’t use email. He had no smart phone, didn’t text and didn’t utilize social media like Twitter, which he once irreverently referred to as “Tweetlety Doo.” As such, there’s no electronic trail of Paterno’s role – or lack thereof – in the discussions that did take place behind closed doors in the Penn State athletic department from 1998 through 2011. One basic fact is often overlooked though: in this Keystone Cops version of an administration under former President Graham Spanier, Joe Paterno is the one person who did report the Sandusky allegations through the proper university channels.

For Paterno fans, there is that much. To sustain credibility, however, those same fans will have to admit that Joe let many people down when he did not follow up after seeing that no action was taken against Sandusky following his reporting the matter to Tim Curley. Let down most of all, the children who Sandusky continued to exploit and abuse. Even Joe knew that he didn’t do enough, saying he wished he had “done more.” That is why the Paterno legacy will remain tainted and why the first anniversary of his passing is met with a confusing and controversial multi-level of sadness among objective followers.

In the coming year, we’ll see more trials, more testimony and more finger pointing. We’ll hear others tell us what Joe Paterno did or didn’t know, and what he did or didn’t do over the now-scrutinized final decade-and-a-half of his 61-year tenure at Penn State. Paterno himself, though, is not here to confirm or deny anything we’ll hear from the mouths of defendants and attorneys who will be trying any tactic they can muster to keep their clients out of prison. Joe cannot take the stand, and without his direct testimony, his place in history will be forever debated.

 

(Brad Christman is the News Director of Radio Pennsylvania)

 

RadioPA Roundtable

Radio PA Roundtable 12.28.12

On this week’s Radio PA Roundtable, Brad Christman and Matt Paul reflect on the top 5 Pennsylvania stories of the year, as voted on by the Radio PA news staff. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting on the top news stories of the week.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/witfaudio/radiopa/Roundtable12-28-12.mp3]

Radio PA’s Top 10 Pennsylvania Stories of 2012 – Part 3

As 2012 draws to a close, Radio PA is looking back at the top 10 Pennsylvania stories of the year as voted on by the news staff and other members of the statewide media. In this installment, we reveal stories 4 through 2, beginning with what was arguably the biggest political fight of the year.

Click the audio players to hear Radio PA’s recap of each story.

#4 – Voter ID   2012Top10-4FINAL
The biggest political battle in Pennsylvania this year was played out in the courts rather than at the ballot box. 2012 may be forever known as the year of the Voter ID. It began when Republican lawmakers passed a bill requiring voters to show a valid form of photo ID when they vote. Governor Tom Corbett, a strong supporter of the measure, signed it into law prior to the primary election last spring. That election would be used as a “soft rollout” for the law with the intention that it would be in full effect in November. Court challenges led to an atmosphere of confusion for voters as the case went all the way to the PA Supreme Court. The justices sent the case back to Commonwealth Court where a final decision was made to allow the state to ask for the IDs, but with no obligation by the voters to show it. The law is set to be in full effect for the off-year elections in 2013, but additional court challenges are already in the works and a cloud of uncertainty continues to hang over the Voter ID law. Voter ID comes in as Radio PA’s #4 story of 2012.

#3 – The Penn State Sanctions   2012Top10-3FINAL
In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University, many knew that the NCAA was lying in wait. Shortly after Sandusky’s conviction and the release of the Freeh Report which detailed the actions and inactions of PSU administrators, the NCAA dropped the hammer. The sanctions were among the harshest ever handed out, including a $60 million fine; 4-year bowl ban; the loss of scholarships; mandatory oversight; and the vacating of all football wins dating back to 1998. It’s that last sanction that had many scratching their heads due to the fact that the Penn State situation, as horrific as it was, had nothing to do with the on-field conduct of the team. Instead, the vacating of wins was seen as a slap at former Head Coach Joe Paterno, whose name was subsequently erased from the record books. Despite the intense media scrutiny and the defection of runningback Silas Redd and placekicker Anthony Fera, the Penn State football team came together to produce an unexpected 8-4 record under 1st-year Head Coach Bill O’Brien, who was named Big 10 Coach of the Year. The Penn State sanctions, and a group of extraordinary young men who played under them, rank as Radio PA’s #3 story of 2012.

#2 – The Death of Joe Paterno   2012Top10-2FINAL
Like Arlen Specter, Joe Paterno’s passing in January of this year marked the loss of an iconic Pennsylvanian. Despite the turmoil of his final months, Paterno is forever etched into the soul of this Commonwealth. His victories and his failings will always be a part of the Pennsylvania landscape, even after the removal of the statue erected in his honor at Beaver Stadium. In life, Paterno joked that he was fearful of leaving the game, afraid he would suffer the same fate as legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant, who passed away less than a month after retiring. Paterno’s death came just over 2 months after his dismissal as head coach in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The scandal has forever tainted the Paterno years at Penn State and the legacy of a man who donated millions to his school and community during his 6 decades at Penn State University, but thousands still lined up on a cold January day in State College to stroll past the coach’s closed casket and pay final respects. The death of Joseph Vincent Paterno is Radio PA’s #2 Pennsylvania story of 2012.

