Distant Learning - PSU Scandal

For a few days I was completely oblivious to the whole scandal. I didn't know what was going on, all heard for a for a few days after it all came out was "Joe Paterno this, Jerry Sandusky that..." So once I started to do a little research and just listen to all the stories on the news, the radio and the Internet, I started to piece it all together. The media obviously plays a huge role in getting the public the information, sometimes it accurate other times it's not. This is a horrible story and everything that has happened has been portrayed in a really dark way, obviously because there's nothing good about this story. Often times, the media has portrayed "all" of the students as rioting and standing up for Joe Paterno, but in reality that is not necessarily true, so in a way the media has made some of the PSU students look really bad. Deviance, power and media closely intersect in society because often times criminals that break the law, have some type of power and then they think they're above the law so they will participate in some type of deviant behavior, but the media will always end up finding out and they eventually get caught. So, these three things all go hand-in-hand, when it comes to criminal acts. The way that I view this entire scandal can be seen from an absolutist approach. I believe
Sandusky has no ethics and that he is morally bankrupt. He has no morals and no sense of right and wrong and this can be looked at as deviant undercomformity. At the same time, I feel Joe Paterno is guilty just as much as the next guy because he didn't tell the proper authorities and even if he did, common sense would tell you, if nothing is being done about it after a while, maybe you should do something about it again. But he cared too much about his legacy and the PSU football program to do the right thing. Once again, we can see Paterno's actions from a absolutists approach, because he cared too much about his legacy to do the right thing and inform the proper authorities. Overall, I beleive that no one is above the law, no matter what, it doesn't matter how old you are, or what your name is, or what your legacy is, no one is above the law and these guys were in the wrong for what they did (Sandusky) and what they failed to do (Paterno) .

Travis Benson
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