Sexual Assault - Penn State and Herman Cain

After having read my 72nd article on the Herman Cain sexual assault allegations and my 57th article on the sexual abuse of minors by Jerry Sandusky, there no longer remained the possibility of staying silent.

Four women have made allegations of sexual harassment against Herman Cain. He has denied these allegations, blamed everyone from the leftist media to a former employee who now works for the Perry campaign, and used not-so-subtly-coded language to suggest that the whole thing is really about him being a successful black man. Nonetheless, there is still a whole swath of media that insists the same thing - that he's being treated unfairly by the rest of the media.

Now let's compare that to the media surrounding the sex scandal at Penn State. After the first day, when one or two articles featured material from the actual case and were primarily about Jerry Sandusky, the rest of the articles have been about Joe Paterno. The comparison should be between Herman Cain and Jerry Sandusky, but Jerry Sandusky's not a high profile enough figure for national media, so the media has instead focused on Paterno. Will he be forced out? When will he be forced out? When should he be forced out?

Amazingly, the criticisms of Joe Paterno have been more severe than those of Herman Cain. Nobody seems to want to assume anything about Herman Cain. Maybe he harassed and assaulted the women, maybe he didn't. We can't be sure. Everybody seems to want to assume everything about Paterno. He must have known exactly what happened, and he's been criticized for everything: waiting a day to report it up the hierarchy at Penn State; not trying to find out the identity of the child involved; not bringing the case to the police when nothing happened within the administration; not asking enough questions of McQueary. In short, he's been criticized for every action he did and didn't take in the wake of learning something of the incident in the locker room.

Nevertheless, the details of what he knew remain obscure. What Mike McQueary told Paterno remains unknown. There has been no trial of Sandusky, or of anyone else who was indicted for their involvement in the incident. In fact, the District Attorney already said Paterno fulfilled his legal obligation.

Furthermore, Paterno's response in the face of the media frenzy has been positively gracious. He has admitted to not doing enough; he has resigned from program in a way that doesn't totally undermine the football team, to which he has a commitment; and he has offered a very genuine response that indicates he is truly regretful about what has happened.

Compare this with the response of Herman Cain. He insists he doesn't remember the settlement, then later says that he does remember the settlement. He blames the liberal media, the Perry campaign, then the liberal media again. He denies ever having committed any of the acts which the women have claimed that he did. And, guess what? He's still the leading Republican candidate for president in the polls.

And the media seems okay with this - as long as we don't know for sure what happened. Until we do, we shouldn't be too quick to judge. That is the reaction to Cain, but to Paterno, it's entirely the opposite. The ignominious ending to the career of the greatest coach in college football history isn't ignominious enough. He shouldn't be allowed to coach another game, according to some mainstream pundits.

What message does this send about values in our society? Is the sexual assault of children more reprehensible than the sexual assault of women? These two actions are both abhorrent. If we assume guilt, then Herman Cain, the assaulter, should be completely vilified. He should be out of the presidential running entirely. Paterno should be condemned for not doing enough. He should have done more; no one doubts that. But the media's relative harshness towards Paterno is truly astonishing. The man has had a great career. He made a very big error of judgment. It's an error big enough to, rightly, cost him his job and his reputation as a great man. But why has Herman Cain not received the same treatment?