Media pundits offer weird take on Penn State scandal

It was predicted that Penn Staters would immediately take to the street after the termination of legendary football coach Joe Paterno was announced in the wake of the child-sex scandal last week. And they did exactly that on that Wednesday night.

Every bit as foreseeable was the media's portrayal of the riotous behavior of the students, condemning college culture for breeding selfishness, thoughtlessness and lawlessness, as well as for promoting an assumed entitlement of the "right to riot."

Conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large for the National Review Online, went far beyond the football-infatuation defense used by some to absolve the actions of impassioned JoePa supporters. He argued that the demonstration reflected a student body that felt the scandal had interrupted their scholarly good time, essentially.

(Of course, a conservative columnist would see it this way.)

"Imbued with a sense of victimhood, entitlement, and cultivated grievance that can only be taught, their preferred response to inconvenience is a temper tantrum," Goldberg wrote in his highly opinionated appraisal of Wednesday's uprising.

As fellow college students, we here at Ohio University have undoubtedly felt the watchful eye of the media, especially when we have rallied around a cause — or lack thereof. Though OU students have seldom if ever had a profound reason for our occasional fits over over-exuberance (or "riots" if you prefer), we can certainly speak to the negative scrutiny that our undergraduate generation too often attracts.

In no way am I giving support to the rowdy reactions of the Penn State student rioters. In fact, I wholeheartedly respect the decisions of those who stayed in that night to purposely avoid the outbursts outside and to instead pay quiet respects to, or remonstrate against, one of the greatest coaches in college football history.

Nor am I drawing a comparison between Athens couch burnings and an outcry about an institution's virtual upheaval

However, I do understand and sympathize with Penn State students' profound frustration about a situation entirely unreflective of their student population, yet one that will forever be etched into the emblem on The Pennsylvania State University diplomas.

Ironically, the immoral actions of a few select individuals involved in a child sex abuse scandal have garnered far more recognition of the university's name than the campus-wide crusade to conquer childhood cancer, THON (THON.org), which takes place at Penn State annually.

A message of reassurance for the students: your efforts here are not lost.

To the Goldbergs and likeminded self-proclaimed representatives of an older era, perhaps our "temper tantrums" are a response to being caught in a double-bind by an authoritative older generation laden with its own scandals. They've burdened us with their ill will, yet have the nerve to turn around and label us unappreciative and unworthy.

Jonah Goldberg is right about one thing, however. This scandal certainly did smear the "college experience."

The Penn State situation is not about football. Nor is it about a college-age generation who fails to comprehend the severity of a scarring crime. But it certainly is about the victims of the case. And about students utterly upset that the philanthropic foundation they've built up by helping children has been severely undermined by Jerry Sandusky's monstrous actions against children and those who let him get away with them.

Goldberg and others may call student complaints selfish, but I call them completely justified.

So students of Penn State, there's no more need to riot. At least your college student peers hear your rallying cry loud and clear.