By Audrea Snyder, Penn State student
While a town was bursting at its seams, bewildered by the allegations brought against some of its most prominent community members, Patriot-News reporter Sara Ganim never imagined one tip could lead to such an uproar.
As Ganim stood near Joe Paterno’s front lawn, minutes after the former head coach was fired, the enormity of what she helped uncover finally sank in. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine her coverage of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal would grab national headlines and result in the firing of several university coaches and officials.
“You strip everything away,” Patriot-News Assistant Managing Editor/News Michael Feeley said. “We were singularly focused on a crime story.”
Ganim and Feeley discussed their newspaper’s award-winning investigative reporting and coverage of the Sandusky scandal during the afternoon of the all-day regional workshop for APSE's Mid-Atlantic Regional.
The two shared stories about how Ganim uncovered the story and published her first piece on Sandusky after being at the Patriot-News for approximately six weeks. The coverage a week later won a Pulitzer Prize.
Ganim heard rumors about Penn State’s former defensive coordinator allegedly having inappropriate contact with a young male when she asked a source a routine, end of conversation-type question.
The question, “Is there anything else going on?” is how Ganim said she was taught to end her interviews. When the source told the then Centre Daily Times reporter a few details about Sandusky, Ganim wrote herself a note and said she’d look into it the next morning.
The 2008 Penn State graduate was well-versed in crime reporting but described herself as “not a big sports fan.” She recognized Sandusky’s name from his charity’s functions, but both she and Feeley said they didn’t initially understand the impact Sandusky had on the football program.
The way the story took off from there, as more people trusted Ganim and came forward, is something she also didn’t anticipate.
“Someone asked me, ‘Do you think (former Penn State President) Graham Spanier will be gone by the end of the year?’ Ganim recalled.
“The end of the academic year? Really, you think?’ " Ganim responded.
While her paper was taking an emphatic stance, writing a front-page editorial in the midst of November’s scandal, Ganim spent days in State College trying to stay on top of the news.
The trust the victim’s mother’s showed, by staying in contact with her and thanking her for telling their stories, is what reassured Ganim she was doing the right thing.
As the grand jury report surfaced, more facts were arranged and more interviews made public, Ganim continued to rely on her well-established sources to break more stories. Her knack for news and her tireless work ethic were why Feeley hired her just months before she started to shed light on the scandal.
Ganim continues to work on the story; in fact, she said she hasn’t written a story about another topic since November.
Sandusky’s trial was pushed back until June, but for Ganim and the Patriot-News, they said it will take more than a trial and the upcoming football season to put the scandal to rest.
“I only hope Penn State can turn this into a positive,” Ganim said. “We don’t find anything to be too far-fetched anymore.”
