This means every single member of the Board as of March 2012 not only scapegoated a subordinate--by itself cause to disqualify somebody for any position of supervisory responsibility--but then lied about it. Somebody who crosses this line--lying to the organization to which one owes a fiduciary duty--is ethically capable of lying to stockholders, clients, employees, customers, suppliers, and other organizational stakeholders.
Proof that the Board Scapegoated Joe Paterno
Here
is what Kenneth Frazier, CEO of the Merck Corporation, had to say in his deposition in the Corman lawsuit against the NCAA. http://av.pasenategop.com/ncaa/discovery/depositions/ken-frazier/transcripts/frazier.pdf
Q.
Were you in favor of the decision not
to allow Coach Paterno to coach out the rest of the season.
A. Ultimately, I was in favor of
that.
Q. Initially, did you have some
reservations?
A. I did.
Q. Just explain your thought process
and how you became in favor of that decision.
A. Just as I said in the case of
Mr. Curly, my initial feeling was, when I first heard about this, that the
facts had not been established and we needed
to be careful to make sure we understood
the facts.
As I was in -- in that 48-hour time period
read the grand jury presentment, I reached the conclusion that given what had
become public about the issues leading up
to the presentment and given what was said
in the presentment itself about Coach
Paterno's testimony and about what the
graduate student said to Coach Paterno, I felt that
it would not send the right message if Coach
Paterno was able to lead the football team
out onto the field of play under those
circumstances.
So I didn't change my mind
on the
question of whether we had
established all the key facts that related to Coach
Paterno's involvement and/or responsibility.
But I had reached the conclusion that, from the standpoint of what the University's
values would be interpreted to be by the
broader public, that what was known was
sufficiently serious as it relates to child sexual
abuse that it would send the wrong message
about our values as a University if Coach
Paterno were allowed to coach as though none
of this had ever happened.
This is an open admission that the 11/9/2011 Board fired Joe Paterno not for anything he had done or hadn't done, but to appease public opinion. Keith Masser's deposition makes this even more explicit.
“When pressed for a reason why Paterno
was let go, Masser said: “The
decision to remove Coach Paterno had nothing to do with what he had known, what
he hadn’t done. It was based upon the distraction of having him on the sidelines
would have caused the university and the current football team harm. It had
nothing to do with what Coach Paterno had done, or hadn’t done.”
These depositions establish as a fact that the 11/9/2011 Board of Trustees fired Coach Paterno solely to appease public opinion, and then the Board lied about this in subsequent statement in March 2012. The Board not only lied, it defamed Coach Paterno (had he still been alive) with the false statement that he had been fired for cause.
The Entire Board Lied to the Public and to Penn State
"While Coach
Paterno did his legal duty by reporting that information the next day, Sunday,
March 3, to his immediate superior, the then Penn State Athletic Director Tim
Curley, the Board reasonably inferred that he did not call police. We
determined that his decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to
follow up constituted a
failure of leadership by Coach Paterno. …At about 9 pm, we unanimously made the
difficult decision that Coach Paterno’s failure of leadership required his
removal as football coach."
That's very interesting because Mr. Frazier and Mr. Masser both testified that Paterno was not fired for any cause whatsoever, but to appease public opinion. The clarity we have from this evidence is that Penn State's Board of Trustees issued a dishonest public statement in March 2012, and that the service of the following individuals is now marred. And we have to step back and ask, what does that mean?
- Kenneth "people that look like you who think the O.J. Simpson verdict was correct" Frazier, the CEO of the Merck Corporation, lied (in March 2012) to the public and to the organization to which he owed a fiduciary duty. We have had our fill of this individual telling the Nittany Lion to shut up and take his Vioxx.
- Karen Peetz, President of BNY Mellon, is a liar. This is the individual who said Paterno's service was marred, and whose unauthorized affirmation of the Freeh Report's findings on Penn State's behalf gave the NCAA the fig leaf it needed to impose its illegitimate sanctions.
- John Surma, former CEO of U.S. Steel, is a liar.
- Tom Corbett, former Governor of Pennsylvania, is a liar.
- Keith Eckel is a liar.
- Keith Masser (current Board Chairman) is a liar.
- Every single other member of the Board who was a party to the statement above is a liar.
These people and their colleagues were given every possible opportunity to make right the harm they caused the University, but they chose instead to put personal agendas ahead of a Penn State agenda (State Senator John Yudichak's assessment). As a result, evidence has now come out that shows they not only scapegoated an employee, but also lied about it. So, here we are.
