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Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Timeline

As best I can tell, the timeline does not include two conversations overheard by two Penn State Police detectives. In the first conversation, Sandusky is told by one victim's mother to stay away from her son. Sandusky refuses. In a second conversation with the same mother, Sandusky says he made a mistake and will stay away. That knowledge and inaction did not get most of the Penn State's top police officers fired?

Too many have been as modest as Joe. Not point accusing fingers at top management - trustees. Well, the trustees without any investigation decided to fire Joe. Chairman was too timid to fire him. Vice chair John Surma (top executive from a dying US Steel) had an assistant athletic director contact Joe by paper late at night. They did not even have the decency of meeting with a Penn State legend. Of course not. Not one of 32 volunteered to meet with Joe Paterno face to face. They had some tiny intermediate deliver a paper message to Joe Paterno late at night. Then bluntly fired him by phone. Those are ethical leaders?

One third of the trustees, surprised by a justified public response, said Joe was fired because he did not report accusations to authorities. Reality - Joe did. The trustees simply did what the emotional do. Made a decision based only on their feelings while ignoring what is always required - hard facts. A characteristic commonly observed in bean counters and lawyers.

Who was responsible for providing facts? Kenneth C. Frazier is the chair of the trustee's special investigation committee. We have discussed this lawyer earlier in Destroying American Jobs (ie Kodak). A Vioxx fraud and coverup earned him Merek's CEO. So why did trustees make a decision without honest and obvious facts? A lawyer with a history of getting promoted to CEO by subverting justice did not provide honesty. Trustees were more worried about spin rather than reality.

Frazier calls the decision painful. Of course. They were entertaining their emotions. Then he wants empathy for making an emotional decision without facts? Facts such as multiple and previous reports, investigations, and grand jury verdicts that defined many probable coverups. Center County DA Ray Gricar refused to prosecute even when a 1998 grand jury indicted Sandusky. Gricar was the DA when every Sandusky accusation was quashed. Gricar mysteriously disappeared in a possible 2005 murder or suicide in the Susquehanna River. More facts unknown to trustees who could not bother to first learn facts.

The NY Times in Penn State’s Trustees Recount Painful Decision to Fire Paterno spent three hours with 13 of those trustees.

The board decided to share its story because it grew weary of hearing criticism, which included calls from alumni who started a group known as Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship in an effort to replace the current board members. The trustees, over three hours, described how they had felt blindsided by Spanier’s failure to keep them informed of the nature and scope of the Pennsylvania attorney general’s investigation of Sandusky, along with the investigation of university officials.

They entertained their emotions to make a decision while still devoid of the facts? Then are weary of criticism because they choose to be politically correct rather than be patriotic honest? Then choose to talk only because they are weary - another emotion? At what point do these trustees stop entertaining their feelings? Do what is required of adults. Make a decision based on facts. Not entertain their emotions or weariness?

Also on a speaker phone during all this was the PA Governor Tom Corbett. The same Governor who is reaping massive campaign funds by permitting unrestricted fracking. And who has told the many fracking companies that they no longer have to provide drinking water to communities with fracking contaminated drinking water. Why did this Governor also endorse the firing of Joe Paterno without facts? Corbett was state Attorney General in 1995 and again in 2008. As both Attorney General and Governor, he had access to all facts, investigations, and grand jury verdicts. And still did not first learn facts.

Garban, the trustee chairman is a long time MBA. A Controller and Treasurer of Penn State for 33 years. With no experience in realities such as education. Another bean counter.

Surma, the vice chairman, is a CEO of a diminishing US Steel. His entire history is VP of finance & accounting and chief financial officer. Another bean counter executive without experience in getting the work done. Where the most unethical are bred.

Also reported. Surma has an older brother Vic who was a starting Penn State offensive tackle. One semester he lived in a spare bedroom in Sandusky's basement. Kept in touch with his former coach through annual golf outings to benefit The Second Mile. Same organization and bedroom Sandusky used to practice decades of pedophilia. But somehow this was all new to vice chairman John Surma? Well, John Surman should have also fired his brother - also by messenger late at night. But that would be ethical or consistent.

Three reasons given by the trustees boil down to one common factor. Joe Paterno did not do what is politically correct. He simply did what was the power of his job, reported only the facts he knew (without speculation), and did what anyone in his position would have done. Paterno reported what he knew immediately to multiple 'powers that be'. Somehow, his modesty (by not publically defending himself) was wrong – according to the trustees. Somehow he was guilty and complicit for not whistle blowing on something he only knew from hearsay?

So when a whistle blower identified corrupt bean counters and lawyers, he is persecuted. When a whistle blower does not make accusations based in hearsay, he is persecuted. Only top management is innocent?

View who made these decisions. A lawyer whose lying about Vioxx got him a CEO position. A Governor who is reaping massive campaign funds from fracking companies. And plenty of bean counters. People whose history is to get promoted by manipulating spread sheets. Who do not come from where the work gets done and where ethics are learned.

Entertaining their emotions and an obvious shortage of ethics is the common factor among trustees and the Governor. So spin blames Paterno who was only a successful and well respected football coach. Easy prey for bean counters and lawyers. Paterno was not using the press to spin his reputation. So he is guilty according to the trustees interviewed by the NY Times? The trustees were spinning half truths about Paterno in the press. Even lying about Joe not reporting pedophilia.

The logic used? None. A similar example was Nixon blaming subordinates to avert blame. The powerful spinnning feelings and political spin as if fact. A characteristic common to people who are MBAs, lawyers, and unethical.

Finally, Phil Knight said what had to be said. So many knew, were required to act, and choose to do nothing. So the trustees and Governor did not blame any of them. Instead victimized Paterno to protect themselves. Ethics that bean counters and lawyers learn to get promoted – as demonstrated above by examples and citations.