A sad reminder

I know I'm going to get into trouble for "politicizing" this, but the situation At Penn State is a very sad reminder that people in power protect other people in power.  And people like Joe Paterno, and the Athletic Directors at the Penn State, and campus administrators are powerful people (in every sense of the word), who protected a despicable human being because a) he was also powerful b) it would be embarrassing to their powerful positions and c) powerful people believe (for the most part correctly) that they are above the law.  Now, this wouldn't be the most horrific thing in the world if we had a press corps that held powerful people accountable, but by and large we do not have such a thing.  JoPa, who by most accounts has probably been senile for about 8 years, has been venerated as some moral, untouchable wise man whose character is beyond question.  Jim Tressel was seen that way too. John Calipari has probably broken every single NCAA rule in the book and he just gets rewarded with more wins and much more money at more prestigious programs.  I guess he gets the run of the joint until he fucks a horse or something.
Of course, journalistic deferential to authority figures is not exclusive to the sporting world - it just happens to be the most recent example.  But we don't need a lot of reminders of powerful people protecting other powerful people in other fields like art, religion, business, and politics.  It's why Hollywood cheered that child rapist Roman Polanski at the Oscars a few years back.  It's why Scooter Libby and Karl Rove outed an active and effective CIA agent and they were either effectively pardoned or not prosecuted at all.  It's why not one higher up individual has been prosecuted for the torture and illegal rendition conducted at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and other secret rendition sites across Europe and the Middle East.  It's why the Catholic Church transferred priests around the country and covered-up the rapes of thousands and thousands young boys and girls around the world. It's why not a single banker has been prosecuted for destroying the world economy through deviousness, lies, cheating, and outright fraud. The only remedy against such injustice, I mean the only remedy, is a watchful and dutiful press core that is skeptical of press releases, of candidate statements, of PR spin and of power in general.  But this is not what we see.  We see authoritarian veneration.  We see any unwillingess to raise flags, or alarms, or even question our societal elites. There is a very important difference between us and the powerful.  We get fired for ironic facebook posts.  They get promoted for covering up financial fraud, spying on their own citizens, raping young children, and lying their way into wars.  I'm just not sure what we can do about it all...

What's crazy about all of this is that I still believe government is ultimately a force for good in this world - but we must watch our watchmen.  And right now, we don't.

UPDATE: I guess now we know why Penn State canceled JoPa's press conference. This is what he said to a group of students huddled outside his door today:

"It's hard for me to tell you how much this means to me. I've lived for this place, and I've lived for people like you guys and girls, and I'm just so happy to see that you could feel so strongly about us and about your school. The kids that were victims or whatever they want to say, I think we all ought to say a prayer for them. Tough life, when people do certain things to you. Anyway, you've been great. Everything's great, all right."

What an insufferable prick.  What a doddering old man.  "The kids that were victims or whatever they want to say"??? "Everything's great, all right"??? Fire this asshole already.


UPDATE II: Want to see more MEDIA FAIL?  Look at it preeminently whitewash and edit Paterno's statement above. Who needs PR flacks when the media will clean your reputation for you?