 

Coming soon….Radio PA’s #1 story of 2012.

 

 

RadioPA Roundtable

Radio PA Roundtable 08.31.12

On this week’s Radio PA Roundtable, Brad Christman and Matt Paul remind you to pay that state sales tax when purchasing items online, as the state focuses on stricter enforcement of the existing law; also on this Labor Day weekend, you’ll hear the results of the “State of Working Pennsylvania” report; and we’ll give you a sneak peek into the new Joe Paterno biography that hit the book stores this week.

Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting on the top news stories of the week.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/witfaudio/radiopa/Roundtable08-31-12.mp3]

The Focus Finally Shifts to Football, But Uncertainty Remains

It’s been an unprecedented off-season for the Penn State football program, but trials, memorial services and NCAA sanctions give way to actual football this Saturday as the Nittany Lions open their 2012 season against Ohio University.

While the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky scandal will still be on everyone’s minds, and reminders of child sex abuse victims will be evident everywhere at Beaver Stadium including on the players’ uniforms, for three hours this weekend Penn State fans can once again focus on the game they love. Many things have, of course, changed since the last time Penn State took the field. Legendary Head Coach Joe Paterno passed away in January and the team is operating under harsh sanctions imposed by the NCAA.

New Head Coach Bill O’Brien is the man being asked to pick up the pieces of a broken football program. He has drawn rave reviews for his handling of a difficult situation at Penn State so far. Fans, school officials, and even the governor of Pennsylvania, have remarked at how well O’Brien has taken the reins, but no one knows yet if the New England Patriots’ former Offensive Coordinator can win on the field as a Head Coach.

Fans get their first taste of the new era of Penn State football at noon on Saturday.

 

 

Christman Blog: Controversial T-Shirts at the Student Book Store

Okay, so it’s no secret that some people are upset with the NCAA for the sanctions handed down to Penn State University for its handling (or lack thereof) of the the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal. Some think the NCAA overreached in fining the school $60 million, taking away scholarships, banning the Nittany Lions from bowl games for 4 years and vacating all the team’s wins from 1998 through 2011, among other penalties.

Now, those angry at the NCAA can take part in a time-honored facet of free speech: the snarky t-shirt.

Thursday was Media Day at Penn State, and after getting my interviews with new Coach Bill O’Brien and this year’s players, I headed downtown to visit the Student Book Store on East College Avenue. There, hanging amongst the other PSU apparel and various tchotchkes, was a blue t-shirt with bright white lettering. NCAA, it reads…except the “C” is a Soviet-era hammer and sickle.

Subtle.

Under the letters…”NATIONAL COMMUNIST ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION.”

Yeah, some people are really mad.

The shirt itself is not licensed by Penn State, and since it doesn’t mention the words “Penn State” or “Nittany Lions,” there’s not much the university can do about it. Additionally, the Student Book Store is an independent entity. They can display and sell whatever they wish. That being said, I do wonder what will happen the first time Penn State President Rodney Erickson sees a student walking around campus in this shirt, which sells for 15.99-17.99. The shirt was still available for sale on the Student Book Store’s website as of Friday morning.

The back of the shirt elaborates on the anti-NCAA sentiment: “OVERSTEPPING THEIR BOUNDS AND PUNISHING THE INNOCENT SINCE 1906.”

To be clear, I don’t think anyone who wears this t-shirt believes that any of the principle players named in the Freeh Report are necessarily “innocent.” Rather, I conclude that the reference is to the fans and the players remaining on the Nittany Lions roster, who will have to fight major uphill battles to enjoy even a modicum of success on the field in the coming years, given the harsh sanctions the school will endure.

Still, one critical question needs to be asked: is this the message PSU fans want to put out there right now…or ever?

The graphic on the shirt includes the website getsmack.com, which takes you to a business known as Smack Apparel. Their website features various other sports-related shirts with similar cutting or biting sarcasm (some are more clever than others). It strikes me as a company that knows how to make a quick buck when a controversy surfaces.

If I may, one piece of free advice for anyone who buys this shirt: DON’T wear it to Penn State games this fall. This is exactly the kind of thing ESPN’s cameras will be looking for in and around the stadium. Don’t make it easy for them. Take the high road and realize that humility is more appropriate now than defiant anger. Coach Bill O’Brien and every player I spoke to on Thursday showed me that the team is moving forward with grace and humility. All of Penn State country should follow their example.

 

(Brad Christman is the News Director for Radio Pennsylvania, a statewide service providing news and sports programming to radio stations across the Commonwealth)