Ethics Roundup for 11/14/2011.

1. Ethics Bob has a post called – Are the media out to wreck Herman Cain’s candidacy? No, he’s doing it to himself, quite effectively

Here’s a paragraph from the essay:

Cain has only himself to blame for the vultures circling overhead. His story has changed—materially—every day, and more than once most days. First he denied ever being accused of sexual harassment. Then he acknowledged that there had been a complaint but he turned it over to the association that he headed and he didn’t think anything had come of it. Then he said there had been no settlement paid to his accuser(s). Then he said, wait a minute I thought there had been an agreement, not a settlement.

2. Gail O’Brien writing in The Week in Ethics has an interesting article –

How PSU’s President and Coach Paterno Lost the Game.

Here’s a selection from the article:

Spanier called the allegations about Sandusky “troubling. He said, “It is appropriate that they be investigated thoroughly. Protecting children requires the utmost vigilance.”

Protecting children does require utmost vigilance; a vigilance neither his actions or those of his team appear to have demonstrated to PSU’s stakeholders.

3. The Ethics Sage has another article on the Penn State Scandal –

Paterno and Penn State: A Matter of Integrity

This is good, very good –

As for the Paterno matter, the decision of the Penn State Board of Trustees to fire legendary and much loved iconic football coach Joe Paterno was painful for some to accept. After all, Paterno had just announced his retirement at the end of the year, after his 46^th season as head coach. He had just become the winningest coach in college football history – 409 victories. He is loved by all at Penn State – by the university community, and throughout the state of Pennsylvania. But, is that a good reason not to fire a coach who was told of the sexual abuse of a 10-year old boy in 2002 and did not take any action that might have prevented such a tragedy in the future? Paterno knew nothing was being done by University higher-ups and didn’t take any action other than to make the initial report. This is not how a person of integrity should act.

Related articles

• Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno: Complicit, Scapegoat or Both? (bleacherreport.com)
• Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno’s Name Removed from Big Ten Trophy (bleacherreport.com)
• Does The Penn State Scandal Alter Paterno’s Legacy? (npr.org)
• Penn State Scandal: Joe Paterno Wise Not To Break Silence at Press Conference (bleacherreport.com)
• Paterno stunned by firing in Penn State scandal – CBS News (gloucestercitynews.net)
• Herman Cain Blasts Media For Sexual Harassment Questions After Debate With Gingrich (mediaite.com)
• Why Herman Cain Should Not Be President (Pt. 1) (ramblingsofanangrylion.wordpress.com)