MSU Nassar Probe Not Independent - DetNews
The Detroit News pulls the gloves off on a piece by Nolan Finley, exposing MSU's "independent investigation" as being nothing more than a cover-up exercise. It's pretty brutal on MSU (you can find "sympathy" for MSU's involved administration and staff/faculty - i.e., Lou Anna Simon, Kathy Klages, William Strampel, Joel Ferguson, and others of their ilk - right between "shit" and "syphillis" in my dictionary), and worth a read.
No wonder the special investigator hired by Michigan State University failed to find any culpability on the part of school officials in the serial molestation of young girls and women by a physician on the MSU payroll.
That’s not what he was hired to do.
A look at the contract with Patrick Fitzgerald’s law firm, which was obtained by The Detroit News, indicates he was brought on to do just the opposite.
And he concludes
Foisting the pretense that a legitimate, independent investigation has cleared the university of any wrongdoing amounts to a cover-up. If Simon won’t order a real probe, the trustees should replace her and find a president who will. And if the trustees won’t act, then voters should begin replacing them in next fall’s election.
Well done, Mr. Finley. Shine a bright light on that mess every chance you get. The victims of Nassar, the MSU student body, the innocent faculty members smeared with this by association, and the people of the State of Michigan deserve nothing less.
December 28th, 2017 at 9:05 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 9:11 AM ^
I understand your skepticism, but this puts another log on the fire. Trying to hold out the Skadden Arps investigation as the equivalent of the Freeh Report is beyond disingenuous. LAS and the Board of Trustees were actively seeking to mislead the public as to the nature of the ($950/hr for the lead lawyer) "investigation" which was really nothing other than pre-litigation investigation.
That school's administration seems to not give one shit about getting to the root of this problem. I understand taking pre-litigation action, but FFS, MSU. Call it what it is.
And also pay for an actual independent investigation. Those two processes are not mutually-exclusive.
December 28th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^
I have zero doubt that this will continue to be under discussed both regionally and nationally. It shocked me with the trouble they were in last year, and it shocks me now. Teflon Sparty with this bullshit once again.
December 28th, 2017 at 9:17 AM ^
I wouldn't rule out the state legislature getting involved. Bad press of this kind gives them a soapbox that crosses party lines. If they cut their funding, this wouldn't be an easy time for MSU to replace it.
December 28th, 2017 at 9:29 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 9:22 AM ^
Isn't former MSU football player Mitch Lyons on the Board of Trustees and also isnt Lt. Gov. Brian Calley an MSU alum? These two will do whatever they can to "save face" for MSU no matter what the circumstance.
December 28th, 2017 at 9:35 AM ^
There's no way he can run for governor and think he can't take a stand in favor of the victims on this. He may be an MSU BA, but he has an MPA from Harvard. He's no dummy.
Also, Mitch Lyons has already gotten in trouble. Basically, MSU needs to clean house, not save face, before this slow drip of news eventually exposes issues in their revenue generating sports.
December 28th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 10:23 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 9:30 AM ^
I hesitate to say it but is MSU handling this more poorly than PSU did? Really I cannot understand why there is not more outrage about this. The cynical side of me says that because PSU involved homosexual matters it was seen as more offensive? I guess the PSU thing blew up because of Paterno's legendary status whereas this doesn't involve such a prominent figure?
December 28th, 2017 at 9:37 AM ^
PSU's response was handled better, but there was also a lot more eyeballs watching that situation. MSU can complain all they want about the coverage we get in the Detroit area, but right now they should be happy the Landfill is situated a couple hours away from a major metropolitan area.
December 28th, 2017 at 9:39 AM ^
I think that once the underlying crimes became public, PSU's initial reaction and PR management was better than MSU's. They engaged Louis Freeh to do a thorough and independent investigation, and agreed to abide by its findings. MSU engaged Skadden Arps to provide cover and deflection strategies, and tried to depict it as an independent investigation. So on that point, PSU did better than MSU by a damned sight.
As far as why this doesn't get more press than PSU, I think it has to do with PSU football being an institution while MSU gymnastics is an afterthought on a good day. There is no public figure involved here with the fame of a Joe Paterno involved in the Nassar scandal.
One point of order - it's reckless to appear to equate Sandusky's crimes with homosexuality. I am confident you don't intend to do that, but homosexuality and pedophilia are vastly different things. (I only raise this because of some people's historic tendency to demonize gays and lesbians by asserting that they are all pedophiles.)
December 28th, 2017 at 9:56 AM ^
Yes, good point and I understand that (but thank you for clarifying) but I raised that point about the public's reaction and whether it was stronger in some cases because the victims were boys as opposed to girls (or whether it was simply a case of the Paterno factor).
December 28th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 9:46 AM ^
The Report can't be used as evidence. The victms that were not interviewed by Fitzgerald's firm will testify. The jury will hear about Nasser's reprehensible conduct in graphic detail. The damage award will be huge, and MSU will be squarely in the cross-hairs.
