Following the full-page ad National Review took out in yesterday’s edition of the Penn State student newspaper, I thought readers might be interested in more news from the faculty lounge:
State Attorney General Linda Kelly is expected to announce today that former Penn State University President Graham Spanier has been charged in relation to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, according to sources close to the investigation.
The sources, who requested anonymity, said Mr. Spanier is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.
The longtime Penn State president was forced to resign in the wake of charges being filed against Sandusky a year ago and has been long identified as a target in an investigation of a possible coverup by university administrators.
Mr. Spanier also presided over the “investigation” that supposedly exonerated fantasy Nobelist Michael Mann — and thereby led to his suit against us. Aside from the generally risible nature of the investigation, it relied on his fake Nobel Prize for its central argument — that Dr. Mann’s eminence speaks for itself:
Moreover, Dr. Mann’s work on the Third Assessment Report (2001) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change received recognition (along with several hundred other scientists) by being awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.Clearly, Dr. Mann’s reporting of his research has been successful and judged to be outstanding by his peers. This would have been impossible had his activities in reporting his work been outside of accepted practices in his field.
Unfortunately, “Dr. Mann’s work” on the 2001 report was not “awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize,” and neither he nor it “received recognition” or even a mention en passant in the Nobel citation or the lecture. Given the concerns over the Penn State investigation, and given the very serious charges against the man ultimately responsible for it, might it not be time for Rodney Erickson, Mr. Spanier’s successor, to launch an investigation into Penn State’s previous investigation?
Anthropogenically warmed sunlight is the best disinfectant, Dr. Erickson.
[UPDATE: More here:
Penn State’s Ex-President Accused of Perjury, Endangering Children in Jerry Sandusky Case.
Although he resigned as president, Mr Spanier remains on the Penn State faculty – because in peer-reviewed academe that’s how they do things.]
[UPPERDATE: Disgraced Penn State prez Spanier faces up to 39 years in jail.]