Freeh's PSU Report Scapegoats Paterno and Whitewashes Trustee's Role

I attended today's press conference given by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who was well guarded by the Philadelphia Police, to discuss his scathing report on Penn State's actions in the Sandusky scandal. After the arrest of Sandusky for child molestation, the Penn State Board of Trustees hired and paid millions of dollars to Freeh to prepare an "independent" report on the scandal.

He said near the beginning, “The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."

He placed the blame for not reporting Sandusky's penchant for young boys to the authorities on only four men- the late football coach Joe Paterno, former Penn State University President Graham Spanier, former Athletic Director Tim Curley, and a university vice president Gary Schulz- out of a university community that numbers into the hundreds of thousands.

This is comparable to blaming the Nazi death camps only on Hitler and Goebbels. While they were the leaders, the complicity of many Germans contributed to the death of millions of Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals.

Of course, these men are the most culpable, but the conspiracy of silence and dereliction of duty in the child molestation scandal goes much further than that. When I interviewed a former Penn State athlete, he told me that Sandusky’s child molestation was an open secret among the tightknit athletic community. He blamed the military, chain of command for no one reporting it to the authorities or alerting the press.

Freeh does lightly admonish the PSU Board of Trustees for failure of oversight and reasonable inquiry. Freeh mentioned that PSU had not taken steps to implement the Clery Act, which was enacted in 1990, until Sandusky was indicted in 2011. The act requires universities to report crime statistics in or near campuses. None of the trustees, who should have known about the widely publicized federal law for 21 years, ever asked about Penn State’s compliance with the law.

When asked at the press conference if he would advise the board to resign in light of his investigation, Freeh disingenuously dodged the question.

“They are my clients,” he answered.

In a way, Freeh answered the question. If he thought that they should remain, he would have said so in his characteristically blunt way.  Instead he declined to give them that protection. It is unlikely that any of the trustees will do the right thing and resign.

One reporter bested summed up the mood after the press conference.  He said, “I am glad that I went to Temple.”

Friend Defends Penn State's McQueary's Actions

Bryan Machamer played basketball for Penn State at the same time as former Penn State Coach Mike McQueary played football for the school. McQueary, who saw Jerry Sandusky with a young boy in the shower, and he were friends. The university's former athletic director, Tim Curley, was invited to Machamer's wedding. He characterizes the entire Pen State athletic community as "close knit".

Machamer, now an optometrist, assures me that McQueary is a "good guy" despite not reporting former coach Sandusky to the police.

He said, "He could not believe what he saw. Jerry was like his uncle. His father and Jerry were friends. Jerry was Linebacker U."


More troubling, he describes the culture in the athletic department as "military like." 

"McQueary did the right thing. This was Big 10 athletics. If there was a problem, you reported it to your coach. He followed the chain of command, which is what we were taught," said Machamer, who has often returned to campus for games after graduation.


Machhamer confided that it was an open secret among the Penn State community about Sandusky's activities. If that is the case, it is very disturbing that no one went to the police. 


Sandusky most likely will soon be punished, but that does not guarantee that the these horrible transgression will not be repeated against other innocent victims. I am wondering what Penn State is doing to change their hierarchical culture. 


Comedian Bill Maher has noted that all male cultures, such as the church and the military, seem to run into this kind of trouble. I suspect women question a chain of command culture. 


If legendary coach Paterno insisted or perpetuated this type of culture, then Penn State was right to fire him. His players should have always known that their first loyalty was to protecting the abused.

Penn State Trustee Lubert: "It's A Disaster"

The shock of the Penn State pedophilia scandal has been bad enough, but almost equally distressing is the ineptitude of the response from all the parties involved. When Sandusky, Paterno, McQueary, and Erickson speak, the situation becomes more appalling. In recent weeks, the actions of Penn State trustee Ira Lubert have been second guessed by the New York Times, USA Today, and Yahoo.

When I ran into Lubert, wearing jeans and a sweat shirt, peacefully watching a football game at Schlessinger's Deli, I could not resist asking him some questions. I have known Lubert for over 20 years. I can say that during that time he has always been fair and decent to me. For a guy of his immense wealth, he has always been very approachable and low maintenance. 

 He said, "The whole Penn State situation is a disaster. I was on a conference yesterday morning from 9am to noon. I was on two conferences calls today, 9 in the morning and 5pm. I will be at Penn State starting Wednesday of this week for three days."

Since the replacement to football coach Joe Paterno had been chosen, I wondered why he was still working hard. "I am on the executive committee," he explained. He then joked, "I am making so much money for all this hard work." Lubert is, of course, a volunteer. "The job is alot harder than it looks from the outside," he continued. 

His friend, builder Jeffery Orleans chimed in, "Ira bleeds Penn State." Lubert was a star wrestler at Penn State and is now rumored to contribute substantially to the salaries of both the wrestling and football coaches.  There is no doubt that his incredible salesmanship helped the troubled football program land a coach. 

I have no reason to doubt his loyalty to the Nittany Lions. I also dispute the contention that his actions were a power play. He already has enough power. Lubert, who is an ardent Republican, is about to open a money printing casino in Valley Forge. He also has been very generous to Philadelphia institutions such as sponsoring the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal, which has been awarded to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates. However, Lubert-Adler is the target of several unhappy investor lawsuits. 

Naturally, I wondered why Penn State did not consult with public relations professionals before the media maelstrom. Lubert said, "I do not see any advantage in talking to the media." He apparently miscalculated that the media would want to talk to him. 

He stood by his decision of not using a staffing firm to find hire Bill O'Brien as replacement football coach. "The member of the committee had vast experience in hiring people." said Lubert. Maybe, he should have checked with his own employees before considering himself an expert on hiring. 

Former employees have complained that he is a tough boss.For the record, I have found no evidence that Lubert defrauded investors. Some of his recent real estate investments are underwater or bankrupt because they were made at the top of the market while Lubert earned substantial fees to make these bad investments. 

I was not able to get an answer to the most important question of all- Why didn't the Penn State trustees react quicker to the scandal and fire Paterno and complete bar access to Sandusky?