It's not new news, but Deadspin particularly has been following radio host/right wing personality John Ziegler's attempts to supposedly exonerate Joe Paterno from any sort of responsibility during the Jerry Sandusky years. For some reason, even after Paterno's family released a statement distancing themselves as far from Ziegler's work as Pluto is from the Sun, Ziegler has still remained intent on going through with his work. He's now making the media rounds, screaming his story to people (apparently loud = correct in Ziegler-speak). The key element of his work is his interview with Jerry Sandusky, the perpetrator of decades worth of sex crimes at Penn State University, allowing Sandusky to finally speak his mind on 'what really happpened.' (Sandusky refused to take the stand in his own defense.)
Why does Ziegler feel the need to do this? Well, Ziegler made a point of saying that he's doing this for Paterno and the administration because Americans rushed to judgment on this particular case and framed Joe Pa for something he didn't do. Instead, because of the grotesque topic and the emotional reaction it invokes, Paterno and PSU somehow became the victims of a media witch hunt.
Ziegler actully had one legitimate point in everything he said: Americans tend to rush to judgment. Through twitter, the blogosphere, the internet and the media accounts, few people actually spend the time actually verifying the information they are receiving to find out if any of it is credible. They rarely check the sources, the writer, in the case of the internet the website that is posting it, etc.
Where Ziegler is a problem, and where he doesn't get it, is his background is so demonizing to anything he says, that when he does have a cogent point, it's lost among all his past radical rhetoric and need to scream for him to feel he's right. According to the Deadspin (certainly a site not known for great news as much as fantastic editorializing), Ziegler's first two films alleged that the Clinton administration was responsible for 9/11 and that Barack Obama got elected in 2008 because the media were really mean to Sarah Palin. And if you think Deadspin is being harsh on Ziegler, witness his appearance on a dating show, and see for yourself what kind of man he is. Originally charming and certainly intelligent, Ziegler's act of self-sabotage on a date that was headed in the right direction isn't indicative he's a bad person -- he's simply an insensitive and occasionally clueless one. All the while he claims victimhood, that somehow he was misunderstood, something he does countless times during his interviews about this documentary.
If only Ziegler would take his correct theory of Americans rushing to judgment and apply where it so aptly should be put -- the invasion of Iraq. For if there's ever been a case where America as a country reacted so immediately and so angrily, it was 9/11. On that day, one that would ignite a sense of national pride maybe not seen since the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team's victory over the U.S.S.R., our country turned an attack perpetrated by Al Qaeda and enacted by men of multiple nationalities, none of which were Iraqi, into a reason to oust Saddam Hussein.
Tomas Young, a veteran of the Iraqi conflict and now staunch anti-war advocate, is about to die. He is the part of the Iraq conflict most people haven't seen and don't wish to, particularly right wing Americans, who on the 10 year anniversary of the invasion can do nothing but laud the choice by the President they favored so greatly. Today Young says exactly what many soldiers who have faced the uphill battle to get their benefits after war wish to say, that 1) he joined the armed services to fight for our country and hunt down those that attacked us and 2) he deserved a lot better treatment. His letter he penned to Cheney and Bush is here http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/. He is the reminder that war is real, and that making emotional decisions too soon after a trauma can have disastrous consequences. Most Americans won't see our soldiers now that the war is over. They'll forget about them and their wounds, and you certainly won't see anyone not directly related to these veterans fighting to raise money for better VA hospitals and care for our heroes. So let's for a moment continue to ignore our veterans and simply look at the Iraq war's outcome -- the result of which has been a nuclear arms race in the Middle East now championed by the now most powerful nation in that region, Iran.
As the saying goes, those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it. And the worst part of a guy like John Ziegler is that in his belief that he is a truth-finder and has some messianic, all encompassing knowledge of what is true and what isn't, he spends his time doing things no one wants him to. Not because he has any added insight worth adding, because as Paterno's own son put it regarding this particular documentary, "I repeat, if John had a credible way to exonerate Dad, why would we oppose it? Think about that."
And for the rest of us, that want to turn the spotlight onto history lessons we should learn, guys like Ziegler obfuscate real issues with rhetoric and garbage in the guise of protector while providing nothing but a distraction.
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