This here is the sketch I did for an article in this week's issue of The Concordian -
Screw the rules, I’m famous!
Celebrities get away with too much
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “the rich are different from you and me.” He was right.It’s sickening to witness, on a quasi-daily basis, how the rich and famous get away with so much.
The latest involves legendary college football coach Joe Paterno, amicably nicknamed “JoePa.” His status at Penn State is larger-than-life: according to a Sports Illustrated article, there’s a library and ice cream bearing his name, statues and murals devoted to him and even a class named COMM 497G – Joe Paterno: Communication & the Media.
It’s ironic how Paterno lacked the communication skills necessary to place his ex-defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, behind bars after he found out the latter had been abusing a 10-year-old boy in the showers.
After being told of the abuse by a witness in March of 2002, Paterno didn’t call the police. He called the university’s athletic director and told him about the report. Nothing happened, and Sandusky kept abusing boys of various ages until 2009. He was arrested Nov. 5 and charged with 40 counts of sexually abusing children over 15 years.
After being told of the abuse by a witness in March of 2002, Paterno didn’t call the police. He called the university’s athletic director and told him about the report. Nothing happened, and Sandusky kept abusing boys of various ages until 2009. He was arrested Nov. 5 and charged with 40 counts of sexually abusing children over 15 years.
This is part of a bigger problem. The media is responsible for giving celebrities, the rich and famous and other important figures too much leeway. Greg Morago wrote a great piece for the Hartford Times in 2003 likening celebrities to Teflon.
“Their shiny, impenetrable surface makes them invincible. Punishment for crimes and misdemeanours never stick. Bad press slides right off. Ill will ricochets with alarming ease.”
“Their shiny, impenetrable surface makes them invincible. Punishment for crimes and misdemeanours never stick. Bad press slides right off. Ill will ricochets with alarming ease.”
So many powerful people have gotten away with terrible things: Schwarzenegger (busy hands, alleged admiration of Hitler), Kobe Bryant (sexual assault), Rick James (sexual torture), R. Kelly (child pornography), Johnny Cash (killed 49 California Condors, roughly half the entire species). The list goes on and on.
What do they all have in common? As Morago said, they all have Teflon armour. We’re partly to blame, though. There’s an innate desire to see celebrities implode, but an equally powerful desire to see them bounce back and start anew.
We encourage this because we allow the media to appropriate this crazy notion that celebrities are demigods. The more we talk about these scandals, the more fun their PR machines have in feeding the media frenzy, and the less coverage that goes to victims. In Paterno’s case, it’s unfortunate how he’s been cast into the limelight while the victims of Sandusky’s abuses are the ones we should be concerned with.
In an ideal world, everyone mentioned above would have taken a stand, and made it clear how wrong their actions were, instead of profiting from the attention. It’s encouraging to see vigils for the victims, and senators rescinding their support for Paterno’s nomination for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but Paterno himself needs to take advantage of this moment to not only apologize, but offer ways to help prevent this from ever happening again.
Instead, he’ll be sitting at home, enjoying his $554,000 annual pension while the men who were abused continue having nightmares night after night. How fair is that?
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