WSWS Can Always Be Counted On

to give a good perspective on cultural issues and events, and this piece about the Penn State scandal is no exception:

How is any purpose served by demonizing Sandusky? Blather about his “lust” and accusations that he set up his charity simply so he could “prey” on the boys in question are easy enough, but they don’t contribute anything intelligent to an understanding of the horrifying events or the treatment of such psychological maladies.

Some special sub-circle of Hades should be reserved for American sportswriters. Mainstream journalism in the US as a whole is presently a disgrace, but the stupidity, opportunism and shallowness of the sportswriters elevate them to a category in itself. Armed with endless predictions, which are never checked against reality, full of inflated praise for this or that player or team, but ready to turn on a dime at the first sign of faltering, cynical and malicious to a fault, but maudlin and sentimental when immediate needs require it…

The sportswriters, who encourage blind, fanatical devotion to teams and events 99 percent of the time, take the opportunity on such occasions to moralize about how sports should be “put in perspective” and how football or basketball “is not important” in the face of these tragedies. So we get Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press writing: “This is not a football story. This is not a Joe Paterno story. This is a daily story, an American story, an international story, a human tragedy,” etc. Albom and the rest will be back to business as usual, the present disaster forgotten, within the week.

Yep, they ARE hypocrites, aren't they?

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