What Is ESPN's Role in Bernie Fine's Firing at Syracuse?

Just because something is reported in the news, it doesn't mean it is true. Conversely, just because something goes unreported in the news (or to the proper authorities) for years, it doesn't mean it isn't true.

Was Bernie Fine fired because he is a monster who preys on children and it took the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State to finally bring Fine's years of abuse to light?

We want to believe it's not true, that someone who dedicated his life to mentoring young men would not be molesting others in secret. People want to believe men like Bernie Fine and Jerry Sandusky are being falsely accused, that the world is not full of monsters like that.

At the same time, we want to believe the victims. If we do not believe the victims, it makes it that much harder for the next victim—of anyone, not just Sandusky or Fine—to come forward.

From a media standpoint, we want to trust our news outlets, especially one as robust and uniquely intertwined into college athletics as ESPN. But many people in media feel this Fine investigation is nothing more than the Worldwide Leader trying to make up for getting beat on the Penn State story.

It's hard to know who to trust anymore.

Syracuse.com has a timeline of the allegations against Fine. It has been reported that three men have now accused Fine of abusing them: Bobby Davis, who has accused Fine of molesting him between the years of 1984 (when he was 12 years old) and 2000 (when he was in his late 20s); Mike Lang, Davis' stepbrother, who recently told ESPN that Fine also abused him as a child (information ESPN, the Post-Standard, Syracuse authorities nor University officials had when Davis reportedly talked with them between 2002 and 2005.); and Zach Tomaselli, a 23-year old man who has accused Fine of abusing him in 2002.

It should be noted that Tomaselli's own father calls him a liar and said that Tomaselli has never met Fine, let alone stayed with him on road trips. Tomaselli is also facing his own sexual assault charges, leaving his credibility completely in question.

Tomaselli's situation is particularly difficult for news outlets to handle. CNN interviewed him this weekend, treating his accusations as credible before adding the disclaimer (after the interview) about his own legal issues and playing a phone interview with his father refuting everything. Is Tomaselli a victim of Fine who, like many young victims of sexual abuse and child molestation, became a predator himself? Or is Tomaselli just trying to make himself famous during the Fine case to use the alleged abuse as a mitigating factor in his own criminal case?

Or could Tomaselli just be a sociopath who has managed to make himself part of the story he had nothing to do with?

Whatever his motivation, Tomaselli's conversation with the authorities led to Fine's home being searched over Thanksgiving weekend, leading to his subsequent firing. There's enough smoke that clearly, somewhere in that house, there's fire.

The final straw for the university may have been the release of a tape between Davis and Fine's wife, Laurie, in which the two discussed Fine's affinity for young boys and talked in relative detail about the things Fine had done to Davis.

ESPN released the recordings, obtained from Davis, on Sunday morning. Fine was terminated later that day.

In their original report that accompanied the release of the tapes, ESPN admitted to having the tapes for nearly 10 years.

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After "Outside the Lines" first reported the allegations against Fine on Nov. 17, the now-39-year-old Davis shared the tape with Syracuse police, one of several law-enforcement agencies who have opened an investigation into the case. Davis first gave the tape to ESPN in 2003. At the time, ESPN did not report Davis' accusations, or report the contents of the tape, because no one else would corroborate his story.

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Until the search of Fine's home this weekend, leading to his firing on Sunday, ESPN seemed to be the only major sports news outlet that would touch the story. (Unless you include the likes of Jason Whitlock at Fox writing that he was "disgusted by the irresponsible 'reporting' used by Mark Schwarz, Arty Berko and ESPN to unfairly smear Bernie Fine and boost ESPN ratings.")

Locally, the Syracuse Post-Standard had constant coverage of the situation, but other national sites kept their reporting confined solely to actions made by the school, running an AP story from November 18th about Fine's suspension and little else.

Blogs, including the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, have been all over the coverage of this situation, but most of their news, until the police got involved, has come from the local Syracuse outlets and ESPN, both of which decided not to run the story more than five years ago but dived head-first into it now.

Even before the third accuser came forward, ESPN was making the story bigger than anyone else, so big that other outlets seemed to be hesitant to even write up that "ESPN is reporting" the alleged crimes took place.

ESPN sat on these tapes for nearly a decade before running them now, claiming they waited until they had corroboration—from Davis' stepbrother—that independently accused Fine of similar actions in order to pursue the story again.

Twenty-two paragraphs into the ESPN story about the taped conversations between Davis and Fine's wife, we learn that the two had a relationship of their own:

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Later, Laurie Fine admitted to having a relationship with Davis. In the interview with ESPN, Davis said that occurred when he was 18 and a senior in high school. Davis said he told Bernie Fine about it, but Fine seemed unaffected. "I thought he was gonna kill me, but I had to tell him," Davis said in the interview with ESPN. "I felt so bad. I told him about it -- what was going on with me and Laurie -- and it didn't faze him one bit honestly."

On the call, Laurie Fine told Davis she'd already warned her husband that one day his alleged molestation of Davis might become public.

"I said to him, 'Bobby and I talked, and I know some things about you that if you keep pushing are going to be let out.' "

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What you read in the news isn't always true, and what's true doesn't always end up in the news.

Conversely, what you read in the news is true a whole heckuva lot of the time.

This situation is really hard to figure out. Is it good journalism, albeit a decade later, or is it the result of pressure from above to find the next story after Penn State?

Is it good police work, albeit a decade later, or is it pressure to not have the Syracuse law enforcement look like their counterparts in State College?

Are these tapes the evidence that proves Fine is a monster, or is it a conversation between a disgruntled wife who always suspected her husband was doing things with young boys—though never left him nor reported him to the authorities herself—talking on the phone with an ex-lover who had an axe to grind?

Is there a way to believe everyone? Is there a way to believe no one?

Jim Boeheim vehemently defended Fine when the first allegations came out, going to far as to accuse the accusers of a shake down. Now, after Fine's dismissal, Boeheim has apologized for his comments:

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"I believe the university took the appropriate step tonight. What is most important is that this matter be fully investigated and that anyone with information be supported to come forward so that the truth can be found. I deeply regret any statements I made that might have inhibited that from occurring or been insensitive to victims of abuse."

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Notice that Boeheim didn't say the most important thing is that the victims are taken seriously, but the matter be fully investigated and that the truth can be found.

Inherently we, as people, want to believe this story isn't true. But we also want to believe it is. And yet, in a way, the truth doesn't even matter anymore.

It's happening. Fine is fired, he'll never work in college basketball again and it will be up to the legal system to decide—like with Sandusky—what happens to him next.

ESPN didn't make up this story or manufacture imaginary accusers, even if many in the media (myself included) question the journalistic integrity of how this story was handled.

In today's up-to-the-second news cycle, we are so quick to hear a person's story first, then try to determine if it's true. Both the Post-Standard and ESPN took the time to determine the truth when the story was first brought to them years ago. So has the story changed enough since then, or is it the media that's changed?

Maybe it's both.