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Film criticizes media over depiction of Joe Paterno

A conservative filmmaker has released a preview of a film that criticizes the media for the way they depicted former Penn State coach Joe Paterno in reporting the events that followed the indictment and arrest of Jerry Sandusky on child sexual-abuse charges a year ago.

A conservative filmmaker has released a preview of a film that criticizes the media for the way they depicted former Penn State coach Joe Paterno in reporting the events that followed the indictment and arrest of Jerry Sandusky on child sexual-abuse charges a year ago.

John Ziegler, whose prior productions include a focus on the media treatment of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin when she ran for vice president on the Republican ticket in 2008, said the purpose of the film, Framing Paterno, was to refute "a largely false narrative to fit [the media's] own agenda" in reporting about Paterno during the scandal.

Ziegler, a graduate of Holy Ghost Prep in Bucks County, interviewed the most vocal critics of the media's handling of Paterno, including former Nittany Lions star Franco Harris and recently elected board of trustees member Anthony Lubrano. The filmmaker also spoke with Joseph Amendola, Sandusky's attorney.

The film spends a significant amount of time seeking to prove that Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant, did not speak to Paterno in detail about seeing Sandusky in a shower with a young boy at the Lasch Football Building in 2001. It also points out that although Sandusky was convicted on 45 of 48 counts at his trial in June, the three not-guilty counts were based on McQueary's testimony.

The film also criticizes the Freeh report, with interview subjects claiming it was not supported by facts. It contends that the consultant who drafted the report, Louis Freeh, deliberately held a news conference summarizing its findings before people had a chance to read it, and that the media accepted the summary without further examination of the entire report.

Ziegler also interviewed former quarterback Rashard Casey to counter the claim in the Freeh report that Paterno stayed quiet because of a fear of unfavorable publicity. Casey said the fact that Paterno kept him on the team after his arrest on charges of assaulting a police officer proved he did not worry about bad publicity.

Ziegler said the purpose of his film was trying to find the truth. He admitted it would be difficult, like "going uphill into the wind on ice with lead bricks on our feet."