Joe Paterno was a great football coach who made a ...

2012-01-23T19:36:21.552-05:00

Joe Paterno was a great football coach who made a really big mistake. That mistake? He didn't live up to his own high moral standards. Still, if that's the worst that can be said about the man, then he did live a good life, as how many others can say that?

Yes, I say Joe Paterno's passing is news worthy, but the local newspapers payed into the very worst of what detractors say about NEPA:

...that we are superficial
...that we are uncultured
...that we don't care about what happens outside our own little coal patch.

It's never a good thing when the media reinforces negative stereotypes.

Yes, the Citizens Voice was pretty much the same t...

2012-01-23T19:28:49.657-05:00

Yes, the Citizens Voice was pretty much the same today, just a Joe Paterno tribute issue. The sort of thing that would have been nice as a supplement to the news, not a replacement for it. I think local news was reduced to a single page. And the whole edition felt thinner than usual.

I'm no Penn State fan, or sports fan at all, though I've always admired the culture of "scholar-athletes" that, sadly, probably died with Paterno. I've found Penn State Fandom ("WE ARE...PENN STATE!!!") to be the most annoying stuff this side of NASCAR and Pro Wrestling. Still, nothing turned my stomach and boiled my blood more than to read some of the hateful and hate-filled comments being posted on the national news sites that announced Paterno's death yesterday. (And some wags think it's clever to keep chiming in "Get your facts straight, he isn't dead yet.") I would say Rest In Peace, but apparently (according to some of those comments) that makes me a mindless cult member who supports the rape of children.

Comments on NCFE: We're not really just a bunch of jock obsessed coa...

Joe Paterno was a great football coach who made a ...

Yes, the Citizens Voice was pretty much the same t...