Allegations against Fine reveal hypocrisy of ESPN
Eric Batke
Senior Staff Writer
The allegations against former Syracuse basketball assistant coach Bernie Fine seem to pour forth endlessly. Like the Penn State scandal, these allegations concern events that happened far in the past and have only recently come to light. However, this is not the first time the allegations have been brought up.
In 2003, Bobby Davis approached ESPN with his story of being sexually abused by Fine. With his story he provided a corroborating witness, step-brother Mike Lang, and a taped conversation with Fine’s wife Laurie in which she says she knew “everything that went on.”
When interviewed by ESPN, Lang said, “Bernie grabbed my leg a few times but he didn’t really do too much to me and I don’t have anything to say to you.” Laurie Fine has consistently maintained that the audiotape of her conversation with Davis was tampered with.
Now, eight years later, Lang has decided to tell the full version of what really happened. The addition of his secure testimony and a third accuser (Zach Tomaselli, himself an admitted child molester) have bolstered Davis’ story and taken the allegations against Fine to another level. The story has become a part of the daily news cycle and ESPN has given it almost as much air time as the Sandusky case at Penn State.
However, this case begs the question of why ESPN was not on this in the first place. Granted, a news entity on the level of ESPN has a large amount of legal issues to consider every time it airs any particular issue. In 2003 Davis’ story lacked most of what would affirm its credibility.
However, the network acts like it has never heard of investigative reporting. This type of story screams “Outside the Lines,” a program which has dredged up a number of stories based on evidence that it has found on its own. Even considering the fact that the statute of limitations on the accusations had since passed, this is clearly not something that ESPN should have been able to decide simply not to air. The fact that they obtained the recorded conversation with Laurie Fine and then sat on it for eight years is inexcusable.
Even worse, the network’s coverage of the scandal has been predatory, if you will pardon the choice of words.
When the initial allegations arose again with Lang’s support, ESPN moved quickly to smear Fine and capitalize on the atmosphere of anti-abuse currently flowing through the news.
The fact that ESPN has extensive ties to Syracuse does not make this look any better. They employ a large number of Syracuse graduates, including Mike Tirico, Matthew Berry and Anish Shroff. ESPN has employees that sit on the Advisory Board of Syracuse’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication.
Additionally, Disney (ESPN’s parent company) purchased Fairchild Publications from the conglomerate owned by S.I. Newhouse.
It can be understood and even accepted that it is not the role of a journalist to take information to the police, but in a case of abuse like this on the part of someone in the public’s eye, ESPN was undeniably in the wrong.