Posnanski and the Paterno book

You forgot about Posnanski giving money to Paterno's charity and having the backing of the Paterno family. And there's nothing wrong with any of that. It only became dicey when the story of Paterno's life clearly became something that needed more of a "straight journalism" treatment. Who could have seen this coming?

I've gone from thinking this is an interesting conundrum to just feeling awful for him.

 

Oh, he made an impact all right.

 

"The questions people have about what he did or didn't do, you weigh that against the impact that he made ..."

Granted, the video was made before the Freeh Report, but this is just "a single, hazy event" repackaged. Good lord. Didn't anybody take 2 1/2 minutes to re-watch that video before tossing it up on Amazon this week?

 

I mentioned this before, but now I'm getting more interested in it: Did the Paterno family pitch this book to Posnanski? Did they handpick him? How did the whole project come about? They knew all this was happening long before any of us did, while the grand jury was still secret. And this kind of hagiography sure looks like it fits with their image-rehab ideas. There is a point in the class Twitter reports, as noted by Pearlman, where Pos mentions that Joe had been "dangled" by the administration. Certainly they have been pursuing this line of Joe as campus outcast well before the release of the Freeh Report.

I wonder if Pos even had the freedom to rewrite.

 

One of the best explanations of an approach to biography I have read came from David Maraniss, once upon a time. I think he was asked about what it was like to try to write a coherent profile of Bill Clinton for "First of His Class." I'm very loosely paraphrasing, but I think that Maraniss said something along the lines of that he wasn't really interested in trying to integrate all the complexities of Clinton's character into some consistent psychological profile. He didn't weigh. He didn't balance. He just ... presented.

 

So you're suggesting Posnanski could have been a key part of Paterno's and the administration's larger plan to keep it all covered up?

It's chilling.

 

Sports Illustrated declines to run an excerpt:

http://deadspin.com/5926592/?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

No, not cover-up and not complicity between the administration and Paterno. Just a vehicle for Joe to control his story. IIRC the family retained the services of a PR/crisis communications firm. That's how those groups operate.

 

Posnanski has been quiet on Twitter. I asked him about his remarks in the Paterno class.

Hopefully the book addresses what's in the Freeh Report and doesn't use the "single, hazy event" meme he threw out there before Paterno died. I'd like to think Posnanski knows his professional reputation is on the line here.

For his sake, his public remarks towards Paterno need to change, or else he becomes just a "storyteller."

 

That's an understatement.

 

Wow. ...

 

Hell, the Family handpicked Sally Jenkins for the ultimate "exit interview".

I don't blame her one bit for going ballistic in print on the heels of the Freeh report . . . but used, she was.