Bernie Fine Scandal: Is ESPN to Blame for Lack of Charges?

The Bernie Fine scandal took on a life of its own over the last three weeks, and led to his firing as an assistant coach for Syracuse's basketball program. But today it was announced that he won't face charges because the statute of limitations has passed. 

The Associated Press report released Wednesday morning says that Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick believed Fine's accusers to be credible but that too much time had passed for prosecution. 

One of the biggest culprits in this whole situation is ESPN. The network played a phone conversation between Fine's wife, Laurie, and one of the alleged victims, Bobby Davis, on the program "Outside the Lines" on November 27. 

ESPN has had the tape of the conversation in its possession for eight years, and it felt that now was a good time to finally play it for the world to hear instead of turning it over to the authorities at the time it received the tape. 

Vince Doria, ESPN's Senior Vice President & Director of News, said that they never used the audio before because they could not prove that it was actually Fine's wife talking. 

Be that as it may, if I have something in my possession that incriminates someone for sexual abuse, I am turning it over to the authorities immediately. I don't give a damn if you don't know whose voice is on the tape, or if you think it's a hoax, or whatever the network's motivation was for not dealing with this issue sooner. 

Now, because ESPN just did what was in the best interest of ESPN, Fine just walks away with nothing more than a slap on the hand. 

Perhaps Fine is innocent of these charges, but he should have been made to clear his name in court, not because too much time has passed for a trial to be brought against him. 

I don't know exactly when it happened, but ESPN is no longer about news and information. It is about feeding its own self-worth and stomping all over anything or anyone that gets in its way. 

The network had a chance to do the right thing, to let the legal system do what it was created to do and determine whether or not Fine was innocent. But it put an audio conversation between an alleged sexual abuser's wife and an alleged victim away for a rainy day. 

Classy move, ESPN, that tiny morsel of integrity that you had left flew out the window because you were too stupid to do something that any moral being would do.