December 28th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 11:41 AM ^
Let MSU drain their endowment. If that is not enough, surcharge every current and future student to pay for it!
Plus sue everyone who knew and facilitated this to leave them penniless.
December 28th, 2017 at 10:20 PM ^
They'll settle
December 28th, 2017 at 9:52 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
National media isnt really on this story unless it involves one of the high-profile olympians and even then it's a 24 hour story and done.
Local media, with this one notable exception, seems determined to protect their favorite son university by giving this the least amount of attention and scrutiny they can while still maintaining some pretense of journalistic credibility.
MSU certainly doesnt care - they proved that by ignoring the problem for almost 20 years thereby enabling this monster to continue to molest young girls almost to the day he was arrested.
Nassar is in jail and going to stay there. And I'll be shocked if anything else happens to anybody else after that. I mean if you discount all the shattered lives this guy destroyed while MSU basically helped him commit the crimes.
And it seems most parties already have moved on from worrying about those lives.
December 28th, 2017 at 11:44 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 11:53 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^
I'm so sorry. FWIW my partner's daughter was a patient of Nassar (she's a ballerina) for many years and she insists he did nothing to her. But I know he definitely wonders if she's being honest with him about it given what happened to so many others like your friend's daughter.
December 28th, 2017 at 12:14 PM ^
That's the thing with crimes like Nassar's. Over 150 (now) women have brought civil actions against him, and who knows how many other girls he abused. Each one of those victims has their own torment to deal with, along with trust issues, inability to be intimate, and feelings of betrayal.
I suspect that the suicide of this girl's father is but one of many stories of families destroyed due to Nassar's crimes (most of which occurred long after responsible parties had been informed of the charges). I don't know how people like Klages, Simon and Ferguson can sleep at night. But I get the sense that they do sleep soundly, cloaked in denial and self-righteousness.
December 28th, 2017 at 12:03 PM ^
but I agree that the nature of the horror should prompt much more of it. I believe that will eventually happen, too—articles like this one in the DetNews will eventually prompt some prominent national media entity to do a more in-depth article or feature story, in part because it appears as though MSU is engaged in an active attempt to delay, dissemble, and cover up. Coupled with the lurid sexual nature of the crimes involved, that's a can't-miss angle.
December 28th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 10:53 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 12:08 PM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^
The News is handling this as the Freep is checking to see how much stretching Nassar was doing.
December 28th, 2017 at 11:28 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 12:49 PM ^
They're using their partnership to post the LSJ articles on their website. There's been very little reporting by the Freep, but then again I don't know think they could do a better job than the local reporters.
December 28th, 2017 at 11:21 AM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^
It's interesting and a depressing comment on how deeply embedded tribal instincts are in humans.
If this Nassar scandal was occurring at U-M, MGoBlog would be overrun with Sparties raking Michigan over the coals, and couches would be burned each day in EL in protest of the criminal cover-up in Ann Arbor.
December 28th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 11:22 AM ^
I don't get MSU's handling of this at all.
Can't shake my opinion that they think they'll get the soft treatment from the media they are accustomed to and it will just fade away. Plus, as a general proposition, the school has a conservative student body which doesn't engage in activism.
It just seems like the discovery process and public record aspect of the endless civil litigation makes their strategy very reckless.
When you hire a bad employee and he does bad things on the job wearing your uniform, you are going to have liability. Agency relationship 101.
Add to it there was notice to superiors of Nassar and liability is bound to be higher yet.
If you stonewall here, you invite aggressiveness from Plaintiff's lawyers and the likelihood they'll seek wide ranging discovery of the athletic department on other matters. It's wiser to quickly write big checks and be transparent immediately.
December 28th, 2017 at 11:31 AM ^
Just like the FBI now it seems
December 28th, 2017 at 11:34 AM ^
Spare us the politics - this isn't MLive, FFS.
December 28th, 2017 at 11:49 AM ^
I think it's pretty clear though at this point the Mueller probe has been compromised. It's just common knowledge now and not really that political anymore
December 28th, 2017 at 11:56 AM ^
One, I'm pretty sure you're not my father. (Unless you're Darth Vader. In which case, hi pops!)
Two, you're doubling down on the politics, and in a forum that shuns politics.
Three, the camp that supports the notion that "the Mueller probe has been compromised" is perhaps exclusively comprised of Trump supporters. And is as politically-charged a statement as there is these days.
But, apart from that, you're spot-on.
December 28th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^
December 28th, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^
^^^ This all day long... and for the record, I did NOT vote for Trump.
December 28th, 2017 at 1:29 PM ^
this post just confirmed it
December 28th, 2017 at 3:21 PM ^
Ahhhh... I see another rep from the tolerant and informed class responds in kind.