NBC News is facing criticism for airing an interview with former Penn State football assistant coach and convicted child rapist Jerry Sandusky. Initially, the network failed to announce when promoting the segment that the interview was actually conducted by a documentary filmmaker making a movie attempting to clear the legacy of head coach Joe Paterno. The man behind the film The Framing of Joe Paterno has called the case against Sandusky “remarkably weak” and even identifies one of the child victims in his film. Critics said that NBC’s promotion of the interview segment potentially led viewers to believe that the network’s journalists were behind it, not a controversial filmmaker promoting his own documentary.
Even the family of Paterno spoke out against the interview, calling it “an insult to the victims and anyone who cares about the truth in this tragic story”. This morning, Today Show host Matt Lauer spoke with filmmaker John Ziegler—it took four attempts to get him to admit that he believed Sandusky was guilty of “many, if not all, of the things he was convicted of” …
